AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X 12-core sTR4

Twelve cores of 2017 fury for pocket change. Just don't expect it to sip power or fit in your current motherboard.

The multi-thread score of 22,999 in PassMark puts this chip well above average, and that's where it shines. Rendering, video editing, virtualization, anything that can use all 24 threads just flies. The single-thread score of 2,307 is solid but nothing special by today's standards, so don't expect snappy gaming or lightning-fast app launches compared to a modern Ryzen 5. What surprised us is how well this thing overclocks. Multiple owners report hitting a stable 4.0GHz all-core on air with a Noctua NH-U14S, which is basically free performance if you have the cooling headroom.

Against something like the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF, the 1920X gets absolutely smoked in single-thread and efficiency, but it costs a fraction of the price and still holds its own in heavily threaded work. The Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 is a closer vintage, but that's a 4-core chip that can't touch this thing in multi-thread. The real competitor here isn't another CPU, it's the platform cost. An sTR4 motherboard and TR4 cooler add up fast, and at that point a used Ryzen 9 3900X on AM4 might make more sense.

At USD 100 to USD 131 on the used market, this is a steal if you already have an sTR4 board or can find one cheap. The best deal we see is at the low end of that range, so shop around before pulling the trigger. In Europe the spread is wild, EUR 205 to EUR 409, so don't pay the high end. If you're building a budget render box or home server, this is hard to beat. If you're building a gaming PC, spend your money elsewhere.

The Threadripper 1920X is the CPU equivalent of buying a used muscle car. It's not the newest thing on the block, but 12 cores and 24 threads for around a hundred bucks used is a ridiculous amount of compute for the money. The one thing to know: this is a workstation chip from 2017 that still crushes multi-threaded workloads, but it demands a specific motherboard, serious cooling, and a tolerance for its power draw.

If you're looking for a gaming CPU or a simple drop-in upgrade for your current AM4 system, this isn't it. Go grab a Ryzen 5 5600 or Ryzen 7 5700X instead. If you're not comfortable hunting down a used X399 motherboard and buying a separate TR4 cooler, skip this and look at a used Ryzen 9 on AM4.

Buy it if you need cheap multi-threaded horsepower and you understand what you're getting into. The 1920X is a fantastic value for rendering, virtualization, and server workloads, but it's not a drop-in upgrade for your existing AM4 system and it's not a gaming chip. If you can find an sTR4 board at a reasonable price and you're willing to buy a proper cooler, this is one of the best budget workstation CPUs on the used market.