Today we're looking at the nigh expensive desktop CPU to ever exist, and shockingly it's not from Intel. The special ocassion fabricated the states think of an Intel processor that we were quite fond of one time, the Broadwell-E Core i7-6950X, which happened to exist the first 10-core desktop CPU when it was released in 2022.

Full disclosure: while we very much enjoyed the 6950X, nosotros didn't actually pay for it. Avoiding the hideous $one,700 toll tag fabricated the production a whole lot more enjoyable. For that stunning cost, Intel basically tacked on 2 extra cores from the previous two-year-one-time 5960X, and jacked up the price past 75%.

Past the time they released their next 10-core office all bets were off as AMD had finally got their human action together and had begun kicking goals with the Zen architecture. Stiff competition from the first-gen Threadripper range saw the 10-cadre Cadre i7-7900X released at $1,000, then refreshed as the 9900X at $1,000, and refreshed in one case more than as a $600 office in the 10900X. Many would debate that the 10-core part is overpriced at $600 and we'd generally agree.

The point we're trying to make is, a mere four years ago the all-time any high-end desktop platform had to offer was a $1,700 10-core processor that ran all cores at 3.iv GHz out of the box. Today AMD is releasing a CPU with over 6 times more than cores, though it costs nigh ii.five times more.

Meanwhile Intel's rumored to be scrambling to release a 22-core HEDT office, merely we seriously dubiety they'll carp at this indicate. You can't even buy their current xviii-core model. In theory these days Intel'south offer eighteen cores for $1,000, though not really since the 10980XE doesn't exist in retail. So technically if you want an xviii-core Intel CPU you've got to pay around $two,000 for a 7980XE or 9980XE, whichever model you can notice, so expert luck with a 22-core part.

With no competition from Intel in this space, AMD tin can become away with charging quite the premium. To be fair though, a 64-cadre, 128-thread processor capable of the functioning we're about to show you for $four,000 isn't as cool equally it first sounds.

Let's talk a fiddling bit about the Threadripper 3990X before we bound into the bluish bar graphs...

This is a 64-core/128-thread Zen 2-based processor. It comprises 8, 8-cadre chiplets or 'cadre complex dies', built using TSMC's 7nm process. In that location'southward also a input/output dice using GlobalFoundries' 12nm procedure and combining the transistor count of all those dies lands us at a staggering and bluntly incomprehensible 39.5 billion transistors.

The jaw dropping numbers keep coming as we dig into the specs: it packs 256 MB of L3 cache with 32 MB of L2 cache. Depending on the workload, the cores clock betwixt 2.9 and 4.3 GHz, assuasive the CPU to go on within a 280 watt TDP.

That'southward all very impressive, just evidently this processor isn't for everyone non merely because it'll set you lot dorsum a handsome $four,000, but likewise because it'south farthermost overkill for most tasks. AMD fully acknowledges that the 3990X is a special purpose processor designed for a relatively pocket-size client base with a unique gear up of needs.

They say their customers for the Threadripper 3990X are predominantly professional visual effects artists and companies dabling with 8K content using diverse raw or lossless codecs. AMD's also verified 64-core scaling for compiling projects similar Android OS or Unreal Engine, then in that location will no doubt exist some demand for those tasks as well.

AMD believes the cardinal to the 3990X's success will be doing something no other processor does: combine both high frequency and high core counts into a single product. This is extremely valuable for a number of industries every bit it ensures maximum efficiency on all levels.

For example 3D rendering tools such every bit Isotropix Clarisse are largely single-threaded during the setup procedure, earlier the rendering begins, and then having a processor that can clock upwards over 4 GHz during single or lightly threaded workloads is very beneficial here. Of course a high clock speed, at least relative to other core heavy processors, is as well benign once the rendering procedure begins.

There's a lot more than to discuss, but nosotros experience at this indicate you're really wanting to see the benchmark results, so let's get on with that and we'll talk more about the 3990X and who it's designed for a bit later in the review.

For testing the Ryzen ix 3950X, 3900X and Ryzen vii 3800X CPUs, the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme was used. Then we have the MSI X399 Creator for the 2d-gen Threadripper 2990WX, 2950X and 2920X. For the new 3rd-gen Threadripper 3970X and 3960X, the Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme was used. All Ryzen configurations were cooled using a custom Corsair HydroX loop with a 360mm rad.

All processors were tested using 32GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3200 CL14 retentiveness. We realize performance in some workloads might be college with DDR4-3600 CL16 memory, just for an apples to apples comparison, all platforms feature the aforementioned spec memory.

On Intel's side, the Intel Cascade Lake-X Core i9-10980XE and Skylake-X Core i9-9920X were tested on the Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming nine, likewise using a Corsair HydroX loop with a 360mm rad.

