Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

T

heThreadripper2970WXwas

probablythemostniche

ThreadripperCPUAMDhasever

released.Theonlyreasonyou’dconsidera WX-series

CPUwasforthemulti-threadedgrunt,andeventhenit

onlyworkedproperlyina selectfewapplications.This

time,the24-core,48-threadmodelis theThreadripper

3960X,whichis a good£600cheaperthanits32-core

sibling,yetit offersanidenticalboostfrequencyof4.5GHz

anda higherbasefrequencyof3.8GHz.

WithAMD’s7nmZen2 architectureunderthehood,

theThreadripper3960Xis potentiallya muchbetterall-

rounderthanitspredecessor.However,it standsalonein

termsofprice,withIntel’sCorei9-10980XEretailingfor

around£400lessandhavingsixfewercores,whileits

biggersiblingwillsetyoubacktwogrand.

TheonlypeoplewhoneedtoconsiderthisCPUare

peoplelookingtomakeuseofthe

TRX40platform’shugePCI-Elanecount,

PCI-E4 supportandquad-channel

memory,andwhoalsoneedhugemulti-

threadedperformance.Intel,ofcourse,

canoffersomeoftheformer,withits

CascadeLake-XCPUsdishingout 48

PCI-Elanesandquad-channelmemory

support,butyou’llneedtoventureinto

Xeonworkstationterritorytoseemore

than 18 cores.

BoththenewThreadripperCPUsalso

have128MBofL3cache,butwithtwo

coresperCoreComplexDiedisabled,the

Threadripper3960Xlosesouton4MBof

L2cache,althoughthetotalstillstandsat

a hefty12MB.

Therewasverylittledifference

betweenthetwo3rd-genThreadripper

CPUsinourRealbenchtests,withthe

multi-threadedcloutofthe32-core

modelbeinghamperedbypoorscalingin

Handbrake,whereit wasonly40,

pointsaheadofthe24-coremodel.Both

CPUstoppedtheonemillion-pointmark

heretoo– thefirsttodosoatstockspeed.

TheCinebenchscoreswerethefirstto

stretchtheirlegs,withtheThreadripper

3970Xofferinga 26percentlead.

AMDTHREADRIPPER

3960X/£1399incVAT

SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk

SOCKET TRX4 PROCESSOR

However,theThreadripper3960X was faster than the old

32-core 2990WX, and is a massive 57 per cent faster than

the Intel Core i9-10980XE in this test.

Blender again saw the 2960X topple every CPU except its

3rd-gen sibling by a huge margin and, unlike the latter, we

didn’t need to engage Game Mode in AMD’s Ryzen Master

softwaretogetdecentframerates.OnlytheRyzen 3950X

andoverclockedCorei9-10980XEwerenoticeably quicker.

Overclockingwasfruitfultoo,reachinganall-core frequency

of4.35GHzusing1.325V,whichwas250MHz higher than

itsstockspeedall-coreboost.Thistweakboosted the

Cinebenchscorebynearly1,000pointsandadded 20,

pointstotheRealBenchsystemscoretoo.

Conclusion

If theThreadripper3970Xis outofreach,orif you’d rather

spendtheextra£600elsewhere,theThreadripper 3960X

makesperfectsense.It offersthesamespeeds in lightly

threadedapplications,similarperformancein many multi-

threadedapplications,andit onlydropssignificantlybehind

the3970Xinselecttasks.Thefactit’s

handyinbothgamesandcontent

creation,unlikeits24-corepredecessor,

makesit a monsterofanall-rounder.

However,theRyzen9 3950Xis better

valueformoneyif youcanmakedowith

lessmulti-threadedgrunt.

ANTONYLEATHER

REVIEWS /PROCESSORS

SPEC

Base frequency

3.8GHz

Max boost frequency

4.5GHz

Core

Zen 2

Manufacturing process

7nm

Number of cores

24 x physical 48 threads)

IGP

None

Simultaneous Multithreading

(SMT)

Ye s

Cache

128MB L3 cache, 12MB L2 cache

Memory controller

Quad-channel DDR4, up to

3200MHz

Packaging

AMD Socket TRX

Thermal design power (TDP)

280W

Features

Precision Boost 2, Precision Boost

Overdrive, FMA3, F16C, SHA, BMI

/ BMI1 + BMI2, AVX2, AVX, AES,

SSE4a, SSE4, SSE3, SSE2, SSE

VERDICT

Solves the lightly threaded performance

problems of its predecessor, and packs a

mighty multi-threaded punch.

OPTICAL
MOUSE

• 
  

  Excellent all-
  round
  performance

  
  


• 
  

  Huge multi-
  threaded
  performance

  
  


• 
  

  Better value than
  Threadripper
  3970X

  
  

BALL MOUSE

• Threadripper
  3970X faster in
  some software


• Expensive
  motherboards


• Ryzen 9 3950X is
  faster in games

OVERALLSCORE

88 %

PERFORMANCE

45 / 50

FEATURES

15 / 15

VALUE

28 / 35

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