Consider the options: 3950x, 3960x, 10980xe, or the upcoming 4th generation Threadripper.
Consider the options: 3950x, 3960x, 10980xe, or the upcoming 4th generation Threadripper.
The problems lie in the fact that Threadripper requires boards priced over $700 and begins at $1400 for the CPU alone. AMD’s top choice is the 3950x with just 24 PCIe lanes. Intel’s HEDT remains the sole option currently offering more than 24 lanes, strong core counts, and prices under $1000. I’m looking for a CPU that can last several years, and while the 7980xe has proven reliable over time, I prefer investing in something with longevity rather than a short-lived platform. If I won’t need to swap chips for three and a half years, I’m unsure which chipset will still be available then. It feels like betting on a dying technology, but supporting something that can endure.
Let's see: "The only advantage of Threadripper 3000 is PCIe 4.0 and maybe 56 vs 48 PCIe lanes. There are no other PCIe 4.0 devices and by the time there are, there will be a new generation of CPUs and Intel will have PCIe 4.0." AFAIK you can split PCIe 4.0 lanes to twice the lanes but PCIe 3.0. "4x PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives in RAID 0 are faster than 2x PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives. PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives are overpriced at 2x the cost for the same capacity." You can just RAID 0 4 PCIe 4.0 drives (ASUS even makes an updated Hyper M.2 card specifically for that). That's like saying since 4-Way 1080 Ti SLI is faster than 2 way 2080 Ti SLI, nobody should buy 2080 Tis. Yeah they are very expensive and not practical for most people since trickle down hasn't happened yet. If you need the speed you need the speed though, the fact that they cost a lot isn't really a reason for the Threadripper platform being bad. "The UEFI is barebones and buggy." How so? Seen no complaints from people I know with the hardware in-hand. "Manual overclocking is poor with limited settings to tweak." Settings are fine, clock overhead is not due to architecture limitations. If you're an avid overclocker (I am), that's a mark against them. If you're a normal person then it literally does not matter. "PBO is subpar. The CPUs run high voltages and overheat." Had voltage issues at launch only for consumer chips, I have seen very glowing reviews specifically mentioning how Threadripper did not suffer from this and was an incredibly smooth launch for an HEDT platform. PBO is amazing, calling it subpar is an actual lie. These CPUs are incredibly fucking icy for the core counts, do you know anything about HEDT? They can get toasty under PBO, but that's because PBO will use all the voltage and temp ceiling possible in order to boost the CPU, it will won't go over max temps. I suppose they'd be hot if you put a 280W TDP chip on a not-280W TDP cooler but like... what did you expect? Do you sit in fires and get mad they burned you too? "Memory overclocking is poor." What? Friend runs 8 fucking DIMMs with a 3970X at 3733Mhz CL16. Not 4, full fat 8 DIMMs. That's damn impressive for any HEDT platform. "The NVMe and SATA RAID implementation is poor. The IOPS are slower than a single drive. When you enable NVMe RAID, it forces all NVMe drives under the NVMe RAID controller including single non-RAID drives. You have to use the NVMe RAID driver to access even non-RAID drives. The driver is garbage and slows down even single drives. The RAIDXpert2 software runs a web server on your PC for its GUI like an obsolete RAID card from the 2000's." I have seen 0 complaints about RAID on these lol. You're gonna talk about RAID and then recommend X299? "That said, the Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme board is tempting even at $850. It has only USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports at the back, and Intel X550-AT2 dual 10 GBE ports. It's an XL-ATX board and requires a huge case like the Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic XL with < 40 mm thick radiators to not block the connectors. Unless you really need 24 cores for rendering, the 3960X and an expensive board are a waste of money." Yes... feature rich boards with shitloads of hardware are large, massive surprise. HEDT is expensive unless you need the compute performance? Duh? That's a major part of why it exists.... do you know anything about HEDT? "The 10980XE has 18 highly overclockable cores that are faster at everything, especially gaming." No. Faster at gaming and AFAIK AVX-512 workloads. Everywhere else the TR3000 chips fucking spank Intel. Even with a higher OC on the Intel chips. Intel's main advantage for now is AVX-512 being their thing, and lower core to core and RAM latency, which is why they still win in games when tuned. AMD has a better IPC and it's good enough that they can beat Intel on pure single core with much lower clocks. Their clock headroom does suck, but again unless you're an OC fanatic, you literally won't care. "The best overlocking motherboard, the EVGA X299 Dark, only costs $300 and can do 4200 MHz on the memory. A more feature rich board like the MSI X299 Creator costs $600 and is 95% as good for overclocking." Yes, mobos are cheaper. That's like one actual point lol. "I suspect the only reason you are tempted is because you want the latest and greatest PCIe 4.0 even though it's practically useless today. The moment Intel comes out with PCIe 4.0, you'll regret your decision to buy a 3960X." Why? It's an excellent CPU if you wanna actually do HEDT stuff. Intel's HEDT now fits in a very small niche, given that performance wise, the 3950X can compete in many workloads with a 10980XE, and TR3000 destroys Intel's chips in the majority of workloads. Basically it makes sense if: You're a hardcore OC Enthusiast (or that and a gamer) but don't wanna fuck around with tweaking PBO and RAM on Zen arches You need more PCIe lanes than a 3950X can offer, but do not need the increased CPU performance from TR3000/don't have the budget for it @Quadrum what is your actual workload?
I’m working on several projects. My focus is music production, so PCIe lanes are essential—I need around 40 or fewer, but 24 won’t be enough. I also play VR games and feel confident overclocking the chips I choose to achieve top performance, especially with custom watercooling. The 3960x costs about $1,400 while the 10940x is around $800. On Geekbench, the 10940x scores roughly 14,800 points compared to the 3960x’s 19,700. That extra 4,700 points don’t justify the $600 premium. If you combined a 10940x with a 7700K, you’d likely get better multicore results than the 3960x. For reliability and longevity, I’m targeting an X299. It fits my budget, offers solid single-core performance similar to the stock 9900K, and I expect it to last 3–4 years for my needs. A 10940x is within my price range while giving me the multicore power I require for music production and light video work. If I could afford everything, I’d pick a Threadripper, but budget and reliability push me toward the Blue series right now. Thanks for the advice!
Intel's edge over AMD in music production mainly comes from audio path delays. While I'm not deeply involved in this area, many professionals have pointed it out as an issue for DAWs when Zen was introduced. I wouldn't rush to a TR3 system without hearing from someone who actually uses one. The X299 model stands out due to AVX-512 support, pricing considerations, and some niche optimizations—though that last point is a bit of a stretch. X399 (TR2) offers great value today thanks to its TR2xxx chips. It's clear this path isn't endless, and the TRX40 shines if you prioritize compute power and Intel-specific tweaks, especially with AVX-512 and possibly better audio latency. The chipset on TRX40 supports 8x PCIe4.0 or similar speeds, which is significant for handling multiple drives and devices at once. As someone who uses X58, I see the limitations of relying solely on a single PCIe 2.0 connection—bandwidth constraints can really hinder performance.