(Image credit: Newegg)

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X, which originally debuted at $549 (~£415.67), can now be purchased for a mere $300 / £274.79. The price cut comes as the U.S. chipmaker is clearing the path for its upcoming third-generation Threadripper chips that are slated to launch later this year.

The Threadripper 1900X is an entry-level Threadripper processor that sports eight cores, 16 threads and 20MB of combined cache (L2+L3). The chip runs with a 3.8GHz base clock and a 4GHz boost clock. However, the processor can hit 4.2GHz with the help of AMD's Extended Frequency Range (XFR) feature.

For help seeing if this is the right CPU for you, check out our CPU buying guide. In addition, below is a chart detailing how the CPU's specs compare to those of the Intel Core i9-9900K and AMD Ryzen 7 2700X.

Cores /Threads Base / Boost Clock Speed (GHz) Cache (MB) PCIe 3.0 Interface / Chipset Unlocked Multiplier DRAM TDP Price (at time of writing) Price Per Core Core i9-9900K 8 / 16 3.6 / 5.0 16 16 1151 / Z390 Yes Dual DDR4-2666 95W $530 $66.25 Threadripper 1900X 8 / 16 3.8 / 4.2 20 64 (4 to PCH) TR4 / X399 Yes Quad DDR4-2666 180W $300 $37.50 Ryzen 7 2700X 8 / 16 3.7 / 4.3 16 16 AM4 / X470 Yes Dual DDR4-2933 105W $300 $37.50

The Threadripper 1900X is often compared to the eight-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 2700X, which is also currently selling for $300 at B&H Photo Video. However, the Threadripper part has the upper hand in a few areas, especially if you're a content creator or workstation user. For starters, the Threadripper 1900X supports quad-channel memory, which means you can potentially stuff up to 128GB of memory on a X399-based motherboard with eight DDR4 memory slots. Additionally, the Threadripper 1900X is compatible with ECC memory.

Another one of the Threadripper 1900X's benefits is the sheer number of PCIe 3.0 lanes. With 64 of them at your disposal, you can plug in a generous amount of PCIe devices into your system, such as graphics cards, sound cards or NVMe SSDs without ever having to worry about running out of bandwidth.

When the first X399 motherboards came out, most of them were priced above $350 (~£265.17). However, nowadays, you can find pretty decent options like the MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC or the ASRock X399 Taichi going for $300 (~£227.30).

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