AMD’s new 32-core Threadripper 2990WX has broken the world record for consumer CPU performance using LN2 mode. The previous record holder was Intel’s 28-core 5-GHZ CPU. Both CPUs were demonstrated under unusual circumstances that are unlikely for the vast majority of consumers (LN2 for the AMD Threadripper and the Intel was refrigerated).
The LN2 setting is not for consumers and a suitable refrigerator (with the required cooling capacity) isn’t going to fit inside a PC case. Nevertheless, both CPUs are quite impressive and provide all the power a consumer will need in a PC, plus an enormous bag of chips.
The Threadripper 2990WX is now available for pre-order and can operate at up to 4.2 GHZ per core, which is impressive for a 32-core processor. CPUs with numerous cores often trade off the clock speed per core. A key benefit of a large core count is faster multitasking. A higher clock speed per core is more likely to benefit video games and any other processes that can’t utilize many cores.
The Threadripper offers 64MB of L3 cache, 16MB of L2 cache, 3MB of L1 cache, and has 64 threads. The TDP is 250 Watts and it supports a maximum system memory speed of 2933 MHZ (DDR4).
