Third-Gen Threadripper Lands: AMD Threadripper 3970X & 3960X Review

The latest 32-core and 24-core high-end desktop parts from AMD accept now landed. We've known about the specs for a while, so we'll waste product little time talking what we already knew on newspaper, and get the brawl rolling with actual performance figures. Yeah, we've benchmarked the heck out of these new processors.

The Ryzen Threadripper 3970X is a 32-core, 64-thread processor with a massive 128MB L3 cache, it runs at a base frequency of iii.7 GHz with a boost frequency of iv.5 GHz. It's priced at $2,000 making information technology AMD's most expensive desktop CPU always. Information technology's also currently the near expensive desktop CPU on the market.

If that'due south a tad too rich, maybe the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X which costs $1,400 is more the become: the 24-core, 48-thread CPU packs the same 128MB L3 enshroud and clocks anywhere from three.viii GHz to 4.5 GHz.

For testing third-gen Threadripper we've lined upward the Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme. Comparisons we'll be drawn beyond other product lines including the Ryzen ix 3950X, 3900X and Ryzen vii 3800X, all tested with the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme. Then we have the MSI X399 Creator for the 2nd-gen Threadripper 2990WX, 2950X and 2920X.

All motherboards were up to date with the latest BIOS revision, tested using 32GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3200 CL14 retention and the Corsair HydroX loop with a 360mm radiator. Nosotros realize performance in some workloads might be higher with DDR4-3600 CL16 memory, but in order to make this an apples to apples test, all platforms used the same spec memory. AMD sampled us a 64GB kit of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3600 memory, which we plan to use for future reviews.

On the Intel front end, the Cascade Lake-X Core i9-10980XE and Skylake-X Core i9-9920X were tested on the Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 9. Then the mainstream 8th and 9th-gen Intel Core processors were benchmarked on the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra, but cooled using the Corsair Hydro H115i 280mm AIO cooler. Please note the Intel CPUs are not TDP restricted, and then we're showing the best instance scenario for out of the box performance. Finally, the graphics card of choice was the MSI RTX 2080 Ti Trio. With that covered, let'due south get into the benchmark results.

Benchmarks

Starting with Cinebench R20, wow, just wow. The Threadripper 3960X produced a score of 13711 pts, that's a 22% increase over AMD'south previous 32-core Threadripper part and a whopping 56% faster than the Core i9-10980XE. Once more we see why Intel has continuously tried to downplay the relevance of Cinebench, a benchmark that's based on a real-globe rendering application.

Remember the 3960X has 33% more than cores than the 10980XE, and yet it'southward over fifty% faster in this test. But what's truly astonishing is the 17000 pts score of the 3970X, non only does that make it 24% faster than the 24-core model, but as well 94% faster than the 10980XE, though it does toll twice as much.

Cinebench was one of the few Windows applications where the 2990WX crushed it, but we're looking at a 52% performance boost with the 3970X, incredible stuff.

Conversely, single core performance is an surface area where the Threadripper 2990WX sucked, and the 2920X and 2950X weren't much ameliorate. The new 3rd-gen models correct this in a big way. The 3970X and 3960X both scored 520 pts which puts them slightly alee of the Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-9900K. They are also well ahead of the Cadre i9-10980XE, which hints positively at decent gaming performance (nosotros'll find out in a infinitesimal or two).

Moving on to the 7-Cipher file manager test, compression performance hasn't been a strong showing for AMD, but the 3970X and 3960X crushed it. The 24-core 3960X was virtually 40% faster than the 10980XE and the 3970X about 50% faster. The takeaway here is how much better the 3rd-gen 32-cadre model is compared to the 2nd-gen 2990WX, which can be establish at the bottom of the graph.

On vii-zip decompression where AMD has done well in the past, the 2990WX jumps up from the lesser of the graph to come in third place, behind the new 3rd-gen Threadripper fries.

The 3970X costs twice every bit much equally the 10980XE, merely information technology's also 126% faster in this workload, even the 3960X was 80% faster than Intel'south all-time. You might take noticed that the Ryzen 9 3950X also beats the 10980XE, so not a peachy showing for Intel here.

