AMD Threadripper 3970X and 3960X Review: High-End Domination

[harlan4096]

Threadripper gets a big bump, thanks to 7nm, Zen 2 and PCIe 4.0.

Our Verdict

AMD's Threadripper 3970X is the new uncontested leader in both price and performance on the highest end of the HEDT segment.

For

Excellent single and multithreaded performance
Competitive per-core pricing
Overclockable
Power efficient
Indium solder

Against

Lack of backward compatibility

In an incredible alignment of the silicon stars, AMD's third-gen Threadripper 3970X and 3960X launch today alongside Intel's new Cascade Lake-X Core i9-10980XE, giving us a look at the future of the high end desktop all in one go.

Intel surely has its work cut out for it. Earlier this month, AMD showcased the advantages of its Zen 2 microarchitecture and 7nm process by cramming the 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 3950X into its mainstream platforms, doubling the core count of Intel's competing chips. That created a new tier of threaded performance for mainstream motherboards, one Intel simply can't match, and upset Intel's pricing structure for its high-end desktop lineup in the process.

But that wasn't the full extent of the damage: Intel preemptively slashed the gen-on-gen pricing of its forthcoming Cascade Lake-X chips in half as it braced for the impact of AMD's Threadripper 3000.

Now they're here: AMD's 32-core 64-thread Threadripper 3970X and 24-core 48-thread 3960X have landed in our labs with the same core counts as their predecessors, but instead of a headline achievement like a doubling of core counts, Threadripper's new architecture serves as the star of the show. The 'Castle Peak' design brings a new design that does away with many of the previous-gen Threadrippers' eccentricities, which equates to massive performance gains across the board. Add in support for PCIe 4.0, and the Threadripper 3000 series looks like a winner.

Of course, with much more real estate available in the massive sTRX4 socket on TRX40 motherboards (), we also fully expect AMD to bring the density advantages of its 7nm process to bear, and soon it will: The company confirmed it would bring a beastly 64-core 128-thread Threadripper 3990X with an amazing 288MB of total cache and 280W TDP to market in 2020.

But while we await that ludicrously-appointed chip, we have plenty of excitement with the Threadripper 3970X and 3960X. These chips promise a new level of performance for prosumers and creators, and they deliver.

We've been busy in our labs testing the processors through our standard test suite of games and applications, but also added an expansive set of workstation tests that expose the benefits of the TRX40 platform, like AMD's leading support of PCIe 4.0. We also have Intel's new Core i9-10980XE on the roster, along with the Ryzen 9 3950X, to give you a view of the entire high-end battlefield.

Threadripper 3970X and 3960X Specifications and Pricing

AMD's Threadripper 3000 processors debut with much higher pricing than the previous-gen models: At $1,999, the 32-core 3970X debuts for $200 more than its predecessor, and AMD tacked on an extra $100 for the $1,399 24-core 3960X. AMD attributes the increased pricing to the new level of performance and access to Threadripper's leading-edge support for the PCIe 4.0 interface.

AMD gears the Threadripper 3000 processors for content creators and prosumers, like 3D artists, filmmakers, and software developers. For professionals, any extra time spent completing a task equates to lost revenue, making the higher price a justifiable expense if the premium matches the performance.

You'll also need a new TRX40 motherboard to support the chips. We've tested a couple around the launch of these chips, and our current favorite is ASRock's TRX40 Taichi. Due to the higher pricing of Threadripper 3000 models and the requirement for a new motherboard, AMD is leaving the existing second-gen Threadripper processors on the market for the foreseeable future as a 'value HEDT' offering for content creators. You can regularly find the 32-core Threadripper 2990WX for roughly $1,700 and the 24-core 2970WX for about $925, and we expect those prices will fall soon.

The Threadripper 3970X weighs in with 32 cores and 64 threads that operate at a 3.7 GHz base and 4.5 GHz boost paired with 144 MB of total cache (128MB L3), while the Threadripper 3960X has 24 cores and 48 threads that run at a 3.8 GHz base and 4.5 GHz boost with 140 MB of total cache.

Both chips expose 88 PCIe 4.0 lanes, but the TRX40 chipset consumes some of those lanes, leaving 64 exposed to the user. The PCIe 4.0 interface is a notable advantage of AMD's Ryzen desktop lineup, but it is more important in the HEDT space where high-speed storage and networking devices are more likely to find their way into powerful systems.

Both processors support four channels of DDR4-3200 memory, but data transfer rates differ based on DIMM population. The chips support up to eight DIMMs of 32GB memory, totalling 256GB. The processors also support ECC memory, but implementation varies by motherboard. The Threadripper processors feature the same memory controllers as the Ryzen 3000 chips, so memory overclocking is a rather straightforward affair.

Intel's new Cascade Lake-X represents the company's flagship competitor on the high-end desktop, but it is only $979, which is less than half the price of the previous-gen Core i9-9980XE. That leaves AMD's Threadripper 3000 largely uncontested in the traditional HEDT space, though Intel does offer its Xeon W processors with the server-derived LGA 3647 socket.

The Xeon W chips slot into a higher workstation tier, top out at 28 cores, and don't feature unlocked multipliers, meaning they aren't overclockable like HEDT processors. These processors require expensive motherboards and coolers, and also feature six-channel memory controllers. Given their workstation-class features, the Xeon W chips that compete directly (based on core count) against Threadripper 3000 retail for $3,349 and $4,499 for a 28-core chip, so they aren't suitable competitors.
...

Continue Reading