AMD 16-Core Ryzen 9 3950X: Up to 4.7 GHz, 105W, Coming September
by Dr. Ian Cutress on June 11, 2019 6:00 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- AMD
- Ryzen
- Zen 2
- Ryzen 3000
- Ryzen 3rd Gen
- Ryzen 9
- 3950X
One of the questions that was left over from AMD’s Computex reveal of the new Ryzen 3000 family was why a 16-core version of the dual-chiplet Matisse design was not announced. Today, AMD is announcing its first 16 core CPU into the Ryzen 9 family. AMD stated that they’re not interested in the back and forth with its competition about slowly moving the leading edge in consumer computing – they want to launch the best they have to offer as soon as possible, and the 16-core is part of that strategy.
The new Ryzen 9 3950X will top the stack of new Zen 2 based AMD consumer processors, and is built for the AM4 socket along with the range of X570 motherboards. It will have 16 cores with simultaneous multi-threading, enabling 32 threads, with a base frequency of 3.5 GHz and a turbo frequency of 4.7 GHz. All of this will be provided in a 105W TDP.
| AMD 'Matisse' Ryzen 3000 Series CPUs | |||||||||||
| AnandTech | Cores Threads |
Base Freq |
Boost Freq |
L2 Cache |
L3 Cache |
PCIe 4.0 |
DDR4 | TDP | Price (SEP) |
||
| Ryzen 9 | 3950X | 16C | 32T | 3.5 | 4.7 | 8 MB | 64 MB | 16+4+4 | ? | 105W | $749 |
| Ryzen 9 | 3900X | 12C | 24T | 3.8 | 4.6 | 6 MB | 64 MB | 16+4+4 | ? | 105W | $499 |
| Ryzen 7 | 3800X | 8C | 16T | 3.9 | 4.5 | 4 MB | 32 MB | 16+4+4 | ? | 105W | $399 |
| Ryzen 7 | 3700X | 8C | 16T | 3.6 | 4.4 | 4 MB | 32 MB | 16+4+4 | ? | 65W | $329 |
| Ryzen 5 | 3600X | 6C | 12T | 3.8 | 4.4 | 3 MB | 32 MB | 16+4+4 | ? | 95W | $249 |
| Ryzen 5 | 3600 | 6C | 12T | 3.6 | 4.2 | 3 MB | 32 MB | 16+4+4 | ? | 65W | $199 |
AMD has said that the processor will be coming in September 2019, about two months after the initial Ryzen 3rd Gen processors, due to extra validation requirements. The chip uses two of the Zen 2 eight-core chiplets, paired with an IO die that provides 24 total PCIe 4.0 lanes. By using the AM4 socket, AMD recommends pairing the Ryzen 9 3950X with one of the new X570 motherboards launched at Computex.
With regards to performance, AMD is promoting it as a clear single-thread and multi-thread improvement over other 16-core products in the market, particularly those from Intel (namely the 7960X).
There are several questions surrounding this new product, such as reasons for the delay between the initial Ryzen 3000 launch to the 3950X launch, the power distribution of the chiplets based on the frequency and how the clocks will respond to the 105W TDP, how the core-to-core communications will work going across chiplets, and how gaming performance might be affected by the latency differences going to the IO die and then moving off to main memory. All these questions are expected to be answered in due course.
Pricing is set to be announced by AMD at its event at E3 today. We’ll be updating this news post when we know the intended pricing.
Update: $749
Related Reading
- AMD Ryzen 3000 Announced: Five CPUs, 12 Cores for $499, Up to 4.6 GHz, PCIe 4.0, Coming 7/7
- AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen 'Matisse' Coming Mid 2019: Eight Core Zen 2 with PCIe 4.0 on Desktop
- AMD: 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper in 2019
- AMD Confirms PCIe 4.0 Not Coming to Older Motherboards (X470, X370, B350, A320)
- ASUS Pro WS X570-Ace: A No-Nonsense All-Black Motherboard with x8/x8/x8
- GIGABYTE Unveils X570 Mini-ITX Motherboard: X570 I Aorus Pro WiFi
- ASRock X570 Aqua: Heaviest AMD Flagship Motherboard Ever (Plus Thunderbolt)
- MSI Unveils the MEG X570 Ace: Black and Gold For AMD 50
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arakan94 - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
depends on your tasks a lot - only memory intensive tasks will be affected.xrror - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
Hopefully AMD would have enough sense to not release it if it was stupidly memory choked.But yea it puts more pressure hoping that the rumors of Ryzen 3xxx having the ability to hit DDR4 5000 speeds it true... but it worries me that it might (probably) takes a 1/2 mult to the infinity fabric to do that. Plus on a 32/64virtual processor you'd need those speeds on >32GB minimum. Yikes
Really looking forward to when the reviewers can get their hands on these and see if memory bandwidth is a concern.
xrror - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
edit: 16:32virtualHul8 - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
Level1Techs demonstrated that the 32-core Threadripper 2990WX was mostly not memory bandwidth starved with 4 memory channels. Instead the widely reported problems at launch were caused by how (badly) Windows handled situations where some cores didn't have direct memory access. AMD alleged it wasn't the scheduler. Still, something in Windows core and memory allocation / migration misbehaved badly, juggling threads between dies when there was no need.Compared to the 2990WX, the 3950X has half the cores and memory channels, only able to run both at higher frequencies and the cores have a higher IPC. Apart from the most memory-hungry (scientific calculation) applications, it's doubtful memory bandwidth is a problem.
rems - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
"The entire lineup will be available on shelves worldwide July 7th"Slash3 - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
"Except for that one."godrilla - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
Recap the 16 core Ryzen 3950x is coming in September everything from Computex AMD event is launching on 7/7/19 including Navi.rems - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
Yeah I completely spaced out the big letters behind her on the product's page :sAshinjuka - Monday, June 10, 2019 - link
Squreface!Once you see it you will never unsee it.
mkaibear - Tuesday, June 11, 2019 - link
Thanks. Now i can't unsee it.*lol*