Here's our new Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2022 examination using an updated project that uses a lot effects and layers compared to the previous project we used for testing. The Ryzen 9 3950X took 506 seconds to complete this, making information technology 10 seconds faster than the Core i9-10980XE.

The Threadripper 2990WX was a terrible thwarting in Premiere and it'due south the reason why we went with the Threadripper 2950X for our video editing rig. The plan was to leap over to the AM4 platform with the 3950X, simply after seeing these results it looks like we'll be going with a TRX40 part instead.

The 3960X reduced the render fourth dimension from the 3950X past 16% and while that's non in line with the 87% price hike for just the processor, if time is money that double digit operation proceeds will be worth it. The 3970X isn't being fully utilized by Premiere, so the extra cores didn't get much utilize.

If you'd like to compare your organization's encoding performance with Premiere so y'all can do then using the Puget Systems criterion. Running the standard export test saw the 3970X score 115 pts, making it 34% faster than the 3950X, which is a much larger margin that what nosotros saw in our workload.

The standard Puget export examination features some 8K Red footage, so information technology's probable this sees Premiere improve utilize the core-heavy Threadripper CPUs. When compared to the Core i9-10980XE, the 3970X was 57% faster and the 3960X, 50% faster.

The Puget test also includes a "live playback" score and again you lot can see that when playing dorsum footage within Premiere the 3970X and 3960X are course leading. These results likewise show the difference betwixt the Core i9-9900K and Ryzen nine 3900X when editing are minimal.

V-Ray is an application benchmark where the 2990WX did reasonably well, it was 20% faster than the 16-cadre 2950X, for example, but the Core i9-10980X was xi% faster than the 2nd-gen 32-core processor despite offering significantly more cores.

Third-gen Threadripper ups the ante, here the 3970X pushed by the 45,000 marker to trounce the 10980XE past a whopping 62% and AMD'south 2990WX past 81%. The 3960X was also 32% faster than the 1090XE and 40% faster than the Ryzen ix 3950X.

The Threadripper 2990WX also did well in Corona, comfortably beating Intel's best. The new 3960X was able to reduce the completion time by 16% from the 2990WX, while the 3970X reduced it by 23%. Those margins don't justify the price premium, but again if fourth dimension's money, then it won't be difficult to justify the expense.

The Blender Open Data results look much like what we just saw with Corona and V-Ray. Here the 3970X was 42% faster than the 2990WX, reducing the render fourth dimension past nearly 30%.

The 3970X was also 101% faster than Intel'due south all-time, the Core i9-10980XE. AMD's loftier-end desktop processor is at present 100% faster than Intel, in a popular real-earth application, just think what the 64-core 3990X is going to do early on next yr when information technology's released. Information technology likewise gives AMD plenty cred to charge those prices.

Ability Consumption

As power efficient every bit 7nm Zen ii is, a 100% performance heave over the 10980XE volition require some serious ability usage. Both models pushed total system usage to around 430-440 watts, so that explains why every TRX40 motherboard has a massive VRM.

Roughly a 20% power increase from the 2990WX isn't too bad though given how much faster these tertiary-gen Threadripper parts are. Total system consumption was pushed virtually 40% higher than the Core i9-10980XE, but for 100% more performance in this item test, it seems justified.

Gaming Benchmarks

Starting with Battleground V, both 3rd-gen Threadripper models were able to slightly overcome the Core i9-9900K, at least when looking at the average frame charge per unit.

Usually this is non what you see from workstation-level CPUs -- I mean, just look at the 2990WX -- but single cadre operation apparently is an area that AMD has been working hard to optimize for the last few years with every Ryzen iteration. Nosotros see a 9% increase in one% low functioning when going from the Ryzen nine 3950X to the Threadripper 3970X.

Another title where third-gen Threadripper hits it out of the park is Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Both CPUs were faster than 3rd-gen Ryzen AM4 models. A 20% increment over the 3950X doesn't seem to make sense, personally I expected the 3970X to be roughly on par with the 3950X. After re-testing both the 3970X and 3900X three times, the results were consistent. At showtime nosotros though the 3970X and its numerous 'meliorate' cores were clocking higher, that could be a contributing factor but that's all it would be, the jump from 4.ii GHz to 4.v GHz, for instance, is but a 7% frequency increment, and so a 20% heave in performance can't come from frequency alone.

