Review of AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X, with 24/32 cores on 7nm: they beat Intel chips across many benchmarks, especially on parallel computing tasks
AnandTech : Thanks: @anandtech
Context & Ripple Effects
A year after the Threadripper 2990WX won only on a narrow set of workloads, AnandTech's review of the 3960X and 3970X shows the 7nm refresh winning across many benchmarks rather than just niche ones, with parallel computing the clearest margin. Days later, Engadget's take was blunter: with these two chips, AMD is comfortably ahead of Intel in high-end desktop and workstation CPUs, and pulling further away.
First-order effects
- Workstation buyers in rendering and scientific computing get a new default choice: the 24-core 3960X and 32-core 3970X displace Intel's parts at the top of AnandTech's benchmark tables.
- Intel's high-end desktop lineup loses its last defensible position — per Engadget's follow-up, the competition is no longer close on these chips.
Second-order effects
- The core-count race escalates within months: AMD's own roadmap answers the demand these reviews surface with the 64-core Threadripper 3990X, which pushes rendering and scientific performance further while matching the 32-core part elsewhere.
- Intel is forced to compete on price and platform rather than raw throughput in the segment it long owned, since no contemporary Intel chip matches these multi-threaded results in the reviewed comparisons.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the workstation market re-ranks around AMD's cadence: four years later, the Threadripper 7000 series review found the 7980X both better and cheaper than Intel's Sapphire Rapids Xeon W9-3495X, suggesting the 2019 crossover became a durable leadership position rather than a one-generation win.
The trend: High-end desktop CPUs are shifting from an Intel-held premium segment to one where AMD sets the core-count and price-performance pace generation after generation.