AMD releases Ryzen 9 3950X with 16 cores on November 25

AMD’s Ryzen 9 3950X will be released on November 25. The processor with 16 cores has a speed of 3.5GHz and a maximum turbo speed of 4.7GHz when using one core. The processor works after a bios update on existing X570 motherboards.

The Ryzen 9 3950X processor works in motherboards equipped with Agesa version 1.0.0.4. AMD has already started distributing this update and motherboard manufacturers are incorporating it in bios updates. AMD does not include a cooler with the Ryzen 9 3950X. That is striking, because the manufacturer does supply coolers with all other Ryzen 3000 processors. AMD recommends water cooling for the top model, although the tdp with 105W is the same as that of the Ryzen 9 3900X, which comes with an air cooler.

According to AMD, the new processor with 16 cores is optimized for PhD water coolers with a 280mm radiator or larger. The manufacturer will put a list of recommended PhD coolers on its website. Incidentally, AMD uses a Noctua DH-15S air cooler for its own tests and benchmarks with the processor.

The Ryzen 9 3950X not only has the most cores, but also the highest maximum clock speed of any processor in the Ryzen 3000 series. According to AMD, the single-core performance is about 1 percent better than that of the Ryzen 9 3900X, the 12-core variant that was the fastest to date.

AMD is releasing the Ryzen 9 with 16 cores for a suggested retail price of $749. That price was already announced at the launch in June. At the time, the manufacturer talked about a release in September, but that was postponed.

AMD also announces that an Eco-Mode will be available in the Ryzen Master software. It will work for all Ryzen processors with Zen 2 cores. Users can thereby lower the tdp one ‘step on the ladder’. For example, the Ryzen 9 3950X can be set to 65 instead of 105W and a Ryzen 7 3700X can be set to 45 instead of 65W. In this mode, the CPUs perform less, but according to the manufacturer, consumption is considerably lower.

AMD also presents the Athlon 3000G, which is a dual-core with a clock speed of 3.5GHz and a built-in Vega 3 GPU. This processor still has Zen+ cores made at 12nm. The Athlon 3000G can be overclocked and AMD supplies the chip with a cooler that can cool 55W CPUs, while the CPU has a TDP of 35W. That should make it possible to overclock with the supplied cooler; AMD itself shows results with the processor running at 3.9GHz and says that this should be feasible for all users.

According to AMD, the CPU cores of the new Athlon processor are clocked 300MHz higher than those of last year’s Athlon 200GE and the Vega 3 GPU is clocked 100MHz higher. At the end of last year, AMD already released the Athlon 240GE, which, like the new model, has a clock speed of 3.5GHz.

AMD positions the processor against the Intel Pentium G5400, which is in the Pricewatch for about 60 euros. According to AMD’s own benchmarks, the Athlon with its Vega 3 GPU achieves 63fps in Fortnite and 150fps in CS:GO; in both cases, that’s at the 720p resolution. According to AMD, the Intel processor achieves 35 and 90 fps respectively in those benchmarks. The Athlon 3000G will be released on November 19 for $49.

AMD also announced its third-generation Threadripper processors on Thursday. For the time being, it concerns two models: the 3970X and the 3960X. The hedt processors have 32 and 24 cores respectively, and cost 1999 and 1399 dollars. The new Threadrippers will also be released on November 25th.