AMD Threadripper 9960X: What Real Users Actually Think

No point in spending all this money on a Threadripper if you're going to put 2 sticks of 5600 ram on it which will cut your AI inference performance by more than half. Those extra cores will just be idling starved for memory bandwidth. A regular Ryzen with 2 sticks of 6400+ RAM would perform better in AI and games for less money.

9960x 9945WX are looking so bad relative to their cost insane cost of ram/motherboard/cpu/rest of the stuff. You can already do 256gb of ddr5 with new g.skill kits on am5 and next gen will have cpus with 24 cores/48 threads.

Next gen might have 24c/48t, but will it have 80 (or more) pcie 5.0 lanes and quad/octa channel memory support? Probably not. Anything with more than 2 sticks on am5 also lowers your ram speeds quite a bit.

Pop in 2 more sticks to double your ram and get that quad channel performance.

The best thing about the threadripper is the PCIe lanes. If you have a lot of peripherals, this is the only way to roll. On my threadripper rig, I've had two GPUs and two RAID controllers, plus a 10Gbps NIC... and loved it.

I use a 7970x. For casual gaming, there's zero reason to concern yourself with any drop in absolute performance than you'd get with some X3D part. With a 5090, I play BL4 with everything cranked. Granted I'm using DLSS, and a 5k2k monitor, I'm not wanting for something more in that department.

I am building a 9960x for local LLM so have done some research. Still in the process of building it but have learned some things. I tried the WiFi A but switched to Gigabyte TRX50 AI TOP. Much happier, and they state clearly what PCIe lane support each component has. Also, BIOS much nicer. I recommend the T710 or 9100 Pro instead.

My recommendation is to use a be quiet! Silent Loop 3 AIO (either 360mm or 420mm) instead of the Silverstone XE360-TR5 or the Thermaltake AW360/AW420 AIOs. The Silent Loop 3 360/420 has a larger cold plate and mounting hardware for TR5. I tried Silverstone and Thermaltake but settled on Silent Loop 3 420mm at less than half the cost.

You want four sticks of RAM, not two. Each slot is a separate memory channel, and you'll be hurting performance by only using two of them.

At stock TDP it should be fine, but mind that lower core count threadrippers are harder to cool/reach higher temps as the heat is more concentrated. So be aware you might reach 80+ degrees when boosting above 5ghz. I'd recommend going for 6000 or 6400 mhz ram as the new gen takes faster ram up to 6400mhz by default. If you want to turn on PBO on the threadripper, I'd recommend more than 1200w, as the threadripper alone can do 500w+.

You can't get 80+ lanes of PCIe on AM5.

I haven't found a game I can't max at 4k on my 7960X and RTX 4090 with DLSS on new games like Indiana Jones. The 9950X3D would perform better with its higher clock speed, but I'm having no issues.

Looks good for a video editing build. I have the same motherboard. I suggest getting a FAT32-formatted USB ready with the latest BIOS so you can upgrade it immediately.

With my 7960X I'd have to have some serious FOBO to feel like I need the 9960X. Especially because they're the same socket and the next generation at least will have the same socket as well. I have such a long upgrade path I can take someday, I'm perfectly happy with what I have.

With the clock speed of the 9960x, I'm sure this build will run pretty much any game, despite a lower core count of the ccd.

The Threadripper is more powerful, and will stay relevant longer, that's for sure. The 9950x system is half the price, and 2-3 years from now, you'll be able to buy the next gen for the other half the price you saved not buying the Threadripper.

I was a builder in the first wave of water coolers. Then I popped for a Threadripper 7960x last year (I do 3d modelling and rendering), and I know chips were once again getting hotter (heat creep), but because of all the market hype, I was convinced noctuas were on the same level as water loops. I was wrong — you really need a proper AIO or custom loop on these chips.

I will prob get one for the 80 PCIe 5.0 lanes. 7960X has 48 IIRC and 32 4.0.

Running the 9960X rig now, I game at 3440x1440, Dota 2 and BF6 seem pretty unaffected, PUBG doesn't stay locked at 170+ FPS it bounces around 120-170 but overall yeah, it's not much of a difference. I'm happy with it. I think some games will always benefit from a large 3D vcache but this is still totally fine.

