AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9980X 64-core sTR5

The Threadripper 9980X is a 64-core beast that tops our multi-thread charts, but it's thirsty, hot, and needs a separate GPU. Buy it for serious workstation work, not for Roblox.

The multi-thread numbers are absurd. 142,812 in PassMark is best-in-class, and the single-thread score of 4,532 is also near the top, which is rare for a chip with this many cores. The 5.4GHz boost on a 64-core part is genuinely impressive. But the efficiency score of 41.8/100 tells the real story: 350W TDP with a 500W turbo mode means your power bill is going to feel it. You'll need serious cooling and a beefy PSU just to keep this thing fed.

The Threadripper 9980X sits in a weird spot. Against the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, it's not even close in multi-thread, the 9980X destroys it, but the Intel chip is a fraction of the price and way more efficient. The HP Xeon P67080-B21 is a server part, so it's a different beast entirely, but if you need ECC and tons of cores in a rack, that's the comparison to make. For most people, the 9980X is overkill, but for the few who need 64 cores in a desktop, nothing else comes close.

Pricing is all over the place. In the US you're looking at USD 4,000 to USD 5,183 depending on the vendor, with Amazon and Newegg both listing it. That's a USD 1,183 spread, so shop around. In Europe it's EUR 5,130 to EUR 5,738, with the best EUR deal also at Amazon. For a 64-core workstation chip, the price is actually reasonable compared to what you'd pay for comparable server silicon, but the lack of a cooler and GPU means the real cost is higher than the sticker.

The Threadripper 9980X is AMD's 64-core monster for people who actually need 128 threads. This is not a gaming chip, it's a workstation sledgehammer. The multi-thread score of 142,812 in PassMark puts it at the absolute top of our database, and the 256MB of L3 cache means heavy renders and AI workloads just chew through data. If you're compiling code, rendering 8K video, or running local LLMs, this thing is the current king of the hill.

If you're building a gaming PC or a general-purpose desktop, skip this. You're paying for 64 cores you'll never use, and the power draw and cooling requirements are a headache. Get a Ryzen 7 9800X3D or a Core Ultra 9 285K instead and put the savings into a better GPU. This chip is for people who render, compile, or run AI workloads all day, not for Roblox sessions.

If you need 64 cores and 128 threads in a desktop, buy this. It's the best multi-thread performer we've tested, and the platform is solid. But be ready to spend on a GPU, a serious cooler, and a power supply that can handle 500W spikes. And buy from a reputable vendor, because there are reports of fake chips with 9980X stickers on old 1950X silicon. That's a real problem.