Announced a couple of weeks ago, the new AMD Ryzen 3000XT models with increased clock frequencies should be available today in primary markets. These new processors offer slightly higher performance than their similarly named 3000X counterparts for the same price, with AMD claiming to be taking advantage of a minor update in process node technology in order to achieve slightly better clock frequencies.

The new 3000XT family of processors focuses mostly on boosting the turbo frequency by 100-200 MHz for the same power. AMD states that this is due to using an optimized 7nm manufacturing process. This is likely due to a minor BKM or PDK update that allows TSMC/AMD to tune the process for a better voltage/frequency curve and bin a single CPU slightly higher. 

An update in this range could be indicative of a ~10 mV better voltage for a single core, although this would normally be in the binning noise - for it to be statistically relevant would need a lot of CPUs, so this could just be better binning. However, base frequencies haven’t moved much, so performance-per-watt benefits are going to be somewhat minimal. The biggest uptick would be in 1T scenarios.

Each of the new XT processors is the highest speed variant of its respective class.

AMD 'Matisse' Ryzen 3000 Series CPUs
AnandTech Cores
Threads
Base
Freq
Boost
Freq
L3
Cache
PCIe
4.0
TDP Price
(SEP)
Ryzen 9 3950X 16C 32T 3.5 4.7 4x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $749
Ryzen 9 3900XT 12C 24T 3.8 4.7 4x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $499
Ryzen 9 3900X 12C 24T 3.8 4.6 4x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $499
Ryzen 9 3900 12C 24T 3.1 4.3 4x16 MB 16+4+4 65W OEM
Ryzen 7 3800XT 8C 16T 3.9 4.7 2x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $399
Ryzen 7 3800X 8C 16T 3.9 4.5 2x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $399
Ryzen 7 3700X 8C 16T 3.6 4.4 2x16 MB 16+4+4 65W $329
Ryzen 5 3600XT 6C 12T 3.8 4.5 2x16 MB 16+4+4 95W $249
Ryzen 5 3600X 6C 12T 3.8 4.4 2x16 MB 16+4+4 95W $249
Ryzen 5 3600 6C 12T 3.6 4.2 2x16 MB 16+4+4 65W $199
Ryzen 5 3500X 6C 6T 3.6 4.1 2x16 MB 16+4+4 65W OEM
Ryzen 3 3300X 4C 8T 3.8 4.3 1x16 MB 16+4+4 65W $120
Ryzen 3 3100 4C 8T 3.6 3.9 2x8 MB 16+4+4 65W $99

Users should note that the prices listed are official SEP (Suggested Etailer Price). In March, AMD did announce a temporary AMD-focused price drop, but that has since passed. Retailer pricing will vary with local sales practices.

The top new processor is the Ryzen 9 3900XT which offers +100 MHz turbo over the 3900X, for the same official price as the 3900X. The 3800XT offers +200 MHz on single core turbo over the 3800X for the same price. The final new processor is the 3600XT, with +100 MHz on the turbo frequency, again for the same price over the 3600X.

In each three cases, the XT processors give slightly better frequency than the X units, so we should expect to see an official permanent price drop on the X processors in order to keep everything in line.

AMD’s announcement today also includes information about thermal solutions. The Ryzen 5 3600XT, with six cores, will come bundled with AMD’s Wraith Spire cooler. For the other two CPUs, AMD’s own press release states that the company ‘is recommending the use of an AIO solution with a minimum 280mm radiator or equivalent air cooling to experience these products at their best’. This does seem somewhat overkill for 105 W processors, especially if the package power tracking on these parts should be ~142 watts, notwithstanding any trickery that the motherboard manufacturers are doing.

These new processors will be supported in any motherboard that already supports Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 hardware (the cost in BIOS space to add a CPU of the same family is negligible).

Performance

While we have had these three processors in for testing over the last week or so, we are in the process of transitioning to a new benchmark suite for 2020/2021, with updated CPU tests, newer games, and game testing with RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards. This bench suite is still a work in progress with regression testing older models, and so at this point we do not have a strong enough dataset to confidently do the processors a full review in the AnandTech way. A number of the tests use updated software packages, and so comparison to previous versions is not possible, however we do have some metrics which align that we can share with you.

Agisoft Photoscan 1.3.3, Complex TestNAMD 2.31 Molecular Dynamics (ApoA1)Crysis CPU Render: (6) 1920x1080AES EncodingCinebench R20 Multi-ThreadedCinebench R20 Single Threaded3D Particle Movement v2.1 (with AVX)Geekbench 4 - ST OverallGeekbench 4 - MT Overall

Graphs will be updated as results come in.

