28 PCWorld AUGUST 2019REVIEWS RYZEN^3000
confused about the simultaneous presence of
PCIe 5.0 (go.pcworld.com/5pci) and PCIe
6.0 (go.pcworld.com/6pci) in earlier stages
of development, remember that it takes time
to go from initial spec to actual hardware.
PCIe 4.0 is basically the only answer today
and a decent bragging point for AMD.BOATLOADS OF VALUE
And yes, there’s still value. While Intel charges
$488 for its flagship 8-core Core i9-9900K,
AMD will give you 12 cores it claims are just as
fast, if not faster, for $499, with a bundled
RGB cooler too.
How much value? To find out just how
much buck per thread you’re getting, wemapped out the CPUs based on how much
each thread costs. As you can see, AMD
owns Intel in this category. At $21 per thread
for the Ryzen 9 3900X, the $31 for the Core
i9-9900K isn’t even in the same ballpark.
None of the cost-per-thread or fancy 7nm
process matters, though, if the performance
isn’t there. Let’s get on with what you came
here for: to find out how fast the Ryzen 9
3900X is.HOW WE TESTED
For this review we decided to focus in on
three key CPUs. First we use AMD’s
2nd-generation Ryzen 7 2700X as a baseline.
Second we bring in the main competitor atCost per thread