Later on monitoring both CPUs side-by-side, the 3970X operating frequency was just 1% college at 4375 MHz opposed to 4275 MHz for the 3900X. And so mayhap information technology's retentivity bandwidth or enshroud capacity that hands the new Threadripper such massive advantage in this title.

This time in The Partition 2, both the 3970X and 3960X managed to edge out the ane% low performance of the 9900K, while they managed the same 157 fps on average. This also put them roughly on par with the 3950X and 3900X.

The experience was much the same using the Cadre i9-10980XE, equally the 3970X only boosted boilerplate frame charge per unit functioning past five%. When compared to the 2990WX information technology's remarkable how well these 3rd-gen Threadripper CPUs game.

Tom Clancy'southward Ghost Recon Breakpoint isn't the well-nigh CPU demanding game out there, but it's good to see the 3970X and 3960X providing strong performance in this DX11 title.

This time when testing with F1 2022, the Ryzen ix 3950X delivered the best upshot, but the 3rd-gen Threadripper were right upwardly in that location, at most 3 fps down. Both parts were also faster than the 10980XE, though I doubt you'll notice the divergence going from 167 fps on boilerplate to 176 fps.

Oddly, performance in Borderlands 3 is a trivial downwards on the Ryzen 9 parts. The CPUs are still inside what is almost margin or mistake of the 9900K, which is a good result for these 3rd-gen Threadripper CPUs.

Fortnite in its new DirectX 12 style had Threadripper trailing the Ryzen 9 parts by a small margin, this time up to 6% slower on average. The Core i9-9900K was also much faster in this popular title.

Overclocking and Temperatures

Enabling PBO boosts operation past a slim 3-4%. So manually overclocking with 1.35v nosotros were able to fit 4.2 GHz on all cores. At i.4v we could boot into Windows, but the system wasn't 100% stable.

At 4.2 GHz you're looking at a 7% boost in performance for heavy workloads. But since the CPU clocks to around 4.3 GHz when gaming, lighter tasks will have a slight functioning striking.

Every bit for operating temps, the 3970X is fairly easy to cool given how much power those 32-cores consume when fully utilized. After an hour of Blender it peaked at 83 C with the Wraith Ripper air cooler in a 21 C room, which is pretty expert.

The DeepCool Castle 360EX dropped temps downward to but 73 C, though we had to manually embrace the unabridged base of the cooler in paste. With the mill paste information technology hit 80 C.

Then nosotros have the Corsair HydroX with its larger cold plate it was able to drop the peak load temperature by a further 3 degrees. The 3960X ran 5-six degrees cooler, so with a decent AIO yous'll have no problem keeping the 24 C processor cool, even after long periods of heavy load.

Cache Performance

Here's a look at cache performance, just comparing the Threadripper 3970X to the Ryzen 9 3900X. I wonder if this is why the latest Threadripper CPUs do so well in games like Battleground V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider relative to the Ryzen 9 parts. Oddly L3 read performance is well downwards on the 3900X, only we see a 171% increment in write performance.

Nosotros too see a 165% increase in L2 read performance and 177% more than bandwidth when writing. And so for the L1 cache Threadripper enjoys 152% more bandwidth when reading and 165% more when writing. And so the L1 and L2 cache performance has been improved anywhere from 152-177% when compared to the mainstream 12-cadre 3900X and the aforementioned volition also use to the 16-core 3950X.

Price vs. Performance

Based on data from the Puget standard export benchmark in Adobe Premiere. Compared to 2d-gen Threadripper and the 3rd-gen AM4 Ryzen processors, you're certainly paying a hefty premium for new 3rd-gen Threadripper performance.

When compared to Intel's Cascade Lake-X refresh, it'southward bang-up at all. Even at the heavily discounted price tag of $ane,000, the Cadre i9-10980XE struggles to compete, here the 3960X offers more value. The 3970X does command a hefty premium, though information technology's miles better than the 2990WX.

The margins seen in Cinebench R20 were very similar to what was seen in Five-Ray, Blender and Corona, so they're a good representation of the kind of price to performance y'all tin expect to see in these programs.

