Cadre i9 Killer: Who Is It For?

That was a lot of information but information technology all indicated one thing: total domination by AMD's new Threadripper processors. Their just weakness was gaming merely in that location's really no signal in ownership Threadripper for that. If your goal is great gaming performance and yous accept $1,000 to spend on a processor, get the $340 Core i7-7700K and pocket the change for the best GPU y'all can afford. The 7700K is significantly cheaper and much ameliorate suited for gaming.

The reason I've recommended the Ryzen 5 1600 over the i7-7700K in the by is because it'southward a much cheaper part ($215) on a more affordable platform, and it volition deliver the same experience for 90% of gamers out there. So over again, while the 7700K is the best selection if yous want the ultimate gaming experience with maximum frame rates, Ryzen makes more than sense in terms of value.

So Threadripper may non be ideal for gaming but it's still capable and it's likely much better than Intel'southward Xeon Gilded 6130 for example, a $1,900 16-core/32-thread server chip that operates at a base frequency of only 2.1GHz.

But enough well-nigh gaming, as that conspicuously isn't the point of these 12-core and 16-core CPUs. Productivity is what matters here and for serious workloads Ryzen has already proven to be a beast. Threadripper takes things to a new level, though.

We now accept a $1,000 processor from AMD and compared to the competition it'south actually worth the request cost. Grand dollar desktop processors have been around for some time now, but it's been a while since nosotros've seen such an expensive solution from AMD. Threadripper certainly offers the best bang for your buck in this category.

Looking back at Broadwell-E, Haswell-E, Ivy Bridge-E and and so on, Intel has been hands down the best choice for ability users for the simple fact that they were the only choice. Intel has won by default over the past five-plus years.

Back when Intel had no competition, the pricing of early Extreme Edition CPUs bothered me, just how can you complain when there'due south no alternative? By the time Haswell-E came around, nosotros'd kind of accepted the $1,000 request price for a flagship Intel part, which at the fourth dimension was an eight-cadre/16-threaded flake. And then Broadwell-Due east came around and Intel couldn't imagine a globe where they would render to facing stiff competition, then they went wild with pricing and nosotros concluded upwardly with the outrageous $1,700 6950X.

Now, Skylake-X and the X299 platform are not bad. Yes, in that location are a few caput-scratching aspects, but overall they're adept products. The problem is with their price, or at to the lowest degree how that shakes out when y'all compare information technology to operation. Skylake-X has as well improved value-wise, but as we said previously when comparing the 7820X and R7 1700, we've kind of just gone from stupid pricing to a lilliputian less stupid. Meanwhile, AMD has been more than aggressive setting the Ryzen 7 beautifully, and Threadripper continues that strategy.

Considering of pricing, core count becomes somewhat irrelevant: the Core i9-7900X and Threadripper 1950X both have a lot of cores and they both toll a yard. The key difference beingness that the 1950X often delivers 20-30% more performance while consuming almost 10% less ability nether total load.

In a nutshell, for the aforementioned price you lot go more CPU functioning, lower power consumption and improved operating temperatures with Threadripper, so why would you buy the Core i9-7900X over the 1950X?

Intel recently appear the specs for its upcoming 12, 14, sixteen and eighteen-cadre Skylake-X parts. At a guess, I would say consumers volition need to spend at to the lowest degree $i,400 on the i9-7940X to match AMD'southward 1950X and I seriously dubiety the 40% price premium will exist worth it.

The X299 platform'south lack of ECC memory back up is some other issue. Whereas Threadripper supports ECC, the Skylake-10 chips don't and that means anyone serious most their workstation won't even consider Intel's high-stop desktop platform. Unless Intel is willing to budge on pricing I can't run into why anyone would invest in X299.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Amazon, Newegg
  • Ryzen Threadripper 1920X Amazon, Newegg

At the beginning of 2022, who would accept thought we'd encounter AMD degrade Intel at the very top of the high-end desktop CPU segment. It certainly wasn't united states of america, but nosotros're glad we can await forward to some competition. It'southward an exciting time to be a PC enthusiast.

Pros: The Threadripper 1920X offers more performance, uses less power and runs cooler than the Core i9-7900X. It as well supports ECC memory (Intel'south X299 platform doesn't). Compared to the Ryzen 7 1800X, the 1920X touts quad-channel memory support and more PCIe lanes.

Cons: The $1,000 Threadripper 1950X is competitively priced but nonetheless comes at a hefty premium. Threadripper falls a tad behind when it comes to gaming.