AMD Threadripper vs Intel Core i9: The best CPUs do battle - redmonprecalf

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Intel's Core i9 and AMD's Ryzen Threadripper are lining off in the toughest CPU match in years. Historically, if you hot the fastest PC poker chip, you bought Intel. If you wanted to salve money, you went with AMD. With Threadripper, AMD claims you can have it all: a low price,and the best carrying into action.

We pitted both chips against each other in a grudge match… and all walked away claiming victory. If you're obsessed with single-rib performance (including games), back the Core i9 and its higher clock speeds. Threadripper 1950X's oversized CORE count punches manner high in multithreaded performance, though, and it's the people's champion in everyday tasks and price.

Core i9 vs. Threadripper: The tale of the tape

Typical comparisons between ii chips churn down to damage versus performance (operating room "speeds and feeds," as information technology's often titled). We don't usually test every crisp in a family, but we'll go over flagships. And our judgement of Intel's Core i9 and AMD's Ryzen Threadripper can help you determine which, if either, of these top chips is Charles Frederick Worth is worth its price. AMD and Intel can align pricing at any meter, so you may want to review Intel's official price list or buy up an AMD splintering from its online fund.

core i9 threadripper comparison graphic — A summary of AMD Ryzen Threadripper and Intel Core i9 specifications, including the price at the time of writing.

Spec-for-spec, AMD earns the vantage on price, with its Threadripper chips costing from $549 to $999. Intel's Meat i9 chips are far more expensive, with prices soaring to $1,999.

Intel's pros include a broader diversity of Core i9 processors, plus a chip with more cores than anything AMD offers. Intel chips are also to a greater extent power-efficient.

The critical clock-speed metric is a mixed bag: AMD's Threadripper offers higher basic clocks, but can't follow with the Core i9 when clock speeds are boosted under load. Both the Core i9 and Threadripper derive unlocked, and then overclocking is a viable option.

threadripper 1 — AMD's Threadripper is out nowadays, and features up to 16 cores and 32 threads of compute power.

AMD Threadripper

For now, AMD officially offers three Threadripper chips:

Ryzen Threadripper 1950X ($999 on Amazon): 16 cores, 32 threads; 3.4GHz base clock, 4GHz boosted clock
Ryzen Threadripper 1920X ($799 connected Amazon): 12 cores, 24 threads; 3.5GHz base time, 4GHz boosted clock
Ryzen Threadripper 1900X ($549): 8 cores, 16 threads; 3.8GHz infrastructure clock, 4GHz boosted clock

The Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X launched happening Grand 10, along with X399 motherboards. The 8-core Threadripper 1900X volition launch on Honorable 31.

If Threadripper'sofficial chips are too princely for your blood, take center: There seems to be a slower, possibly cheaper Threadripper en route. The Threadripper 1920 (no "X") is also a 12-core, 24-thread mainframe, though it's clocked slightly lower than its cousin: 3.2GHz, boosting to 3.8GHz. It appears to consume less power (140W) compared to the 180W of other Threadripper "X" chips.

Intel's possess chip breakdown is a bit messier. Completely of Intel's Nucleus i9 chips are predicated along the Skylake computer architecture, known atomic number 3 Skylake-X. But some of the slower chips are branded CORE i7. If you'd like to know more about those, our original Core i9 news story breaks it down far. Here, we're sticking to the Core i9 brand.

Intel Core i9

Here's a summary of Intel's Kernel i9 chips, complete with the Essence i9 clock speeds Intel recently unconcealed:

Core i9-7980XE ($1,999): 18 cores, 36 threads; 2.6GHz basic time, 4 GHz-4.4-Gigacycle per second boosted clock

Core i9-7960X ($1,699): 16 cores, 32 threads; 2.8GHz base clock, 4.2GHz-4.4GHz boosted clock

Core i9-7940X ($1,399): 14 cores, 28 threads; 3.1GHz base clock, 4.3GHz-4.4GHz boosted time

Core i9-7920X ($1,199): 12 cores, 24 threads; 2.9GHz base clock, 4.3GHz-4.4GHz boosted clock

Core i9-7900X ($999, Oregon $1,059 on Newegg): 10 cores, 20 threads; 3.3GHz post clock, 4.3GHz-4.5GHz boosted clock

Eastern Samoa of early Grand, only the Intel Core i9-7900X is shipping. The 12-core Core i9-7920X launches on August 28, while the 14-, 16-, and 18-core Marrow i9 chips send on September 25.

The Pith i9 consumes less king than Threadripper: The highest-final stage i9-7980XE, i9-7960X, and i9-7940X eat up 165W, while the Core i9-7920X and i9-7900X have 140W.

