The 64 Core Threadripper 3990X CPU Review: In The Midst Of Chaos, AMD Seeks Opportunity
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on February 7, 2020 9:00 AM ESTAMD 3990X Against $20k Enterprise CPUs
For those looking at a server replacement CPU, AMD’s big discussion point here is that in order to get 64 cores on Intel hardware is relatively hard. The best way to get there is with a dual socket system, featuring two of its 28-core dies at a hefty $10k a piece. AMD’s argument is that users can consolidate down to a single socket, but also have better memory support, PCIe 4.0, and no cross-memory domain issues.
AMD 3990X Enterprise Competition | |||
AnandTech | AMD 3990X |
AMD 7702P |
Intel 2x8280 |
SEP | $3990 | $4450 | $20018 |
Cores/Threads | 64 / 128 | 64 / 128 | 56 / 112 |
Base Frequency | 2900 | 2000 | 2700 |
Turbo Frequency | 4300 | 3350 | 4000 |
PCIe | 4.0 x64 | 4.0 x128 | 3.0 x96 |
DDR4 Frequency | 4x 3200 | 8x 3200 | 12x 2933 |
Max DDR4 Capacity | 512 GB | 2 TB | 3 TB |
TDP | 280 W | 200 W | 410 W |
Unfortunately I was unable to get ahold of our Rome CPUs from Johan in time for this review, however I do have data from several dual Intel Xeon setups that I did a few months ago, including the $20k system.
This time with Corona the competition is hot on the heels of AMD's 64-core CPUs, but even $20k of hardware can't match it.
The non-AVX verson of 3DPM puts the Zen 2 hardware out front, with everything else waiting in the wings.
When we add in the AVX-512 hand tuned code, the situation flips: Intel's 56 cores get almost 2.5x the score of AMD, despite having fewer cores.
Blender doesn't seem to like the additional access latency from the 2P systems.
For AES encoding, as the benchmark takes places from memory, it appears that none of Intel's CPUs can match AMD here.
For the 7-zip combined test, there's little difference between AMD's 32-core and 64-core, but there are sizable jumps above Intel hardware.
Verdict
In our tests here (more in our benchmark database), AMD's 3990X would get the crown over Intel's dual socket offerings. The only thing really keeping me back from giving it is the same reason there was hesitation on the previous page: it doesn't do enough to differentiate itself from AMD's own 32-core CPU. Where AMD does win is in that 'money is less of an issue scenario', where using a single socket 64 core CPU can help consolidate systems, save power, and save money. Intel's CPUs have a TDP of 205W each (more if you decide to use the turbo, which we did here), which totals 410W, while AMD maxed out at 280W in our tests. Technically Intel's 2P has access to more PCIe lanes, but AMD's PCIe lanes are PCIe 4.0, not PCIe 3.0, and with the right switch can power many more than Intel (if you're saving 16k, then a switch is peanuts).
We acknowledge that our tests here aren't in any way a comprehensive test of server level workloads, but for the user base that AMD is aiming for, we'd take the 64 core (or even the 32 core) in most circumstances over two Intel 28 core CPUs, and spend the extra money on memory, storage, or a couple of big fat GPUs.
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111alan - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
Just say this thing basically beats their own dual-EPYC2 7702 config(CBR20 @28974 2S, 18795 1S ).james4591 - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
The 3990X is not aimed at home or enthusiast users. It's aimed primarily at production studios and high end workstation for rendering, data processing, and encoding/decoding multimedia.With this, you don't even need gimmicks like QuickSync or NVencode to pass proprietary codecs into HD videos. You can do all the encoding in open format software codecs like h.264 and xvid and use SMT to process the video faster.
Basically you could encode a 4K video in h.264, downscale it to 1080p@60Hz and have it done before you finish eating a sandwich. Roughly about 8 minutes give or take a few.
Plus, with that many cores and even CPU grouping, you could assign Group scaling to different processes which would free up the CPU latency and allow more tasks to be shuffled into the stack without a performance penalty.
IanToo - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
>I’m proud to say that this price was my idea – AMD originally had it for something differentWhat was the price, and when did you pitch the idea? None of your 3990x articles or tweets have this.
Ian Cutress - Saturday, February 8, 2020 - link
I spoke about it on my twitter and on my CES 2hr livestream with Wendell. Ryan talked about it on twitter at the time of the announcement too.msroadkill612 - Monday, February 10, 2020 - link
It is just a pity you didn't make the variable "X", a cheaper currency than USD :)111alan - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
(and meanwhile 1x8280 also beats 2x8280 in several tests)Ian Cutress - Saturday, February 8, 2020 - link
The downsides of a NUMA environment with crosstalk.FakThisShttyGame - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
Intel needs to get their shit together and be competitive again or else AMD will do the same Skylake 14nm+++++ BS to us in the future. We need competitionMakaveli - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
AMD doesn't have a big enough market share yet and money to do what intel has done the last few years slow down.HellHammerThrash - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
I just hope this cpu will run both Zork and Pong well. Idk, maybe throw in a pair of Titan RTX's and enough RAM too....