Consider the options: 3950x, 3960x, 10980xe, or the upcoming 4th generation Threadripper.
Consider the options: 3950x, 3960x, 10980xe, or the upcoming 4th generation Threadripper.
I’ve been evaluating my choices for an upgrade. About a week ago I posted about my CPU options, and I settled on the 10980xe for $950. With 48 PCIe lanes it seemed like a solid pick. I looked at AMD’s 3950x and 3960x, but the 3950x only offers 24 lanes while the 3960x is a huge 1400. My concern is whether it makes sense to opt for the cheaper 3950x with fewer lanes, especially since I plan to run a 16GB GPU, a 2TB M.2 drive, and two high-speed USB cards (either 2x or 4x). I’m also thinking about possibly adding a second GPU later, but that seems unlikely. Alternatively, should I go with the 10980xe, which fits my budget, has enough lanes, and includes 18 cores—though it might not match the 3950x’s gaming performance? Or should I save up for the 3960x, boasting 88 lanes and a higher price tag, plus a more expensive motherboard? The last idea is to hold off until the next generation releases, like Gen 4 Threadripper or Intel X-series. I haven’t found much info on those timelines, so any updates would be appreciated. I’m planning to wait until the end of summer, as I’m already eyeing a 1060 6Gb FE upgrade to a 3080 Ti, expected in June. Thanks to anyone who reads my long forum thread and for your time!
I'm utilizing the CPU for processing tasks. The M.2 storage can operate using the chipset and USB cards, while the GPU and another M.2 slot draw power from the CPU lanes.
Have you bought those M.2 units already? Maybe adopting PCIe 4.0 would help regain the lost speed with a reduced number of channels.
The main benefit of the Threadripper 3000 lies in its PCIe 4.0 support and the potential for 56 lanes compared to 48. Using four PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives in RAID 0 offers speed advantages over two PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives. PCIe 4.0 NVMe units tend to be more expensive, often costing twice as much for equivalent performance. There are no other PCIe 4.0 options on the market, and soon new CPU generations will likely adopt it, pushing Intel to update its processors. The TRX40 platform and Threadripper 3000 have their own drawbacks. The UEFI setup is minimal and prone to issues. Manual overclocking options are limited, making fine-tuning difficult. PBO performance falls short. CPUs tend to operate at higher voltages, leading to overheating. Memory overclocking isn’t very effective. The NVMe and SATA RAID configurations are subpar. IOPS lag behind single-drive speeds. Enabling NVMe RAID forces all drives under the controller, including non-RAID ones, requiring the specialized driver which slows performance. RAIDXpert2 runs a dated web interface on your PC, resembling an outdated RAID card from the early 2000s. Despite this, the Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme board remains appealing at $850. It features USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports at the rear and Intel X550-AT2 dual 10 GBE ports. As an XL-ATX model, it needs a large case similar to the Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic XL with minimal radiators to avoid blocking connections. Unless you need 24 cores for intensive tasks, the 3960X and more costly boards aren’t worth it. The 10980XE offers 18 overclockable cores that boost performance across all areas, especially gaming. The EVGA X299 Dark is a top choice at $300, supporting 4200 MHz memory speeds. For advanced overclocking, the MSI X299 Creator costs $600 and delivers 95% of that performance. It’s likely you’re drawn to PCIe 4.0 simply because it’s new, even if its practical value is limited today. Once Intel releases true PCIe 4.0 support, you may wish you had purchased a 3960X.
With these considerations, the 10980xe will likely be the final model built on the x299 platform, making compatible boards rare and costly. This shift means you may want to hold off on the 11980xe for now, as it’s expected to arrive with Gen 4 features soon.
The standard 48 lane boards typically connect only one M.2 slot to the CPU rather than the PCH. With a Hyper M.2 x16 card, you can secure sufficient CPU M.2 slots. The upcoming Intel HEDT will be Ice Lake-X, adopting the Sunny Cove microarchitecture—the first significant shift since Skylake. It should surpass Zen 2 in performance. A completely new Intel HEDT CPU and board are expected next year to match the cost of today’s 3960X CPU. Even next year’s PCIe 4.0 will likely be obsolete.
You’re stuck with only a 10900X available since all chips are sold out. It could take several months before you can find a 10980XE. If Ice Lake-X arrives late in 2020, it might be a few months longer until you can get a board and CPU. It looks like you’re planning to build a desktop or gaming PC that needs extra PCIe slots for expansion. I’d recommend picking the 10900X now and upgrading yearly—perfect for adding more cores or faster speeds. You can overclock it to 4.9 GHz or 5 GHz all-core, making it a strong gaming CPU similar to the 9900K but with PCIe lanes. If you opt for the 10980XE, the extra cores would sit idle most of the time and cost twice as much for the processor. Instead, consider swapping in the cheapest HEDT chip each year, offering 48 PCIe lanes. I’m not interested in the mainstream platform with just 16 PCIe lanes; I always preferred the 40-lane options like the 4820K, which were around $300 back then. The 10900X now matches that value.