Reviews: Core i9, Threadripper

As you might expect, the Core i9 outperforms everything that Intel has previously successful—and because Intel has outperformed AMD for the past few old age, you might expect Intel to remain on top of the heap. In point of fact, Intel says the Core i9-7980XE is its offse consumer CPU to hit nonpareil teraflop of performance.

intel core i9 x series skylake — Intel's Core i9 is its most reigning consumer PC processor ever so.

"You can only conclude that the new Core i9-7900X is the fastest consumer CPU ever produced past Intel," Gordon Mah Ung says in PCWorld's review of the Core i9. "There's just nary disceptation."

Unfortunately for Intel, Threadripper is putting up a fight. As Gordon Mah Ung writes in PCWorld's Threadripper review: Threadripper is "arguably the most almighty consumer CPU ever so unleashed upon mankind."

Indeed, Threadripper blows away the Nucleus i9 in multithreaded applications, such as rendering or video conversion. Lag, the Core i9 performs higher happening games and applications that are coded for single-threaded operation. Preceptor't desperation, AMD gamers: Even afterward a hard day's work rendering 3D objects or converting video, the new Threadripper's Game Mode helps elevate gaming performance to levels where the difference betwixt the deuce chips is negligible.

Alike to the Ryzen chips we've reviewed previously, Threadripper offers capitalistic performance at a very capitalist price. Right now, if you buy a top-of-the-note Threadripper, you can purchase a top-notch graphics card to go with it in front you equal the price of a Core i9. Price weighsprecise heavily in Threadripper's appeal, flatbottomed before we allow its wholesome operation.

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Non surprisingly, we've had our own public and not-thusly-world discussions about which chip will dominate, Threadripper Beaver State the Core i9. The Overloaded Nerd crew Sabbatum pop in July to have information technology outgoing:

We've also debated whether a cheaper AMD Threadripper made sense.

Finally, here's a bit more on the Core i9 launch:

Chipset and motherboard support

The chipsets used by the Core i9 and Threadripper chips are slightly disorienting, because they'atomic number 75 thusly similarly named: AMD's Threadripper uses the AMD X399 chipset, while Intel's Kernel i9 chips function the Intel X299 chipset.

Neither chipset has a compatibility vantage. Intel's X299 chipset uses Socket R4, a 2,066-displace LGA socket. AMD's X399, meanwhile, uses a 4,094-bump LGA socket, known A TR4, that's, in a word, massive.

Neither Threadripper nor the Core i9 is compatible with other products from the same manufacturer: Threadripper chips can't be used connected Ryzen boards, and Intel's Core i9 chips arenot backward-compatible with extant Skylake or Kaby Lake motherboards.

aorus x299 hero — G's Aorus Gaming motherboard for the Intel X299 chipset.

Intel's X299 chipset offers these benefits:

Up to 44 lanes of PCI Express Gen. 3 (enabling two x16 or four x8 graphics card game)
Quad-conduct DDR4 2666 retention
Intel's improved Turbo Boost Max Engineering science 3.0, connected the Core i7-7820X and above
The X299 features up to eight SATA 3.0 ports, and increases the USB 3.0 port count to 10, compared with the six ports its predecessor, the X99 chipset, in use.

We have some inside information connected the Core i9 X299 motherboards that have been announced, from Asus, MSI, G, ASRock, and EVGA. Prices look like they vary quite a bit, from $200 along equal to even $500.

asrock x399 fata1ty gaming — ASRock's Fata1ty gaming motherboard for AMDs x399 chipset for its Threadripper CPU.

AMD's X399 chipset offers the following advantages:

A round 66 lanes of PCIe Gen 3.0 expansion. (Threadripper supports 64 PCIe lanes, only the board seller can use an additional two, AMD notes in a footnote to its TR4 chopine.)
Multi-GPU documentation (SLI and CrossFire)
Quad-channel DDR4 DRAM 2666 support
12 SATA ports
14 USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (5Gbps), two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports (10Gbps), 6 USB 2.0 ports

We've rounded up some of the early Threadripper X399 motherboards. While price does vary a fleck, the immature boards have been priced in the intoxicated-$300 to low-$400 grasp. Roughly of Threadripper's price vantage could be offset by a motherboard purchase if you Don River't shop forward.

So far, we've avoided diving low-spirited too deeply into the domestic architectures of apiece chip shot. What's the point? Because true-world reviews let ou each chip's true performance, there's no sense getting bogged downhearted within the hypotheticals.

Simply at that place are other factors you should consider when choosing between Core i9 and Threadripper: some pros, some cons, and different considerations. Countenance's flavor at AMD's chip first.

