 I don't know what kind of products the Intel shill in that other video might have told you about, but AMD is also releasing a pair of flagship CPUs today. The Threadripper 3960X and 3970X with 24 and 32 Zen 2 cores respectively. With this much horsepower and more performance per clock than Intel's current offerings, the question today isn't will AMD win, but rather how much will AMD embarrass their opponent in this heavyweight showdown. Today's sponsor Privacy.com lets you buy things like CPUs online using virtual cards that help protect your privacy. They've rolled out a few new product options, so check those out and get $5 to spend on your first purchase when you sign up below. Threadripper 3000 is an intimidating lineup for Team Blue to compete against right now. Utilizing 7nm die chiplets based on AMD's much improved Zen 2 architecture, with a central I.O. die that handles communication to the T-Rex 40 chipset, we're looking at not only a more powerful CPU than the previous best Threadripper 2990WX, but potentially a more scalable one too. I mean if the battle didn't already look uphill enough, check out the conspicuously chiplet sized gaps on the outer edges of the processor. And also the conspicuously missing 3990 skew. But speculation on possible future processors aside, moving to Zen 2 means more scalability today. We get an upgrade from PCIe Gen 3 to Gen 4 and support for higher memory speeds, and this is a big deal. The new core layout and faster Infinity Fabric interconnect means that the new Threadrippers no longer need to choose between uniform and non-uniform memory access. By default, these CPUs are now a single NUMA node with little or no performance ramifications under most circumstances. That is absolutely great news for enthusiasts who like to be able to quickly change gears from rendering a big project to running a game or two. There is a spot of bad news though. While technically AMD's new socket T-Rex 4 is the same as the previous socket TR4 with a couple of tweaks, in spite of the physical similarity, it is actually completely incompatible as a result of AMD changing the functions of some of the pins in order to improve the trace pathing and provide a more stable platform for both PCIe Gen 4 and potential future CPUs. And I guess that sounds reasonable enough to us, but the thing is we didn't drop 300 plus dollars on a motherboard expecting several generations of upgrade options. So we can understand why some people are a little miffed. But come on guys, bigger picture here because this is a huge upgrade. The T-Rex 4D chipset on these new boards is exactly as powerful as it sounds. It includes 16 usable PCIe Gen 4 lanes through its double wide 8-lane link to the CPU. To put that in perspective, that is four times the link speed we had before, meaning that the total number of usable PCI Express lanes jumps from 60 to 72. And given that most current devices are still Gen 3, even if you were to use all of those chipset provided lanes, you'll probably still never feel restricted, just like I don't feel restricted by my underwear. LTT store.com Finally, because we're now on Zen 2, that means we have control over the Infinity Fabric clock as well as access to a wider range of supported memory speeds. Like Ryzen 3000, Threadripper 3000 comes with DDR4-3200 memory support out of the box, with some asterisks depending on the configuration. So depending on how much RAM you have installed, the sweet spot looks about the same as it is on Ryzen 3rd gen. DDR4-3600. So that's what we used across all of our competitors today except where it wasn't feasible. We've included the top-end consumer chips from both teams and we threw in the newly released Core i9 10980 XE. So without further ado, wait, hold on a second, that can't be right. Yo Anthony! Did you know your Cinebench R20 numbers are closing in on the 64-core epic? Yeah, they're supposed to be. Um, right. Well, as it turns out ladies and gentlemen, faster threads and faster memory make a big old difference. And as we move through our testing, we actually found nearly linear scaling from the 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X in tasks that can utilize every core all the way up to the top-end 3970X. Not to mention that the 3970X was almost even in single threaded applications too. So if there was any doubt left in your mind, these results make it clear that AMD's adjustments to the platform as a whole have enabled them to make Threadripper, a hitherto exotic and sometimes temperamental platform, into something much more polished and impressive. Even tasks that traditionally don't scale that well with more threads due to the NUMA barriers that existed before, such as Adobe Premiere, seem to be able to take better advantage of the additional resources. That doesn't necessarily transfer over to gaming, but thanks to that IPC advantage and most games being able to fit onto a single CCD, we're still seeing performance far and above what the previous-gen Threadrippers were capable of, bringing us to a generally acceptable level of performance across the board, something the old Threadrippers weren't always able to claim. As for thermals, they were controlled pretty well, all things considered. Our sustained temperatures did hit 82 degrees during the Gooseberry Blender render, but guys, come on, this is with all cores, 32 of them, at 3.9 GHz or higher, and remember guys, this is on air cooling. On our single-threaded Cinebench run, all of our Threadrippers stayed close to their rated max turbo speeds, though in the end, never actually quite reaching them, and as for power consumption, the much more aggressive core clocks are definitely reflected in these measurements, with the 3960 and 3970X drawing the same peak and sustained power, actually, in spite of the core count difference between them. Both of them, it is notable here, drew far more power than their predecessors, which actually end up seeming downright conservative by comparison. So guys, you're definitely gonna want a decent cooler to get the most out of your 3rd-gen Threadripper, and you're gonna need something pretty exotic if you have any hope of overclocking. All in all, I think it goes without saying that AMD's increased asking price for these 24-core and 32-core CPUs over last gen is supported by the performance gains we've seen here today, but I said it anyway, because otherwise, how would we make time to show you this lovely graph that Anthony spent so much time on? As for whether or not you should buy one, though, well, answer me this. First, how much are you willing to pay for high performance? The Threadripper 3960X isn't quite as big a spend compared to the 3970X, but both of them are much more expensive than either the Ryzen 9 3950X or the Core i9 10980XC, and neither of these Threadrippers truly justifies a 100% price premium over those chips' performance. But then, here's question number two. How much is your time worth? In our timed tests, there are some significant savings to be had here, and it might be that, especially if you use your computer for work, your time is in fact worth a lot more to you than the buy-once-cry-once that a higher-end CPU purchase entails. Of course, these are Halo products, and I imagine most of you who aren't working professionals who need these kinds of threads won't be buying $1,000-plus CPUs, so guys, make sure that you're subscribed so you don't miss our more realistic holiday buyers guide for CPU, as well as the ones that are coming for GPUs and systems across multiple budgets. Conclusion, then. AMD seems to be on top of the world right now, but while that must really sting for Intel, it may not be curtains for them just yet. Make sure you check out our video on the Core i9-10980XC down below once you're done here, so you get the full story. Because guys, there it is. There is more to this chip than meets the eye. Get it? It's a Transformers reference, because the 7980XC transformed into the 9980XC, which transformed into the... Never mind, you guys get it. And there's more to this segue that meets the eye. It's Black Friday time at Drop.com. The Massdrop and Sennheiser collaboration HD 6XX open back headphones have sold over 80,000 units. They're an all-time bestseller on Drop.com, and why not? They've got the same great sound as the HD 650s with a few updates, which means balanced mid-range, natural sounding bass, and of course, parts that are interchangeable with others in the Sennheiser series. They come with a 1 1⁄8 inch plug for everyday use and a quarter inch adapter for professional use, as well as Sennheiser's own warranty support. For the Black Friday sale, you get these for 200 bucks. Dang, not bad. Also your choice for a free set of ear pads, so click the link below to buy them on Drop.com. So thanks again for watching. Hope you guys enjoyed the video. Make sure you are subscribed. See ya. LTTstore.com Look, you can even wear them like this if you're into that.