@Hitman928
You will also notice that the Phoronix result composite graph includes no results from the 3950x.
Intel is being massacred. The 3950x is a serious competitor to Intel's top-end HEDT CPU at a lower price on cheaper motherboards with cheaper cooling. The
only argument that I can see for the 10980XE is that it can be overclocket to 4.5 GHz+ with heavy custom watercooling while a 3950X has less all-core headroom. So if you're willing to spend $250 extra on your CPU, ~$100 extra on your board, maybe $200-$400 or more extra on your cooling, and an unknown amount on your power, you can get (probably) more performance from a 10980XE than a 3950X under any circumstance. That's kind of a weird situation, though: if you're buying 18c chips like the 10980XE and you're willing to spend that much extra in cooling and platform costs, why aren't you just getting the 3960X instead? The only situation where I see the overclocked 10980XE being a clear winner is where I need maximum ST IPC, more than 8c (read: not a 9900KS), but less than 24c. And let's face it, that overclocked 10980XE isn't going to be
that much faster than a properly-optimized 3950X. There's a lot you can do to improve the performance of a Matisse rig (that doesn't necessarily show up in reviews) without necessarily overclocking it or even trying to use PBO.