As we can see, there isn’t much between the old X models and the new XT models – increasing the turbo frequency a little means that there is scope for increased performance in low thread-count workloads, but ultimately the voltage/frequency curve when we start pushing with more cores loaded counts in those high density benchmarks.

We’re planning on doing a full article with our updated benchmark suite and new tests after we’ve done more regression testing. There will also be a new section in Bench to cover our new benchmark suite. Stay tuned for that.

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  • Ranger1065 - Tuesday, July 7, 2020 - link

    It's tricky to fault the logic behind consuming and reproducing less and worrisome to contemplate how many fail to appreciate it.
  • Foeketijn - Wednesday, July 8, 2020 - link

    +1
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, July 8, 2020 - link

    Not just fail to appreciate it - get steaming mad, throw their toys out of the pram and call *everyone else* a hypocrite.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, July 8, 2020 - link

    1) Pointing to the shittiness of our current iteration of global capitalism *is not a rebuttal to anyone advocating for making things better*; it's the laziest possible defence of the status-quo.
    The fact is that it's nearly impossible to buy things that aren't made using borderline-slave labour in horrible factories and shipped using dirty fuel. Is that the fault of the consumer? No, not even close. It's the fault of the various people in charge (i.e. business owners, shareholders, certain parts of the government). They're the ones who collectively decided that they couldn't make enough profits from paying local workers a living wage, and decided to move their factories abroad in a global race to the bottom. We who merely live in societies that work on that arrangement have no real choice but to participate in it, ergo, it is not hypocritical to be critical of said society whilst existing within it unless you're a billionaire, business owner, etc. Individuals following TheinsanegamerN's vapid prescription wouldn't make a fart in a volcano's worth of difference on a societal scale, because it's not a solution: it's a hack that allows people who don't want anything to change to feel morally superior to people who've noticed the problem. I point you to the cartoons with the guy in the well; TheinsanegamerN is the smug idiot in the well.

    2) Population growth is a function of poverty and education. If you want to curb population growth in Africa, the best place to have started was about 500 years ago when the west started colonising the place and using the locals as slave labour for resource extraction. The next best place to start is now, by funding infrastructure, healthcare and education. If your first response to someone talking about population growth is "but muh Africa", you're demonstrating three things: your ignorance of the causes, your ignorance of the solutions, and your preference for racist rhetoric over actual scientific data.

    In conclusion: I don't usually agree with PeachNCream, but your reply here is garbage.
  • sonny73n - Thursday, July 9, 2020 - link

    @Spunjji
    Very nice analogy but I wouldn’t use intellect to reply to idiots like TheinsanegamerN because he’s just a stupid racist westerner, probably an American who’s well-fed with BS by the MSM.
    It baffles me why people in the west always stick their noses in countries half way around the earth and act like they don’t have any problem at home.
  • SkyBill40 - Friday, July 10, 2020 - link

    So rather than actually do something productive like addressing any specific points, you'd just rather ad hominem instead and be that guy?

    Got it. That totally seems legit.
  • Spunjji - Friday, July 10, 2020 - link

    It *is* legit, in its own way. Most of the time when I respond to specific points of someone's fallacious argument, they either set off a gish-gallop or engage in ever-tightening circles of sophistry and empty rhetoric. There's nothing productive about that.

    Sometimes it's okay to just say "you're too full of shit to see how full of shit you are". It may not be persuasive on its own, but if it's accurate in context, then it's legit.
  • Spunjji - Friday, July 10, 2020 - link

    FYI: I'm British. I grew up "well-fed with BS by the MSM" and my nation pretty much wrote the book on the issues America has now. It hasn't rendered me incapable of understanding them, but it did place a lot of barriers in front of me *seeing* them.

    I'm not especially fussed about whether I convince *him* - that can be a fool's errand - but I leave comments like that because I feel it's important to push back against insidious racist narratives in a way that makes it clear I'm not just objecting to the tone, but the substance. Responding with a generalised critique, even if it's often an accurate one, doesn't really serve that purpose.

    You do you, of course - but I'mma keep doing me. :)
  • SkyBill40 - Saturday, July 11, 2020 - link

    Fair enough.
  • MrVibrato - Tuesday, July 7, 2020 - link

    The coming crisis is not fixed by lowering TDP. It could only be fixed by most, if not everyone drastically changing their lifestyle. But that's not going to happen. We happily go out on the streets, demonstrate and protest for a few hours, asking the politicans to invent some magic wand so we don't have to change ourselves. And then we go back into the routine of our modern lifestyle... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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