The Threadripper 3990X can run Crysis without a GPU

Remember back in the day when we were constantly asking of every system 'but will it run Crysis'? Well, now one CPU all on its own can handle it: the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X. 

Without going anywhere near a dedicated or even integrated GPU, YouTuber Linus Tech Tips has demonstrated that the Threadripper 3990X can run Crysis entirely in software. Why you'd want to is anyone's guess and it's not like it runs with a particularly playable frame rate but it's possible. 

Granted, the 64-core and 128-thread processor costs about $4,000 so a lesser CPU would give you plenty of spare cash to buy a dedicated GPU but for a quirky experiment, it's rather impressive. 

After all, GPUs are designed specifically to deal with the millions of calculations required when playing a game while CPUs are generally for fewer operations at once, albeit typically more complicated ones. Still, with 64 cores at play, it's hardly surprising that the Threadripper 3990X can cope. 

The news comes only days after it was announced that the Threadripper 3990X had already beaten 4 of the 8 CPU world records previously listed on HWBOT. It now holds the top spot for wPrime 1024m, Cinebench R15, GPUPI for CPU 1B, as well as Geekbench 3 Multi Core which is remarkable work.

For now, the server equivalent of the 3990X, the AMD EPYC 7742 maintains the world record for the HWBOT x256 4K benchmark although it's worth noting that may be more down to the fact that 2 of them were used to achieve such a goal. 

There's also some room for Intel in world records with the Core i9 9900KF hanging on to SuperPi 32M and Geekbench4 Single Core, demonstrating that Intel still has the edge when it comes to single cores. Still, can that processor run Crysis all on its own? Well, no one's tried but it's a safe assumption that it can't. 

For now, it's fascinating to see what the fearsome Threadripper 3990X can accomplish.