Then the mainstream 8th and 9th-gen Intel Core processors were benchmarked on the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra, using the same DDR4-3200 CL14 memory, but they were cooled using the Corsair Hydro H115i RGB Platinum 280mm AIO liquid cooler. Annotation the Intel CPUs are not TDP restricted as that'due south not the out of the box experience, and then we are showing the absolute all-time case scenario for out of the box performance. Besides, please note this cooler in no way restricts performance, then nosotros're seeing maximum performance from the Intel CPUs. Finally, the graphics bill of fare of selection was the MSI Trio GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

Benchmarks

First up we take the Cinebench R20 scores and it's madness, as anticipated. We're looking at a score of over 24000 pts, making the 3990X a whopping 45% faster than the 3970X and 80% faster than the 3960X.

If you want to compare it with Intel's best, Threadripper is 181% faster, so 4x more expensive for about 3x the performance in this awarding.

When information technology comes to unmarried cadre functioning the 3990X is all the same very spritely for a 64-core processor, producing a score of 494 pts which is comparable to the Core i9-10980XE, Ryzen seven 3800X and even the Cadre i9-9900K.

The 7-zip pinch results are important considering this is where the 2990WX cruel apart. The 2nd-gen 32-cadre processor was 40% slower than the xvi-core version due to the architectural design limitation that fabricated it a poor choice for memory sensitive applications.

The I/O dice featured in the 3rd-gen blueprint overcomes this issue. We commencement saw this with the 3970X and AMD proves over again simply how scalable this design is with the 3990X. Here it was 33% faster than the 3970X and almost 100% faster than Intel'southward Core i9-10980XE.

Typically it's decompression functioning where Ryzen shines and while the 3990X is fast here, it is a little slower than the 3970X. This is because it'southward non fully utilized and this was less of an outcome for the pinch exam which doesn't take advantage of SMT back up. At well-nigh 7-nada was using 73% of the 3990X, and then this gives the higher clocked 3970X a slight functioning reward.

Moving on to Adobe Premiere, this is another application where the 2990WX was a complete trainwreck.

The TR 3990X hangs in there and despite very poor CPU utilization with this plan, information technology managed to lucifer the 3960X, taking 424 seconds, making it the second fastest desktop CPU we've tested in Premiere.

It does fair a little worse in the Puget Systems export test, where the 3970X was 16% faster, so obviously the 3990X isn't a neat value choice for Premiere users. Only if you're primarily using information technology with applications that do go a big performance boost from the 64 cores, it's good to know the chip tin still handle Premiere with aplomb unlike the older 2990WX.

Playback performance was solid. Once more, it'southward a little down on the 24 and 32-core models, but nothing alarming here.

The 3990X simply dominates in V-Ray, fifty-fifty more so than it did in Cinebench. This time beating the 32-cadre 3970X by a 63% margin and that meant information technology was 165% faster than the 10980XE. What more can you say, for these rendering applications the 3990X is everything AMD promised it would be.

The Corona benchmark which takes near 2 minutes with something like the Ryzen 7 3800X, took a mere 18 seconds using the Threadripper 3990X. The 64-core processor took 47% less time to consummate the examination when compared to the powerful 3970X.

The Threadripper 3990X completed the Blender Open Data criterion in just under 3 minutes which is insane.

This test has traditionally taken quite some time to complete, even with previous HEDT parts. For example, the 2990WX did really well here, however it took a little over 6 minutes to complete whereas Intel's Core i9-10980XE took roughly nine minutes... this means the 3990X is a trivial over 3x faster.

POVRay was a final infinitesimal addition to this review. We added information technology because it's a good case of a program that supports upwardly to 64 threads, at least the current public release does. AMD has submitted updated code that allows POVRay to scale beyond 64 threads and fully use the 3990X.

Here nosotros can see with the electric current 64-thread limit the 3990X is but able to match the 3970X, merely with the update which should be publicly bachelor soon, the 64-core processor volition receive an well-nigh lxx% performance boost.

Power Consumption

Nosotros know all 3rd-gen Threadripper parts characteristic a 280w TDP, then power consumption should be similar, and information technology is. Due to a binning process and a reduction in clock speeds/voltages the 3990X doesn't consume much more ability than the 32-core version, pushing total system usage but iii% college, which is remarkable given we often saw well over a 50% increase in operation when fully utilized.

Gaming Benchmarks

Gaming on the 3990X is kind of dumb... at least defended gaming totally is. And yet many of you will at least desire to know how the CPU behaves in gaming tasks. In the name of science, we've run our usual batch of games and we'll but blast through those results at present. We won't spend much fourth dimension on analysis because it'due south a niggling dizzy, simply who knows the guys making the visual effects for Terminator might have wanted to play the Terminator game on their loftier-cease workstations when they weren't rendering, we're certain at some point that was a thing.

Anyhow, the functioning in Battlefield 5 was groovy...

Shadow of the Tomb Raider likewise played exceptionally well. You're looking at a like experience to that of the 10980XE.

Tom Clancy's The Partitioning 2... that also worked, operation was as expected.

Tom Clancy'due south Ghost Recon Breakpoint was like, this is more than CPU than I need, enjoy the GPU clogging.

