AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X review
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Solfaur
Insane in the membrane... what a proc, wow just wow. AMD is truly, truly back.
chispy
Great reviews as always Hilbert , good read , thank you for the very in depth reviews.
I cannot wipe my big smile off my face after reading the review of the 2990wx 😀 , that Cinebench R15 score it's nuts , wprime was so fast i believe Hilbert you did not have time to blink before it was finished 😀. What AMD has done it's absolutely marvelous and nothing short of amazing !
Incredible cpus , over at hwbot overclocking benchmarks world records are falling left and right right now with this cpus , what a beautiful day it is to be a geek , nothing but hwporn 🙂 .
@Hilbert Hagedoorn did you try to overclock the ram as high as could go and or tight timings ? Please can you try it if you have not done so and update us with the information on the scaling of memory mhz and Cas latency tight timings versus loose timings , i believe there is some great gains to be had but i do not have a cpu 2990wx to test it for myself. Thank you in advanced.
Kind Regards: Chispy
Embra
Very impressive beast of a CPU!
Srsbsns
I thought the extreme versions of timespy supported high thread counts? If so its time to upgrade the testing tool set.
tunejunky
thanks HH, thorough as usual.
even more impressive is a 4k Blender run. watch you tube content guys go nuts in the coming days and weeks.
i've seen the 2950x do 5X the speed of the i-9 (space heater).
and i'm gonna pre-order the EK monoblock as soon as they announce
gerardfraser
Great review as always.I thought this was really smart of AMD to do.
What does game mode do?
Game mode will setup your Threadripper in an 8-core configuration / dual-channel and apply the clock frequencies of an 8-core counterpart. It's also called “Quarter Mode” or “¼ mode”) with 2990WX for best performance and compatibility in gaming.
Also I am still loving the pictures you take of all the hardware in your articles,they are quite mesmerizing at times.
H83
Mind boggling CPU! Even professional software as an hard time using all the threads available to them! But apparently there are some minor compromises that hinder performance in some unexpected ways:
- there are only two memory channels tied to 2 octacore clusters and those clusters have priority over the remaining cores without the memory channels, meaning that in a strange way this CPU behaves as 16+16 CPU where the secondary 16 cores perform worse then the first ones...
- the infinite fabric uses an absurd amount of power hindering the cores performance substantially because they have to divide the power budget available to the entire CPU! This was the most surprising aspect of this CPU.
For those wondering from where i´m taking this info, i read the Anandtech´s review first, because in this kind of hardware they are more complete than Hilbert. I´m really sorry for this small treason, will you ever forgive me Hilbert?... 🙁
Great review as always!
Darkiee
Well, time for software engineers/creators to pull up their pants!
This 32c is a beast! Not that i would need it, i´m very happy with my 2700x for years to come.
But for those, who really needs and can utilize all 64 threads, yeah, i bet some atleast are drooling, or placing orders by now.
Solid review, as always Hilbert. +1
waltc3
I wonder the same thing about maxing out the MHz on the system ram...is there a threshold beyond which elevating the ram clock no longer produces performance dividends? What sort of difference does the 4-channel bus make over the 2-channel bus in that regard, etc.? And yes, power-consumption-wise there's a big difference between 64-thread beasts and 16-threaders, for sure. But with the right software--eg, the software that can actually utilize 64-threads--I'd prefer more cores to more clock. The single-core MHz-dependent performance dynamic is definitely getting a bit long in the tooth, imo...;)
schmidtbag
To my understanding, it's not a performance issue but rather a functionality issue. I've heard TR builds just simply fail to boot after 3200MHz. So, I'm sure we'd have to see another AGESA update to be able to breach that speed with stability.
I have a feeling this may have something to do with ECC compatibility, even if indirectly. Current ECC modules are limited to (I think) 2400MHz and I'm sure AMD has been prioritizing stability over speed.
I was referring more to the power consumption of stock speed vs overclocked (of the 2990WX). When looking at Cinebench, it's roughly a 100% increase in wattage but only a ~20% increase in performance. Unless you care about bragging rights, OCing seems like a bad idea.
D3M1G0D
There are certainly some compromises with the WX chips, but it wasn't completely unexpected. The design of the chip made it obvious that the two dies with direct memory access would be faster than the ones without, and that this would put a greater strain on the IF. It certainly isn't the ideal design and can suffer in certain conditions, but I think AMD added the WX suffix to make it clear that these are different types of chips, made for specific workloads (ones that can make use of a lot of cores without depending too much on memory).
I think AMD could have allowed direct memory access for each die, but it would have meant only having a single channel for each die (X399 is a quad-channel platform), which would have its own performance issues. And of course enabling dual-channel for each die would make TR similar to EPYC (lanes would be the only major difference then), and I would think they would want to avoid cannibalizing their own products.
As you said:
x399 AGESA 1.1.0.0 can now hit DRAM Frequency of 3600MHz stable
I'd like to try this myself when I get the chance. Seems even TR 1 owners will benefit from TR 2's release.
StewieTech
This is the kind of stuff that if a masturbated to tech news and reviews, id have a big wank on this one. Impressive!
Kaarme
The "CPU-Z Screenshots" page (Page 7) shows Dual channel memory instead of Quad channel. The 2950X review, on the other hand, shows Quad channel normally.
lmimmfn
Excellent review HH, I thoroughly enjoyed that, I would love one to play about with but can't justify it, is there any power difference in gamer mode? Do you think we could have a chart for that?
Basically I'm asking if it reduces the IF power requirement, i.e. Is it using 25% power or less?
Robbo9999
Quick note before I finish cooking my dinner & finish reading the whole article & before I forget, error in article:
Corona Ray Tracing: lengths of bars of top two results are related to decimal rather than minutes & seconds, therefore the top two results look better than they should (bars are shorter than they should be).
nz3777
God i wish i could afford one of these only for bragging rights. I will still be happy once my Ryzen build is done with 8/16 threads thats plenty for me for the next 4-5 years.
HH great review as always,keep up the great work! Nick.
liesenberg
Great review Hilbert!
I am really amazed by the results and I expect these processors to show its full potential in the coming years.
It makes me so happy to see what AMD brings to the table! After so many years the CPU arena is exciting again.
As for Intel i really dont know how they will react... that 28 core solution may bring matching results but with increased heat and power...
@Hilbert Hagedoorn have you tried to do more than 4.1 on game mode?
Best Regards,
Will
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
It's a bug in CPU-Z, which should be fixed with the new update.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
I might do some followups!
Darkiee
Oh, just a hopefull thinking, i do hope, TR2 stocks will sell as hotcakes for industry, since AMD needs all the money for research,
if not that much on CPU side, but on GPU side, they do, unless they have a ace on their sleeves for next gen.
