Review on AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X 64 Thread by Matthew Richards

A monster has been released that can handle multitasking or heavily multithreaded programs with ease! I mainly used this CPU to automate operations that would take much longer on other CPUs with fewer cores. When using all 64 hardware threads, I see a clock speed of 3.8GHz, but this increases to 4.2GHz when using a single thread based on the default settings. (I know I could increase this value if I wanted to.) Threads past 32 seem to be 1/4 faster, so using all 64 threads past 32 results in a 25% increase in net speed. However, if you use all 64 threads, what would normally take an hour on a typical quad-core processor is done in about 8-9 minutes on this beast! The stability was stable. I've never experienced slowdown issues, crashes, blue screens or anything like that. I haven't overclocked much, but I've used Ryzen Master to monitor temperatures and clock speeds, and have considered overclocking for a few tasks. If you're into gaming then this isn't exactly the best processor unless you plan on streaming your game too, with the extra cores allowing for faster and better encoding without sacrificing the game's frame rate. The CPU setup was pretty interesting. It features protrusions on the sides that serve to hold it down so you don't touch the processor itself at all. Basically, you just line it up with the CPU eject hole on the motherboard and gently slide it down, then secure it with the included custom torque screwdriver, which lets you know when you reach 13.5 in-lbs of torque when it's up clicks Please note that this processor is supplied without a cooler. For the power consumption and required cooling, I strongly recommend a liquid-cooled setup. Properly installing the radiator fan would be too cumbersome and cause problems for future upgrades. The 3970X uses a lot of power. When my system is idle, I see that my UPS is reporting 160-180W of power consumption (excluding the 30W from the display). When this CPU is only processing numbers under full load and all 64 threads are being used, I see it jump to around 400-430W. If you get a high-end graphics card, this increases even further. You definitely need a power supply with at least 750 W, preferably 850 to 1000 W. The biggest weak point is of course the price. However, for what this processor can do and the processing power it has, it's worth the money if you're the type that multitasks heavily or uses multithreaded programs a lot.