F1 2022 appreciated the advanced technology and the Silvery Arrows seemed to perform even better than usual, hmm wonder what's going on at that place.

Borderlands 3 as well... worked and it worked well.

Nosotros actually hope this is the first and last 128-thread Fortnite criterion. Good times.

Overclocking

We fully await pro overclockers to have a seriously fun fourth dimension with the 3990X. For this iii.7 GHz all-core overclock nosotros applied merely 1.2v and that was enough to encounter the total system draw hit 765 watts with a CPU temp of 77 degrees.

Oddly, when messing effectually we managed to boot into Windows with all cores clocked at 4 GHz and this produced a score of just over 30,000 pts on Cinebench R20. The CPU peaked at 92 C and the total system load just exceeded 850 watts. Annoyingly, we achieved this in the early hours of the morning, we don't retrieve the verbal settings used and with very little time to replicate it during the few days we had for testing, nosotros ran out of time.

Using only 1.2v, 3.7 GHz was the all-time we could achieve while properly collecting all the data. This led to a 14% increase in performance and meant the overclocked 3990X was still 54% faster than the overclocked 3970X at 4.2 GHz.

For measuring thermal performance we ran an hour long Blender stress test in a 21 C room using a range of cooling devices. Basically nosotros ended upwards with the same results as the 3970X, which isn't hugely surprising given ability consumption was similar. Basically each CCD will be cartoon less power and therefore generating less heat, but in that location are twice as many of them so y'all end up with a like outcome. The good news beingness out of the box the 3990X isn't difficult to keep cool.

What We Learned

The Threadripper 3990X is a beast, it'southward completely unchallenged and redefines the HEDT infinite. Correct now nothing comes close to offer the same level of performance, and we were relieved to find that the 3990X has no real weakness.

When under-utilized, performance is still strong and comparable to that of lower cadre count parts. Like the 2990WX before it, the TR 3990X is a superstar for rendering tasks, but unlike the 2990WX, it still performs well when not fully utilized or faced with memory or latency-sensitive workloads. This was a major effect with the 2990WX as yous didn't really know if it was going to be a animal or a bot for your workload. It was crucial to have your exact workload tested before buying and that's not ever an option. With the 3990X though, information technology's a much safer purchase, basically if your application tin can use the cores, the 3990X volition deliver the goods.

At this point you might be wondering where are our usual price vs. performance graphs, but for this one we decided not to bother. The 3990X is not about cost-to-performance, rather the idea here is to offer the absolute best performance period for core-heavy workloads. It'south a little fleck like how nosotros only recommend the Core i9-9900K for gamers with farthermost setups consisting of an RTX 2080 Ti, for example. And it's also a bit like how we just recommend the RTX 2080 Ti for extreme 4K gaming with expensive high-end monitors.

The Threadripper 3990X brings a significant jump, more than so than either the 9900K or 2080 Ti, every bit it'southward not just a little bit faster than the next best thing, it'due south a lot faster.

Now nosotros've talked a flake well-nigh who AMD's targeting with this massive 64-core processor: professional person visual effects artists, for instance, just it's non simply VFX guys that the 3990X is designed for. It's VFX guys that have projects that take ane or 2 days to render using a more traditional HEDT part. For example, where the 2990WX might take 24 hours complete a render, the 3990X could reduce the completion time of the same job to only 15 hours.

Saving that kind of time per project is worth paying the 3990X's request toll. On the other manus, for those with projects that take mere hours to render, AMD recommends checking out the TR 3960X or 3970X as they're going to be more than appropriate for such workloads.

In my personal example, I'd would look at purchasing either the 3960X or 3970X for the content creation work I practise. Right now I'1000 using the 3960X and I have to say, it'southward astonishing. Earlier this I used the Threadripper 2950X and and then for a brief 2-calendar month menses, earlier transitioning to 3rd-gen Threadripper, I tried out the Core i9-9900K in Premiere. The upgrade from the 9900K to the 3960X was significant, and while Threadripper is significantly more than plush, it also allows me to do much more.

For example with the Core i9, I could utilize the warp stabilizer effect to most 6-8 b-roll clips simultaneously. Any more and the system would irksome to a crawl and frequently crash. With the 3960X I tin warp stabilize all the b-roll in a ten-15 minute video, virtually 20-30 clips at the same time, and still create a thumbnail in Photoshop without noticing whatever tiresome down. It's astounding and has massively speeded upward my workflow.

We see the Threadripper 3990X doing much the same for visual furnishings artists, software developers compiling projects, and anyone else who tin can make use of a 64-core processor.

Overall an incredible product from AMD that is not merely exciting for professionals today, but information technology paves the fashion for more affordable core-heavy desktop parts in the near futurity.

Shopping Shortcuts:
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  • AMD Threadripper 3970X on Amazon
  • AMD Threadripper 3960X on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 9 3950X on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700X on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen v 3600 on Amazon
  • Intel Core i9-9900K on Amazon
  • GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on Amazon
  • AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT on Amazon