Conclusion

Final Words 

You know, a year ago I was astounded by the fact I would be testing a 16-core processor, with 32 threads. The second best was a 12c/24t part, and while i did not expect it, I said it back then, there is no reason for AMD to not advance on this, as two out of four dies inside that package, where dummies. Bason on a 32-core Epyc part, literally there was nothing keeping them from going towards 32-cores. 

AMD waited and Pinnacle Ridge (ZEN+) brought what they needed, better yields on 12nm offered them to lower voltage a bit, and thus increasing the clock frequency. The conundrum of it all is simple, I did not expect a 32-core part with clocks this high. You have seen my overclocking results, included them on all tests, 4100 MHz on all 32 cores with just an LCS cooler was accomplished in mere seconds of BIOS tweaking. So why then that 3 GHz base clock you wonder? Simple .. it's for that reason called TDP. AMD easily could have clocked all 32 cores at a 3.5 GHz base clock with 4.0 GHz Turbo, however that would drastically increase power consumption. The Turbo towards 4.2 GHz is lovely, however the second you use more than 4 threads, it'll start to throttle down towards that base clock in gradual linear steps. The good thing is that if you cool down this processor good enough with say the LCS kit we used today, your base clock will still hover in the 3.3~3.4 GHz thanks to XFR2. And that is impressive. 

The word 'amazing' is the one word that keeps returning while I was testing this platform. However, this is not a gaming processor whatsoever, it's not intended to be that. I mean games require 4 to 6 highly clocked cores so the reality is that you will not need a 12, 16, 24 or the beastly 32 core processor for your gaming needs. Really, get yourself a nice Ryzen 6 or 8-core processor and please do save yourself a lot of money.

But there is an install base for the 2990WX, content creators, developers, and folks that need to virtualize many containers. Of course think CAD, Lightwave, Studio Max and Maya among just a few that can use just as many cores as they can get their hands on without paying for server farm time. Game developers, server farm class machine hardware for learning and development. Of course, there is always the enthusiast PC DIY builder, that for bragging rights and sheer kicks would like to build something like this. Would you need it? Nope. Is it fun, heck yeah! And sure ironically it's a lot of people that can be found in the Guru3D reader-base.

Core Complexity

You will have noticed that 64-threads pose a challenge at the consumer level. Four dies on one package, memory controllers distributed over these dies, yeah it does result into some complexity, you will not always scale 100% in raw CPU performance. But you're still scaling tremendously high with software that supports this many threads. This brings me toward the biggest challenge, most software on a consumer level will not support 64-threads, and you do need to be aware of that. A good example has been the two Ubisoft games we tried, with 32-cores the games did not even run. In gamer mode, however (configurable 8 or 16 cores), they did. Even my expensive Vegas PRO software package refused to run more than 16 threads, and this is a reality that you are bound to run into quite often, most software is not 64-thread ready, ergo it will not use that many threads most of the time. 

This is why AMD added 2990WX, the WX suffix is here for a reason, it's for creators and professionals, and creators make use of that heavily threaded software. Also, Developers who while like to virtualize many OS containers, for that demographic this 1800 USD product, relatively speaking this is gold stuff for the price of silver, pure value.

Never, ever has any consumer been able to purchase a 12, 16, 24 or let alone a 32-core processor in this price range as that was exclusive to a very expensive server market. Thank you, AMD. That said for the guys and girls that have pro-workstations and do a lot of video editing, this stuff right here is pure gold. However, I'd still rather recommend you a 16-core 2950X as it just makes more sense with the current state of software and threading it can do.  For content creation, virtualization, animation, video editing, modeling and raytraced rendering this is gold. For the extreme ones that game, stream, edit, browse and do it all at once, this is, again, amazing however the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX will be a notch too much. Again, look at that 2950X, please. Amazing stuff. But amazing doesn't always have to make sense.

Performance

You have seen the results. If the software supports 64-threads, there's nothing stopping this processor to rip threads and spit out serious numbers. The base clock, however, will severely slow down the per-core performance. This is for reasons of TDP and likely heat. You can tweak all cores to 4.1 GHz of course, but remember that will increase power consumption severely. 

Running Cinebench 15 multi-threaded, meh .+.. 10 seconds and you are done :) Many threaded applications will fly in terms of relative performance. And make no mistake, single threaded performance is also fairly good as Threadripper can boost to 4.2 GHz. Windows does need further optimization though, as not always that single thread will ruin that Turbo. AMD is working with Microsoft to improve on this.  

Make no mistake, you do not need a 32-core processor, I have stated it a couple of times already, last year I felt that we all need to move to 6 and 8-core processors as these simply a snappier and faster PC ecosystem with all the things we do simultaneously on a PC these days, so 32-cores .. I do not know how to explain a need for that logically other than sheer fun.  In the very very very long term, a platform like this might last you the best though. You have the performance, the threads and let's not forget the connectivity with the many PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes available.

  The Experience

I am also happy to report that, with the launch BIOS and motherboard we really did not run into any significant enough issues. The memory compatibility and stability was truly good. If you pick your memory right, you will not have any issues as the initial Ryzen releases have already removed the launch issues. In the BIOS simply enable the XMP SPD profile and you'll boot straight into Windows with your new timings and frequency. I've mentioned it a couple of times already, but please read up in this article for some good memory recommendations. These memories work on Ryzen, and will work just as well on Threadripper.