Yeah so its not even really all that close to a 9950X3D in gaming performance, that CPU is much better IMO. Both in PUBG and Dota 2. I did not see much difference in Battlefield 6 though. It just seems a lot more variable in the FPS vs an X3D CPU. Like its not as consistently high with the FPS. Games seem to want to run on a single CCD, so its basically a Zen 5 6 core CPU.

llama.cpp can split layers over multiple GPUs and use CPU for the rest. Which is why threadripper is awesome as you can fill rest of the pci-e with cheap 5060 ti and get another 32GB vram for fraction of 5090 price. Then you can dedicate one of those to ComfyUI and let LLM generate images locally while still having enough VRAM to run.

9960X will perform like a consumer 7900X/7600X in gaming, so not really bad per se. Maybe a bit slower in the worse cases. Just quite behind vs X3D processors but not thaaat behind vs non X3D ones.

Just a heads up, that combo is now $3200, the RAM kit alone is up to $1700 now.

Looks pretty good. Solid parts. Only thing I might bump up is the RAM with that many VMs. Give yourself a little more breathing room.

I think unless you use AVX512 heavily you can expect just about 10% uplift on average going from the 7960X to the 9960X.

Yeah the new pci lanes and io processor mem speed sealed the deal for me.

9995WX stock. Only 2x 16GB. Waiting for 96GB x8 to show up. Cinebench R23 10min ~343W PPT. Aorus Waterforce X 360 with Antec Storm T3 fans. 69C peak.

I wouldn't even try to do anything except for 360mm and 420mm AIO coolers for these CPUs. 1mm per watt is a typical estimate and a good one in my experience even though radiators can probably get rid of up to 50% more than that.

Probably enough if want to go full force get a be quiet silent loop 3 420mm and push pull with high pressure fans like t30 or 3000rpm be quiet or noctua going push pull will take tdp above 600 on those things.

I'm not fully happy with its gaming performance, the gen AI side fucking rips tho.

As long as you are not chasing the absolute highest gaming performance it will be fine. I have a 7965WX and gaming is fine on the system. The 9960X being Zen 5 will be even faster than what I have from architectural gains. Would an X3D chip be faster, most likely. But I don't think it's necessary personally, especially if you are doing tasks on the same machine that cannot be done on the consumer side.

Threadrippers are great for heavy multitasking. You could set up virtual machines (with Windows Hyper-V for example) for work, games etc. and have them all open at once without seeing any practical performance issues.

You'll be fine for 'moderate' gaming for sure. The vast majority of PC gamers aren't using high end desktop CPUs, or high end GPUs - a modern Threadripper with 5090(s) will be plenty. There's edge cases where the threadripper will be slightly 'less good' for gaming than the best desktop...but old desktop PCs are also 'less good' for gaming than the best desktop.

Can't imagine it'd be an issue, these threadripper chips do still have very strong single core performance.

I have every platform currently and this depends mostly on your resolution. I'm at 5k and 4k for me outside of a very few handful of titles even on my 9985wx there is almost no difference to my 9800x3d.

I have almost exactly the setup you're using. My wife also has a 9950X3D; mine has a RTX6000, hers a 5090. When gaming, we both use 4k/max settings and for most games, the GPU is the limiting factor and frame rates between the two are pretty much the same. The 9960X is a fine 'work PC that gives up little when gaming' alternative.

You'll be fine with gaming. I got the 9970x MC bundle for $3300. It's phenomenal.

I have a 9970x, 5090fe, with 3080ti-fe for offloading some things like PhysX. 128gb 6000mt 4channel rdimms, gen 5 pci. The reviews focus on gains or losses in 1080p. If you have a super machine, you're not playing at 1080p. At 4k resolutions the max speeds are uniform pretty much with the lower core count consumer chips, and the minimum lows are also great.

My build handles anything I throw at it and then some, and then sits there waiting for even more. You can't go wrong either way, to be honest. I will admit, between me and you, the TR is overkill. It's like buying an F22 to take for grocery store runs a few blocks away. Makes no sense, but I got an amazing machine.

Get what works for you. If you can afford the newer hardware and want/need PCIe 5, go for the TR. The Threadripper still has 80 PCIe 5.0 lanes — not 128 like the Pro, but still a ton.

Microcenter has the 9960X + Aero D MB + 128GB ECC for a bundle — people are getting the combo and parting out.