This 16-core beast is the most powerful notebook in the world

The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X is a behemoth when it comes to sheer computing power; its 16 cores and 32 threads will power through any task you’ll throw at it with aplomb. A tantalizing prospect for professionals looking for a desktop replacement alternative. With a base clock of 3.5GHz and a staggering 73MB cache, it’s almost a miracle that it has a TDP (power dissipation) of 105W. 

German notebook vendor Schenker has integrated this beast of a CPU in its latest XMG APEX 15 notebook which carries a starting price of 1,958 Euros including tax but excluding shipping costs (around US$2,130, AU$3,277, £1,704). Note that the link is a bit temperamental and times out often.

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The Clevo-source chassis comes with a 144Hz full HD IPS display, an Nvidia Geforce RTX 2060 with 6GB GDDR6, 8GB Kingston memory, a 250GB Kingston A2000 SSD, Bluetooth 5.0, two-year pick-and-return warranty but no operating system.

105W is quite a big amount of power to dissipate so, the 3950X will run in an eco mode which will drop the base speed via the Ryzen Master software (and possibly in the BIOS) to offer about three-quarters of its performance while consuming 44% less power.

That brings up another interesting question; would it be better to buy a cheaper 12 or 8-core CPU instead that comes with a 65W TDP by default?

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