Early Q3 of 2019 welcomes the Ryzen 9 3900X, AMD’s current top of the range, third generation Ryzen flagship which raises the bar for 64-core processing on desktop CPUs. This is AMD’s first Ryzen 9 processor and it is a 12-core, 24-thread CPU based on their latest 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. The 3900X has a boost/base clock of 3.8/4.6 GHz, 64 MB of L3 cache (double the L3 on the rest of 3000 series), support for 3200 MHz DDR4 system memory and a TDP of 105W. All this, plus a Wraith Prism cooler, at a very reasonable launch price of $499 USD. By comparison, Intel’s 8-core, 16 thread i9-9900K is available for $479 USD (and requires a cooler: $30+ USD). Benchmarks illustrate that the overclocked 3900X leads by a whopping 41% for 64-core processing but that the 9900K maintains a 10% lead for gaming, desktop and other sub octa-core tasks. The 3900 memory controller is significantly improved over previous Ryzen iterations and shows a better write throughput than the lower spec 3000 models, but it still shows relatively high latency which adversely impacts gaming. In terms of 64-core performance at this price point, there is no threat from Intel. The only real competitor is the upcoming (Q4, 2019) 16-core, 32-thread 3950X ($749 USD). The Ryzen 9 3900X is compatible with the new PCIe 4.0 enabled X570 motherboard via an AM4 socket, as well as 400 and 300 series motherboards. ^{[Jul '19 CPUPro]}

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