When AMD announced the Ryzen 9 3950X back at E3 2019, we already knew that the Zen 2-based processor was capable of a lot, and the subsequent overclocks proved as much.

However, AMD might have an even more powerful chip up its sleeve. An unknown 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen processor has appeared on Geekbench – the kicker is that it's running an all-core 5.2GHz boost. You may be thinking that this is just an overclocked Ryzen 9 3950X, but this chip is running a base clock of just 3.3 GHz – 200MHz below the 3950X's spec of 3.5GHz.

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The most important takeaway from this is that the unknown chip scored extremely high. This chip got a single-core score of 6,714 and a multi-core score of 64,953. The Intel Core i9-9980XE, a $1,979 (about £1,520, AU$2,800) chunk of silicon, scored single and multi-core results of 5,117 and 42,497, respectively, in our tests. This AMD chip absolutely crushes the Intel HEDT flagship.

We're not sure what this chip is, but it's obviously overclocked – and likely using exotic cooling. It's possible that this is an unannounced Threadripper 3rd Generation chip, even though we're expecting AMD's next generation of HEDT chips to appear early next year – previous rumors have pointed to a delay until 2020 for HEDT chips. We'll just have to wait and see.

It's hard to say when we'll see it, though. With its 3.3GHz base clock, it's likely that it's a Threadripper chip – we don't think AMD would release a mainstream processor between the Ryzen 9 3900X and Ryzen 9 3950X. However, AMD is using a special binning process to produce the 3950X, so this chip with a lower base clock might just see the light of day as a mainstream part.

Still, we don't even know if this AMD processor is real, so we'll just have to wait and see.

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Via Wccftech