As a result, AMD's Threadripper 3000 processors rule the upper segment of the HEDT market uncontested. The Threadripper 3990X established itself as the fire-breathing standard-bearer for the entire consumer market, but AMD has brought a very similar model to retail that's specifically designed for workstations.ĪMD's Threadripper 3995WX slots in as the workstation market's uncontested leader in multi-threaded work with 64 cores, 128 threads, and supports up to 2TB of memory spread out among eight memory channels, not to mention 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity. AMD also has less-pricey downstream WX models, too. Intel's seemingly endless delay in transitioning to the 10nm node and a new architecture has left the industry ripe for disruption. Benefits a narrow cross-section of workloads When choosing a non-gaming-focused CPU, consider the following: However, there are still pockets of reduced supply, so we've included alternate recommendations as well. Luckily, supply has improved for workstation processors, and now you can find most of these chips at retail near or below recommended pricing. This chip comes armed with eight memory channels and 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, marking a big advantage over the consumer-class Threadripper processors described below. However, in most workloads, its high price point might not be worth the slim performance advantages over the consumer models, meaning that its higher number of memory channels is the primary draw. This fire-breathing 64-core 128-thread processor is aimed right at the meat of the OEM workstation market, but now it's available through retail channels, too.
#Best cpu for virtualization pro
Those processors should shake up our rankings when they come to market before the end of 2021.įor now, AMD's Threadripper Pro 3995WX remains the most powerful workstation processor on the market. So we've compiled a list of processors representing the best bang for your buck in common productivity tasks, based on our years of benchmarking and testing data.Īs for recent releases, the workstation CPU market is in a lull as we await the arrival of AMD's next-gen Threadripper processors. In fact, as highly threaded CPUs become more common, gaming CPUs and work CPUs are increasingly different silicon beasts, making it tougher to choose which CPU is the best for your workload. For an even more in-depth look, our CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy has all the processors ranked based on performance in gaming, single- and multi-threaded workloads.Ī processor that excels at gaming isn't always the best CPU if your workload is productivity-focused. This list focuses on performance in productivity applications for workstations, while our Best CPUs for Gaming article will give you a better picture of gaming performance. But faster CPUs (with more cores and/or faster clock speeds) chew through tough workloads in much less time, making them great CPUs for productivity. Most processors can handle just about any workload you throw at them, given enough time. If you're after the best processor for work, a lot of the decision boils down to just what your work is.