AMD has announced that their flagship Ryzen 9 3950X CPU will be launching on the 25th of November. The 3950X has 16 cores with up to 32 threads, a base 3.5GHz clock speed with a stated boost speed of 4.7GHz. It does this with a TDP of 105W and at an MSRP of $749. This puts it at the high end of the normal end of CPUs, or the lower end of the HEDT range for pricing, however you choose to slice it. Either way it is kind of a big deal.
Interestingly the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X CPU runs at a relatively reasonable TDP of 105W, but AMD specifically recommend the use of an AIO cooler. This suggests perhaps that AMD is looking to get ahead of any potential repeat of the controversy earlier this year over the stated boost speeds for their CPUs. Recommending that people go big on cooling the 3950X right out of the gate makes the importance of cooling clear and should reinforce the understanding among users that if you want a powerful, fast CPU crammed with cores then you need to take cooling it much more seriously than maybe folks have done in the past with some earlier generations. The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X is definitely not just another slap-a-reference-fan-on-it-then-start-sniffing-around-the-overclock-settings kind of deal, it’s going to need some respect.