AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X vs Intel Core i9-10980XE: High End Flagships Fight

[harlan4096]

It's time for a battle of the flagships

If you just so happen to be in the market for some serious firepower, both AMD and Intel have new high-powered HEDT (high-end desktop) processors designed for the heaviest workloads. Intel recently launched its Cascade Lake-X family, spanning from ten to 18 cores, while AMD unleashed the third-generation Ryzen Threadripper chips with models that come with either 24 or 32 cores.

The 32-core 64-thread Ryzen Threadripper 3970X is the current flagship for AMD's Ryzen Threadripper lineup, although that will change soon when the chipmaker rolls out the 64-core Ryzen Threadripper 3990X next year. On the other side of the ring, we have the 10th-generation Core i9-10980XE, which serves as the flagship for Team Intel with 18 cores and 36 threads.

Unfortunately, the comparison between the two flagships is rather lopsided: Intel has ceded the upper tiers of the HEDT market to AMD and doesn't have a comparable chip based on core counts or pricing. However, this is a battle of the most powerful consumer silicon from both companies.

To help you pick one, we put the flagship models from both chipmakers through a seven-round face-off, based on their features, overclocking, coolers, motherboards, performance, and value.

Features

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X comes packing AMD's potent Zen 2 microarchitecture and is produced with TSMC's 7nm FinFET manufacturing process. The core-heavy Ryzen Threadripper 3970X comes equipped with 32 cores and 64 threads that operate with a 3.7 GHz base clock and a 4.5 GHz boost clock. AMD feeds the cores with up to 144MB of total cache (128MB L3 cache).

The Ryzen Threadripper 3970X supports up to four DDR4-3200 memory channels, ECC (error-correcting code) memory, and can accommodate up to 256GB of DDR4 memory. The chip also exploits the latest PCIe 4.0 interface, providing up to 64 PCIe 4.0 lanes for high-speed storage and compatible graphics cards.

The Intel Core i9-10980XE is based on Intel's new Cascade Lake microarchitecture and ultra-mature 14nm process node. It comes with 18 cores, 36 threads, and 24.75MB of L3 cache. The processor clocks in with a 3.0 GHz base and 4.8 GHz boost.

Like the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X, the Core i9-10980XE has a quad-channel memory controller and supports up to 256GB of DDR4 capacity. However, Intel sets official memory support at DDR4-2933, and the chip doesn't support the ECC standard. Not to mention that the Core i9-10980XE is still on the PCIe 3.0 interface and only provides the user with up to 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes.

Winner: AMD. The Ryzen Threadripper 3970X possesses a superior feature set. For starters, the core-heavy processor sports useful features, such as PCIe 4.0 and ECC memory support. Additionally, the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X also offers more cores, cache, and speedy PCIe 4.0 lanes, all of which can make a significant difference in the HEDT market.

Motherboard Options

Unlike consumer-class motherboards, there is no chipset segmentation in the HEDT market: One chipset from each vendor delivers all the features the processors have to offer. That would be the X299 chipset for the Core i9-10980XE, and the TRX40 chipset for the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X.

One caveat with the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X is that it resides on a new sTRX4 socket, locking out existing X399 motherboard owners from upgrading to the new chips. Like the processor itself, a TRX40 motherboard consumes a hefty chunk of your budget. The entry-level models typically start around $400, while high-end models stretch up to as much as $850.

The Core i9-10980XE, on the other hand, continues to slot into existing X299 motherboards with the LGA2066 socket. This means that as long as your motherboard is running the proper BIOS, you can just drop the 18-core part into your motherboard without spending a penny on another motherboard.

Nevertheless, motherboard manufacturers have released a fresh wave of revised X299 motherboards to accommodate the Core i9-10980XE. That's because the new Cascade Lake-X chips come with four additional PCIe 3.0 lanes, which you can't access on an older motherboard. In regards to pricing, X299 and revised X299 motherboards start at $160 and $260, respectively. The premium offerings top out at around $750.

Winner: Tie. Upgrading to the Core i9-10980XE is cheaper because you're not forced to invest in a new motherboard. If you're starting from scratch, there are more X299 options out there to choose from. A quick search dug up as many as 62 different X299 motherboards out in the wild as opposed to the 12 TRX40 models that are currently available.

On the flipside, we suspect that X299 is probably a dead end platform, meaning it won't be compatible with next-gen chips, while TRX40 is barely in diapers. From a future-proof perspective, TRX40 motherboards represent a better long-term investment even though they are more expensive right now.

Overclocking Potential

The Ryzen Threadripper 3970X and Core i9-10980XE come with unlocked multipliers, opening the doors to manual overclocking. Overclocking aficionados will be happy to know that both processors use solder thermal interface material (sTIM), which improves thermal dissipation, and thus overclocking potential.

Since both processors are relatively new, there aren't many statistics on their overclocking potential. For now, we'll evaluate each chip in accordance with our experience.

Although AMD advertises the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X with a 4.5 GHz boost clock, our chip only hit that speed on a single core, and it depends on several factors. We prefer to let AMD's auto-overclocking Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) feature do its thing so we continue to benefit from the single-core boost while also enjoying higher clocks in multi-threaded workloads.

AMD's Ryzen 3000-series consumer processors are a bit stingy on manual overclocking headroom. We expect the new Ryzen Threadrippers to inherit the trait as well. The ceiling for the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X is likely around 4.1 GHz to 4.3 GHz — that is assuming you're blessed with a good sample and own the necessary custom liquid cooling system to tame the processor.

The Core i9-10980XE features a single-core boost of 4.8 GHz. However, we got our sample to a whopping 4.8 GHz on all cores with a 1.2V Vcore and 2.1V VCCIN. That's pretty amazing considering we only got the previous-gen Core i9-9980XE to 4.4 GHz, but as always, the silicon lottery applies. You'll also need a beefy custom watercooling loop to extract the utmost performance.

Winner: Intel. The Core i9-10980XE might be at a core disadvantage, but the 18-core part holds tremendous overclocking potential.
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