![]() To say this chip blurs the lines between the mainstream desktop and HEDT is an understatement: In reality, it brings HEDT-class performance to the friendlier pricing of mainstream motherboards, placing it in a class of its own.īoth companies will update their HEDT lineups later this month, with AMD plowing ahead to 32-core Threadripper 3000 chips (possibly 64 cores in the future), while Intel releases yet another iteration of its Skylake-derived 14nm silicon with its Cascade Lake-X lineup. Of course, process technology doesn't solve all the challenges of fielding a competitive chip, but that advantage is hard to beat when paired with a solid microarchitecture like AMD's Zen 2.Ī few months ago, AMD moved the industry again with the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X but left us with the promise of something even more powerful: The Ryzen 9 3950X that completely upsets the paradigm with 16 cores and 32 threads, encroaching on both Intel's Skylake-X Refresh HEDT lineup and AMD's own Threadripper platform. The company has slowly dialed up the frequency of its aging 14nm process and added more cores, but those tweaks can't offset the reality that AMD has moved onto a denser and more efficient 7nm process that enables higher core counts. But Dell did a questionable job on the cooling front, including a single intake fan and a small radiator with the AIO liquid cooler.ĪMD's Ryzen family has completely redefined our expectations for desktop processors, and Intel has struggled to respond. That system trounced competing high-end gaming rigs in many productivity tests. ![]() The CPU upsets Intel's positioning in mainstream desktops and disrupts it's vaunted high-end desktop (HEDT) lineup in the process.Īside from the deep dive on the CPU that we're tackling here, we've also tested and reviewed they Ryzen 9 3950X in Alienware's redesigned Aurora R10 gaming desktop. We’ll work on getting Windows performance up afterwards, stat.AMD's Ryzen 9 3950X lands today, bringing the ultimate threaded performance to the mainstream desktop with an industry-leading and unprecedented 16 cores and 32 threads, paired with the bandwidth-doubling PCIe 4.0 interface for $749. We will of course be publishing performance soon for AMD’s and Intel’s chips that are soon launching, but as we did with this 3950X review, we may kick things off with a Linux look, only because it’s so quick to clear in comparison to Windows. Neither of these will be tested further for the next round of CPU reviews, since there’s simply no time. First, we didn’t get to test as many CPUs for this article as we hoped, simply because our test suite takes so long to run (something we’ll fix at some point, but first, we preferred to make our tests actually good.) That results in the 2920X and 2970WX Threadrippers being left-out, as well as Intel’s Core i7-8700K in most tests. It’s a good thing this entire ecosystem is getting drizzled in cores, because the interest in creator workflows has never been higher.īefore we get into testing, there are a couple of things we’ll mention from the get-go. Whether you’re a mainstream or enthusiast user, chances are good that your new PC, or forthcoming PC, is going to bundle many more cores than a rig you would have bought had AMD not struck back as it has done. At the same time, we’ve seen AMD accomplish an incredible comeback, and it’s been truly fun to watch. We wish that wasn’t the case, because a more competitive market is a good market. If those big chips scale as their price tags indicate, then AMD is going to be owning the high-end enthusiast platform for some time, since Intel’s not able to spin out more competitive products that quickly (or that we know of). We already know lots about Zen 2, but the question of how third-gen Threadripper will scale lingers. AMD would rather those customers look forward to the third-gen Ryzen chips, which will soon launch with 24- and 32-core models.Īnd speaking of models, here’s AMD’s current lineup: ![]() We use quotes, because $749 certainly doesn’t feel mainstream, but when the AM4 platform lacks a quad-channel memory controller, this 16-core wonder isn’t going to be a replacement for everyone. Fast-forward to now, and we’re seeing sixteen cores in a “mainstream” chip. It was only a little over two years ago when AMD launched its eight-core Ryzen chips, at a time when Intel’s Core i7-7700K had only four cores. Zen 2 was a big launch for AMD, and given what we’re seeing in the market right now, it was a seriously important one, too. You could almost see the hype floating throughout the auditorium, and even some of AMD’s partners found themselves gushing on-stage. We first learned of the 3950X at Computex in June, alongside the big unveil of Zen 2 itself.
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