Shockingly the 3960X offers the same value, or cost to functioning of the Cadre i9-9900K, though it'southward around a 40% markup over the 3rd-gen Ryzen AM4 parts. The 3970X is on par with the Core i9-10980XE and that makes it 31% improve value than the 2990WX.

All-New Loftier-end Desktop Beasts

The new tertiary-gen Threadripper CPUs are incredible, high-end desktop beasts. Unlike previous releases, we run into no weaknesses with splendid unmarried cadre performance, and when you've got 24 or 32 of them, that results in mind-blowing multi-core performance.

With solid operation across the board, the just consequence that remains now is the cost. Information technology'due south not all that surprising that AMD wants to charge $one,400 for the 24-core model and $ii,000 for the 32-core version. The merely reason 1st and second-gen Threadripper CPUs were priced and then competitively, to the caste that information technology appeared AMD were massively undercutting Intel, was because in some situations they were inferior.

In this very review we showed y'all some examples of that. The 10980XE which is a refreshed 9980XE, which was a refreshed 7980XE, was faster than Threadripper 2950X and 2990WX in the 7-zip compression examination, Cinebench R20 single core, Premiere encoding, the Puget playback test, V-ray, and in all of the games.

AMD appealed to many power users with accessible HEDT pricing though. The TR 2950X was $900 at launch and now it'southward downwardly to $680 nearly a year after release. The Intel 9980XE costs near $ii,200 and even the new 10980XE is prepare to be listed for $ane,000. Then clearly AMD offered better value. Equally far as nosotros tin can tell, AMD isn't going to axe 2nd-gen Threadripper just yet either, and they will continue to be aslope the newer and more than expensive 3rd-gen Threadripper parts for the foreseeable futurity.

"A new extreme high-end desktop is built-in"

In our opinion, with third-gen Threadripper AMD is carving a new category beyond what is offered past second-gen and Intel's Pour Lake-X which are more your traditional HEDT parts. A new extreme high-cease desktop is born, and that's particularly true with the announcement of the Threadripper 3990X, the 64-core, 128-thread processor coming next year with 288 MB of cache.

The topology on third-gen TR ensures equal PCIe and DRAM access for all cores, along with a few other optimizations, meaning the 32-core 3970X doesn't suffer the same fate every bit the 2990WX, which saw the 2nd-gen part destroy some tests, but go destroyed in others by lower core count CPUs. Also, while they might not be 'gaming' focused CPUs, that doesn't mean a lot of people will desire to game with them. Those who were slap-up on having a Threadripper auto for video editing and then a separate rig for gaming, you tin at present push button the gaming organization bated and do everything with either the 3960X or 3970X.

AMD's complete line of CPUs is now every bit follows: Ryzen 5 3000 series for mainstream computing and gaming, Ryzen 7 for loftier-end gaming, and Ryzen 9 for high-end gaming and productivity. The 2nd-gen Threadripper parts will become their value HEDT choice although the Ryzen 9 3950X at $750 is an incredibly capable xvi-cadre processor that's arguably the all-time choice for content creators. Especially for those using Premiere, here information technology was just 16% slower than the latest Threadripper and however it costs nearly 50% less.

The Ryzen 9 3950X also renders Intel'due south Cascade Lake-10 kind of pointless. The 16-core AM4 processor is almost always faster than the more expensive Cadre i9-10980XE and when it'due south slower, the margin is slim. The 3950X is also the more consistent performer in games. For those who require more PCIe lanes, the 2950X seems to exist the obvious choice now that it'south cheaper than the 3950X.

One last word to mention we've gained access to a adept number of impressive looking TRX40 motherboards. Nosotros used the Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme for testing, merely we've as well got on mitt the Aorus Master and MSI'southward TRX40 Creator. Asus sent along their ROG Zenith Extreme, another truly incredible looking motherboard, and they've as well mailed over the Strix TRX40-E and Prime TRX40-Pro. We're about to receive the Asrock TRX40 Taichi, and well, we'll likely be testing them all soon in a VRM thermal roundup. At present if AMD would only confirm what they meant exactly with "long-term" TRX40 socket support.