http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/142?vs=552

I've put in 3930K as it's enough to beat 980x, as charts show.

Thank you for your reply;
Those bench's show mixed results. Which was basically my point: With no competition Intel is pushing borderline improvements as "gold".
CPU performance is static with chipset advances giving modest improvement to overall usage. AMD's stumble necessitates: we need another "Hero".

Bingo! Only people with a money tree would drop $1K on the 3970X. No point at all. Corporate clients would go for dual Xeons. Most 3930Ks I've seen hit 4.4-4.6ghz as well, making the 3970X a profit margin product for those who have no idea how to overclock.

I find Intel's strategy for their flagship platform is backwards. I completely understood why someone would pay extra for Socket 1366 as it came out nearly 9 months before Lynnfield on 1156. With LGA2011, Intel is actually behind their mainstream platform. Next year when Haswell launches, it will be faster in a ton of benchmarks since most programs are not multi-threaded. Haswell's projected 10% increase in IPC and IVB TIM hopefully replaced with proper solder would mean 5.0ghz+ overclocks. At that speed even IVB-E by Q3 2013 will be lame for most of us.

I couldn't agree more, the 3930K is the true "winner" of this entire CPU generation as far as "OVERALL CPU PERFORMANCE" is concerned (not just gaming); it delivers 98-102% (depending on benchmark) the performance of the 2x more expensive 3960X but is only 50% the cost.

I have mine running at 4.8Ghz on a Rampage IV Extreme (1.385v) with 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws-Z 2133 9-11-10-27 (OC'd to DDR3-2540 10-12-11-31 1T 1.685v), and an EVGA GTX670-FTW @ 1455core/7825mem (will be adding 2 more soon, for 3-way SLI) with an EVGA GTX550Ti 2GB for PhysX (31%core/38%mem overclock).
For a "Single-GPU" system, it performs beyond what I could ever imagine!!
I have YET to have a single slowdown in Adobe CS6, any one of the two-dozen other Video and Photo editing programs I use, any of my pro audio editing/mixing software, or even games (exception of Metro2033 @ 1440p)... EVEN WHEN I have 2-6 different instances of Photoshop open, 2 different 1080p60 videos being edited (i.e. open), 1 raw audio track being edited (fully uncompressed studio recordings, huge files about ~50MB for a 3min track, and audio quality better than DVD-Audio), and then having FireFox open with 75tabs and Chrome open with 20 tabs!!!

Sure, 8core/16thread CPU's would be nice, but I am sticking with this 3930K for a LONG time!

(PS: Temps for CPU and GPU's at Idle/Load are CPU 21C/62C, 670 19C/46C, and 550Ti 22C/49C obtained running P95 + 3dMark11 in a loop at the same time; ambient is ~17.5-18.5C)
(PPS: OC achieved with full-system watercooling: Apogee HD CPU Block, MIPS Ni/POM R4E Block, Heatkiller 680 "Hole Edition" GPU Block w Backplate, EK Universal GPU Block for 550Ti with custom backplate and EnzoTech VRAM/MOSFET/VRM heatsinks, MCP35X2 Dual-Pump w Heatsink + MCP35X Single-Pump w Heatsink (3 total), EK Multioption Res X2 250 Advanced + XSPC Dual-Bay Res, XSPC EX420 rad w 6x Bgears Blasters in Push-Pull w 140x140x7mm Phobya Shrouds on exhaust-side and 140x20mm shrouds on push side, Alphacool NeXXoS UT60 240 rad w 4x Koolance 120x25 2600rpm 107cfm/5.4mmH2O fans in push-pull with 120x20mm shrouds on push and pull sides, Alphacool XT45 280 rad w 4x Bgears Blasters 140mm push-pull using Phobya 140x7mm shrouds both sides, 2x HWLabs Black Ice GT-Stealth 1x120 rads w 2x Koolance 120x38 2600rpm fans in Push-Pull using Phobya 120x20mm on Push side and 120x7mm on Pull side, 1/2x3/4" White Tubing, and all Bitspower Rotary-Angled Fittings/Adapters and Monsoon Black Comp Fittings)