AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X sees lowest ever pricing: Comet Lake effect on the 64-core 128-thread HEDT part?

Seemingly in response to Intel's launch of its 10th generation Comet Lake S lineup, which includes the i9-10900K, the so-called "world's fastest processor" for gaming, AMD has cut prices on its 64-core, 128-thread AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X.

The HEDT part now sells at US$3449, a US$540 drop from its rather on-the-nose launch price of US$3990. The mammoth Threadripper 3990X, with 288 MB of Cache, a 280W TDP, and boost clocks up to 4.3 GHz, is among the highest-end HEDT solutions on the market. This isn't a CPU targeted towards gaming, but rather, towards game creators.

The move on pricing, as such, isn't in direct response to any particular Intel product out on the market right now. However, with the Comet Lake Xeon W lineup set to arrive in the months to come, AMD might be looking to pre-emptively cut prices before Intel's own HEDT parts hit the market.

Because AMD leverages a chiplet-based approach to processor design, costs scale more or less linearly -not exponentially- with core count, unlike Intel. This means that AMD's better-positioned to slash costs.

When the Comet Lake Xeon W lineup does arrive, we expect to see Threadripper 3990X prices drop further. We wouldn't be surprised to see pricing in the sub-US$3000 range.