Prime, there's the heat up spreader. Threadripper's heat spreader is large, enough and then that AMD has inserted a pair of "dummy" chips (discovered by a "delidder" enthusiast) in the CPU just to structurally support the heat spreader.

ryzen threadripper socket 2 — The Ryzen Threadripper's massive TR4 socket.

Does that mean that you won't be able-bodied to buy a proper cooling solution for the Threadripper? No. Patc Threadripper will not ship with an included liquid state-cooler as had been reported, it will include a square bracket adaptor that works with most liquid coolers.

AMD also believes you'll have plenty of cooling solutions to choose from. (And you'll need one—neither the Core i9 nor the Threadripper can be passively cooled.) Budget in about $120 for a molten tank, contingent your choice. About Threadripper cooling solutions are already available from Newegg.

If you don't want to build your possess Threadripper PC, there's only indefinite big PC builder that volition offer information technology at first: Alienware. Alienware has the worldwide exclusive on Threadripper systems among large PC manufacturers, though many a smaller U.S. boutique builders will offer IT every bit well. AMD told the States you should theoretically be capable to anatomy a Threadripper system with up to 1TB of memory when 128GB Atomic number 103-DIMMs are used—hopefully enough to hold you for a couple of years. (AMD also says Threadripper should technically be competent to support up to 2TB of Cram, although the company hasn't validated this because on that point are no DIMMs that support the capacity yet.)

ryzen threadripper box 5 — If you'rhenium into packaging, the Threadripper certainly has one of the best in its sort.

Alienware's famous for its gaming PCs, and that leads us to the adjacent potential pain point: the Game Mode AMD built on top of Threadripper is a trivial unclear. Back Mode essentially "switches off" unity of the 8-core chips within the package, becausesome games simply can't handle the number of CPU cores Threadripper supplies. But otherspractice neediness the extra cores and retentiveness bandwidth, so Game Mode may have to be switched on and soured almost on a per-game basis. We recommend that you read our full Threadripper review for more, and then experimentation with Game Mode for best results.

At last, the way in which AMD has assembled Threadripper—connecting two 8-core dies conjointly with its Eternity Fabric—should let to a greater extent manufacturing flexibility than Intel's monolithic die approach. In other language: more chips available. Hypothetically, you shouldn't take in to worry about a sudden run on Threadripper depleting all of the free supply.

That's grand, as we're already starting to see some shortages of Core i9 chips. In our pricing summary above, you probably noticed that the actual Price of the Core group i9-7900X was high than the leaning price. That's an indicant that customers are buying in the lead the available supply, and shortages are driving up the Mary Leontyne Pric.

Core i9 buyers will credibly need to take just about guardianship—and cash—in crafting a organisation if they desire to overclock, too. Techspot tried overclocking with Intel's CORE i9-7900X and base that even out a premium cooler produced unacceptable temperatures. A more satisfactory frame cost an additional $400 in cooling uncomparable.

Our finis

And the winner is… neither??!! No, non incisively. But we want to boost you to reckon hard before spending hundreds of dollars connected a chip you power not ask, regardless of its affiliation. As my colleague, Gordon Mah Ung, points knocked out, the price difference between an AMD Threadripper and a Ryzen chip, or a Core i9 and the more general Core group i7/i5 chips, keister comprise important: hundreds of dollars in memory, a new motherboard, a large power supply and cooling solution, and possibly even a larger case. Make you truly need a Ferrari when a Toyota will get you to play each daylight?

One trouble both Threadripper and Core i9 will face is actually finding apps that scale to their high meat counts. Now, you're lucky if you can find an app, let alone a game, that can soak the 16 threads of an 8-core Heart i7 or Ryzen 7. While testing Intel's 10-core Nitty-gritty i7 and an 18-core Xeon, we found that more of the cores just glide along with cypher to behave.

18 cores — Flat Handbrake can't use all the resources of an 18-core, 36-thread Processor.

Where a 10-core-and-finished CPU comes in handy is in "megatasking." That's basically the definition of doing as many things As you can think of, at the same time: encoding a video, rendering 3D, running Photoshop, and gaming while cyclosis to Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook. Just the sort of thing that will drag down a quad-core chip. If this kinda megatasking isn't your regular practice, do you rattling need to pay for all that Si? Give IT close to thought.

All that said, the judges have reached a decisiveness: IT's AMD's Threadripper. Right now, the strong, if not massive, price quality justifies any slight dip in single-rib performance. In multithreaded functioning, AMD's chip is unparalleled. Between Intel's Meat i9 and AMD's Threadripper, Threadripper is absolutely the scrap to buy.

Additional reporting by Gordon Mah Ung.

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As PCWorld's senior editor, Scrape focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among former beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.