Gaming 

Game performance then, it kind of blows on the 2990X, games cannot deal with 64 cores. And once they do, the base-clock will hinder performance. So if you are done rendering your ray-traced image and want to play a game at a proper performance level, startup Ryzen Master, select Game mode with either eight or sixteen cores of choice, and after a reboot, you'll be playing games in that Ryzen 2600/2700 performance realm. Granted, it is an extra step, but I do think it is a worthy compromise to make. The low base clock on a many-core processor is not any different in games with the competition. So this is not an AMD exclusive thing. AMD however, offers an alternative, and it works well. Of course, if you are a gamer pur-sang, then just go with a proper six or eight-core processor man. the 2990WX was never intended for it, but with the game more, it most certainly can.

The Memory

We mentioned DDR4 memory a couple of times already; the latest AGESA 1006based BIOSes have improved a lot in the past year. Threadripper is fully supporting 3200 even 3466 MHz, the same stuff we've been recommending for a year now. 3200 MHz is a non-issue with the right memory, we recommend 2933 MHz or better you plan to do some gaming. Obviously, with quad-channel you could go a little slower as you gain more bandwidth. Please do check your motherboard QVL list for recommended memory. If you do not need ECC memory, we can recommend the G.Skill FlareX memory as used, we never have any issues with it. Pop it in, enable XMP and you're up and running.  

The Power

With this processor now fabbed at 14 nm FinFET the TDP sticks to roughly 180 Watts. A full PC at idle will sit in the 95 Watt range with a dedicated graphics card installed (GeForce GTX 1080 / 16 GB memory / SSD and the motherboard). When we stressed the processor with a Prime 1024M run we reached roughly 250 Watts, that's low enough for what it needs to be. Overall though, this is impressive to see with sixteen CPU cores, especially compared to what we have seen from Intel more recently. When we game we hover at ~320 Watts which is higher than we are used to, but that's the 2nd CPU die, and obviously, that factor is dependent on the type of graphics card you use of course as well as how many CPU cores the game utilizes. So yeah, these are a notch higher, but overall good enough values with this mega-core product. 

The Tweak

With a base-clock of 3.0 GHz and a turbo at 4.2 GHz, you'd expect an all-core overclock that sits somewhere in the middle at 3.6 Ghz right? well, that's the power of four separated dies for you. Ryzen Pinnacle (ZEN+) architecture can manage roughly a max of 4.1 GHz on all cores on your average Ryzen processor

This is the same for the Threadripper 2990WX. We applied a 41x multiplier, use a voltage offset that gets you close or just at 1.35~1.4 volts and you should be able to rock and roll. I achieved 4200 Mhz on all cores, it booted but that wasn't stable during benchmarking. Since I refused to apply 1.45 volts, settled at 4100 MHz on all cores, and that is at a voltage in the 1.40-volt range. Let's be brutally honest here and realize ... that's 32 frickin cores tweaked at 4100 MHz man! Be advised though, tweaking creates more heat and thus make sure you have enough cooling. We surely recommend some form of liquid cooling. Obviously, tweaking will increase your power consumption (when the PC is stressed), please do keep that in mind at all times.

The conclusion

There is no logical reasoning that I can think of for any 'normal' consumer or end-user to recommend this processor to. Really, that's the brutal honest truth. But that doesn't change the fact that there is a certain user-base for these many-core processors and also, what AMD did here today is just undeniably freakishly awesome. So my conclusion will go a little like this. If you want many threads and a good gaming proc, really go read our Threadripper 2950X review? 16 cores / 32 threads, 4.4 GHz Boost and a 3.5 GHz is what you need to be able to hyper-task, stream, game, render 3D content and makes videos on. That proc will be the new sweet spot for the PC HEDT lineup from AMD. Combined with X399 the sky is the limit. 

Is there reason to get yourself a 2990WX then? Well yes Sir, that WX suffix was smart for AMD to introduce, as it is indicative for the userbase. The guys that need many threads for content creation, virtualization, animation, video editing, modeling, and raytracing. Outside of that scope of user-base though, I cannot think of a plausible reason to get one other than for X-factor, bragging rights, and sheer coolness of ownership and huge e-peen. AMD delivers what they promised with Threadripper. With a processor choice of up-to thirty-two cores and sixty-four threads combined with acceptable heat and power consumption levels, the sky is the limit, and that's what you get for under a two grand. Yeah man, even at 1800 bucks, 57 bucks per core is still very good value. The truth is, if you decide to invest in one, it's going to last you so many years. And with software slowly getting more and more threaded, it might even be a wise investment in some use-cases. That said, purely for gaming and everyday usage this investment really doesn't make much sense, we can all agree on that right? Whatever your choice is, you'll love your Threadripper PC, whether that is 12, 16, 24 or 32-cores. But for the demographic of this website, please have a look at the 2950X, as that one might be the best match in application compatibility, gaming whilst offering a nice tweak as well. I take my hat off to AMD, well done and how worthy of noting it is to say that you guys keep on pushing that envelope, even when not really needed. Guys, even though this proc doesn't apply to 90% of this reader base, I have to give this proc a top pick, come on, this thing is freaking awesome, all 19.2 billion transistors of them :-)

This one is for the creators. 

ATH +++

Drops the MIC, boom. Hilbert out.

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