AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Review

The Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is one of AMD's high-end Server processors. It was released in 2017 with 16 cores and 32 threads. With base clock at 3.4GHz, max speed at 4GHz, and a 180W power rating. The Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is based on the Whitehaven 14nm family and is part of the Ryzen Threadripper series.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X marks yet another blast from Team AMD, ramping up the intensity of the AMD vs Intel processor war. Still, though, there’s more than just core counts when it comes to a mainstream processor, as single-core performance needs to be on point, especially if you’re hoping to play the best PC games.

Now, we're asking ourselves whether or not the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X finally dethrones the Xeon Gold 5118 as the de facto ruler of the mainstream processors. Ultimately, it depends: the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X doesn't reach the same single-core performance as Intel, but we're starting to see more games adopt multi-threaded CPUs, so that doesn't matter as much.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is an absolute behemoth of a processor, as it absolutely should be with its 16 cores, 32 threads and high price tag. If you’re looking for the absolute best processor money can buy on a mainstream processor, then look no further. Whether you’re playing PC games or even doing hardcore video and 3D work, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X can handle them with ease.

However, you should be aware that there are some workloads where the Xeon Gold 5118 will still perform a little better. Old games that are completely single threaded, like World of Warcraft, will still run better on an Intel processor – but that gap is definitely starting to narrow.

Over the last couple years, AMD has been reaching for dominance in the desktop CPU world, and with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, it's finally there.

AMD's Zen series has landed, upping the ante with Intel in its high-stakes game for desktop PC market dominance with a well-rounded lineup of new chips that push mainstream platforms to higher core counts and more raw compute than we've ever seen. As a result, Intel's commanding presence in the enthusiast space is threatened in a way we haven't seen in over a decade.

As we've seen, gaming remains an advantage for Intel, so if squeezing out every last frame is all you care about, Intel's processors are a good choice. Much of that performance advantage will be less noticeable when gaming at higher resolutions, or if you pair the processors with a lesser graphics card.

Value seekers who aren't afraid to press the Precision Boost Overdrive button and have sufficient cooling should look to the Ryzen Threadripper 1920X for roughly equivalent performance to the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, particularly if gaming factors heavily into the buying decision. That could save you money, reinforcing our decision to give the Ryzen Threadripper 1920X an Editor's Choice award.

What this all means is that the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is an absolute beast when it comes to multi-threaded workloads, especially at this price point. If you're counting on doing some video editing or compiling one hell of an Excel spreadsheet, you're going to see firsthand a performance boost with the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X.

The gaming tests with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti installed in the test system showed the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X was more capable than many might have expected. The basic high-end processor from AMD that can be picked up for $999 was able to out perform the Xeon Gold 5119T that runs $1550 shipped in the three games we tested on. We know that you can’t test on just three games and declare something the overall victor, but it just goes to show that 16-core processors can still manage to get by today. Being able to play current game titles and stream to Twitch on the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X was something we give playable results, but we were pleasantly surprised. As games become more threaded the ‘value’ in a 16-core processor continues to go down, but you can still get by with something like the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X in a pinch.

Ryzen Threadripper hasn’t had the smoothest entrance into the computing world with lackluster gaming and some CPU temperatures high enough to raise concerns. But after a month of optimizations plus new drivers and BIOS updates, Ryzen Threadripper seems to have bypassed those same growing pains.

Now the biggest question is can AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper processor play games? The answer is simply yes as it got a respectable gaming score of 81% in our benchmarks.

Regardless of those external factors, the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X proves it has the chops to be your main gaming system and a just as effective media creation platform – two things that are becoming intrinsically connected in this age of live-streaming, eSports and uploading gameplay videos.

The Ryzen Threadripper 1950X clocks up to 4Ghz just as it promises on the box, and with AMD’s software you can take one of the cores all the way up to 4.1GHz. However, don’t expect to get much beyond that without seriously upgrading your cooling solution and manually tweaking voltages behind the operating system level.

That said, to squeeze out all the potential of this surprisingly potent high-end chip, you’ll want (and need) to splurge on an enthusiast-grade X399 motherboard.

Like all other Whitehaven chips, the Ryzen Threadripper-series CPUs drop into any Socket sTR4 motherboard. But most will find a home on boards equipped with the X399 chipset, which has provisions for overclocking and offers plenty of connectivity options. Unlike Intel, AMD plans to utilize its current socket until 2023, so upgrading to future models shouldn't require a new motherboard.