Intel Core i7-3820 Review: Sandy Bridge-E for the masses

ArmA 2 OA - 10k distance, all maxed out @ 1080p. Try that and let me know how those CPUs scale.
Also, as I previously stated, add SLI/Crossfire in the mix and things can get CPU bound really fast.

Not necessarily, but you should look for games that are going to tax the CPU more.

Leaving the gaming part out, a real-world heavy multitasking scenario would be nice in the future.

Here in Brazil there is nobody to beat the prices of AMD, it's cheaper to set up a system "Dual Processor" AMD than buying an i7, so I love AMD! Thanks to low prices and low power consumption!

1.480v to get 4.6GHz? Is that because you were using Offset Mode? I found Offset mode sets the idle voltage way too high... on my P8P67 EVO and 2500K anyway.

You have to be kidding. This CPU chews through everything, including games. You make it sound as if there are way better CPU's available for gaming, when in fact that 3960X is one of the top performers.

I'll think you'll find that Steve meant from a performance-per-dollar aspect. The 2 extra cores + L3 cache + tripled price tag over the 2500K/2600K don't translate into a significant real world gaming advantage. So while the 3960X/3930K are impressive in their own right, in relation to Intel's own mainstream platform of LGA 1155 it amounts to a neglible increase in performance at a higher cost of power consumption and overall platform cost...and that very slight increase in performance (in those cases where it does show) is offset by the 2500K/2600K/2700K's superior overclocking ability.
From Steve's 3960X review:

I'm really concidering the 3820 for my build. My parts list for an i5 3570 is $1350-ish and $1550-ish for the 3820 list. In the later build there would be two available PCIe ports at 16x- the support for quad channel ram-usb3...etc. Not to mention, I'll be on a MB with the newer socket and chipset for later CPUs.

I'd like to hear anything anyone has to say about running Planetside 2 well. As far as I can tell anything you can do CPU wise is what gains frames per second. Love to see these chips benchmarked with it somehow.

Microcenter is using the i3-3225 as a promotional football, selling it for $119.95, ($144.95 @ Newegg), if you but if with a given selection of boards.

This chip is a dual core 4 thread offering, but it has the better HD-4000 graphics onboard. I bought it with a Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H (ATX) board, $149.95 (?) @ Newegg)), for just a shade over $200.00.

Haven't put this together yet, but with a 22nm CPU drawing only 55 watts TDP, graphics included all, it should be an outstanding and thrifty mainstream dynamo.

Point being, Ivy Bridge, without the 22nm process doesn't seem to offer too much over Sandy. Or at the very least you have to go to great lengths to obviate it.

OTOH, Ivy Bridge seems to offer an honest improvement, with respect to a general purpose mid-price machine.

As far as the memory latency issues uncovered in the review go, buying the exact same brand memory modules, (GSkill DDR3-1600), in 4GB capacity will net you 9-9-9-24, but 8GB modules come in at 10-10-10-30. I'm guessing that disparity could only become worse, when spread across 4 8GB modules in 4 channels.

So, where should we be laying the blame for the memory bandwidth issues in the review, on the CPU, the boards, the DIMMs themselves, or any combination of the foregoing factors?