AMD to use special binning to produce Ryzen 9 3950X
Only the best silicon will make it
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TheAMD Ryzen 9 3950Xis shaping up to be one of the most powerful processors (CPUs) on the market, with 16-cores and a high 3.7GHz boost clock. And,AMDaims to achieve these specs through a special binning process.
Aprocessorwith 16-cores operating at a 3.7GHz boost clock regularly is a pretty big ask without overclocking, so AMD has to be very selective when manufacturing the Ryzen 9 3950X, according to a report fromPCGamesN, which partially explains why, at $749 (about £590, AU$1,090), it’s so much more expensive than the $499 (about £395, AU$730) Ryzen 9 3900X.
You see, the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X is already manufactured using two 8-core dies, it’s just that four cores are disabled on the 12-core processor, which makes it easier to bin than the 16-core 3950X.
AMD claims that its processors with higher core counts will also boost clock speeds in the future, thanks to AMD pulling components like the memory controller and I/O interface and putting them in their own 12nm chiplet.
Because the CPU cores will be on their own chunk of silicon, you can have high core counts and high clock speeds, with AMD saying “your best gaming parts are also going to be your highest core count parts”, starting withAMD Ryzen 3rd Generation.
One of the other benefits that this selective binning may bring is increased overclocking potential. If every chip is a winner in the “silicon lottery,” then users should be able to push the Ryzen 9 3950X further than past chips. That might be why theAMD Ryzen 9 3950X broke some overclocking recordsatE3 2019.
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Bill Thomas (Twitter) is TechRadar’s computing editor. They are fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but they just happen to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don’t be afraid to drop them a line on Twitter or through email.
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