AMD Ryzen 9 3950X delayed over clock speeds, not manufacturing issues, claim reports

TSMC production issues not the reason for Ryzen 9 3950X delays, according to sources in Taiwan

Delays in the release of AMD's range-topping Ryzen 9 3950X microprocessor are down to unsatisfactory clock speeds, rather than excessive demand for 7nm parts or production issues at TSMC, the foundry that manufactures AMD's third-generation CPUs.

That's according to Taiwanese electronics trade newspaper Digitimes, reporting on claims by motherboard makers that it has contacted.

They say that the clock speeds the part is currently achieving on multi-core boost are "unsatisfactory", while German specialist site ComputerBase claims to have heard complaints "a few weeks ago" that the Ryzen 9 3950X does "not really run well yet" and is "not as powerful as one would expect".

AMD had pitched the Ryzen 9 3950X as a premium ‘gaming' CPU, with a price of around $750 to match. At launch earlier this year, it claimed that the part is capable of boosting to 4.7GHz. But both Digitimes and ComputerBase also report that the processor struggles to perform at its advertised base clock speed of 3.5GHz.

"For the Ryzen 9 3950X, AMD needs the best fully active eight-core CPU dies, which not only can achieve the highest clock rates, but at the lowest possible voltage - so-called binning filters out these chips," reports ComputerBase.

The low voltage is necessary as the AMD has set the TDP for the 16-core, 32-thread part at a relatively low 105 watts. "If the applied voltage is too high, the processors will not be able to clock that high," it adds.

In other words, AMD is struggling to balance the advertised clock speeds - it can increase the voltage in order to achieve the base clock speeds, but is then unable to achieve the advertised boost clock speeds, especially within the aggressive TDP it has set for the part.

AMD, though, has claimed that it pushed back the release of the Ryzen 9 3950X from the end of September to November in order to meet strong demand for its existing third-generation Ryzen CPUs.

AMD is also expecting to release its third-generation Threadripper CPUs in November.