Intel's HEDT lineup is in serious trouble. Not only does AMD have a new-generation of Threadripper CPUs, with up to 64-cores on the highest end model, just around the corner, but its upcoming Ryzen 9 3950X, with just 16 cores, is dominating Intel's 18-core HEDT, and even 28-core server-grade Xeon chips in a number of benchmarks. The latest, is Passmark.
AMD's Ryzen 3000-series of CPUs has been one of the most important in the company's history. Arguably its most competitive lineup since the original AMD 64+ range in the early '00s, standouts like the Ryzen 3600, 3700X, and 3900X proved competitive with Intel's best at gaming and far more capable in productivity tasks like video rendering, editing, and transcoding. Threadripper 3000 CPUs aren't far behind and though Intel has cut its HEDT pricing in half, it's not going to be enough to stop the charge.
The latest benchmark results come from WCCFTech and show a watercooled, AMD Ryzen 9 3950X with just 16-cores, beating an Intel Xeon W-3175X with 28 cores, and every single ninth-generation X-series CPU, including the 18-core 9980XE.
Some of these Intel CPUs cost upwards of $3,000, one as much as $6,000, and yet the $750 3950X beats them all. Only AMD's new 64-core Epyc CPUs were able to stay ahead of it.
The question now, is how Intel will respond. Its best bet would be to rebadge some of its server-grade Xeon CPUs as HEDT chips, but that will still leave it at a core disadvantage, with no PCIE 4.0, and lower clock speeds. It needs a new architecture and a die shrink, but that won't happen for years.
In the near future, if you need high-power multicore chips, AMD is going to be the way to go.
