AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Reportedly Delayed Due to “Unsatisfactory Clock Speeds”

[Tsing]

The 16-core, 32-threaded plot thickens. Sources with DigiTimes claim AMD's Ryzen 9 3950X processor was pushed back from September to November due to "unsatisfactory clock speeds."

Blame is falling on TSMC. The company's 7 nm fab may not be producing enough CCXs (physical core clusters) capable of hitting the advertised, 4.7 GHz max boost clock.

Each Ryzen 3000 processor comes in discrete chips. One cIOD from GlobalFoundries’ 12nm fab for the I/O, and one or two CCXs from TSMC’s 7nm fab. The Ryzen 9 3950X, with a total core count of 16, requires twin CCXs in complete working order – and capable of reaching 4.7GHz max boost clock.

 

[Dan_D]

That's basically what I thought was the reason. Of course, this is unconfirmed, but rumors like this often have quite a bit of truth to them. It's also the only reason I can think of AMD delaying the launch.

 

[David_Schroth]

That's basically what I thought was the reason. Of course, this is unconfirmed, but rumors like this often have quite a bit of truth to them. It's also the only reason I can think of AMD delaying the launch.

They also haven't been able to keep the 3900X in stock anywhere...

 

[JosiahBradley]

Need to buy an Aqua while I wait for the 3950X.... but really no GPU upgrade means is it really worth it to go PCI-e 4 now? Really need that 5900XT whatever at some point.

 

[Grimlakin]

This is why the 550 chip set is there @JosiahBradley . So we can have NVME on PCIe 4.x where it matters. And have PCIE 3.x everywhere else so we don't have to worry about PCIe incompatibility oddities and just build a system that works out of the box.

 

[JosiahBradley]

This is why the 550 chip set is there @JosiahBradley . So we can have NVME on PCIe 4.x where it matters. And have PCIE 3.x everywhere else so we don't have to worry about PCIe incompatibility oddities and just build a system that works out of the box.

Good point on the B550. Forgot 4x from the CPU go to a dedicated NVMe drive. Maybe I should just wait for B550 and a 3800x and be happy with the CPU upgrade with the 1080ti.

 

[Brian_B]

This is why the 550 chip set is there @JosiahBradley . So we can have NVME on PCIe 4.x where it matters. And have PCIE 3.x everywhere else so we don't have to worry about PCIe incompatibility oddities and just build a system that works out of the box.

I didn't think the B550 had PCI 4.0, thought it was still 3.0 across the board and no 4.0 lanes

 

[Dan_D]

I didn't think the B550 had PCI 4.0, thought it was still 3.0 across the board and no 4.0 lanes

The CPU's PCIe controller is still PCIe 4.0 compliant.

 

[Brian_B]

The CPU's PCIe controller is still PCIe 4.0 compliant.

Yeah but how do you get 4.0 on NVME when there's nothing on the motherboard for it? Don't NVME drives still plug into the PCI lanes on the motherboard?

 

[Dan_D]

Yeah but how do you get 4.0 on NVME when there's nothing on the motherboard for it? Don't NVME drives still plug into the PCI lanes on the motherboard?

There are trace paths on the motherboard, but the PCIe controller for the primary M.2 slot will go directly to the CPU. Therefore, it is possible to have that as the only PCIe 4.0 compliant device in the system. Provided that everything is there for signal integrity.