AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X & 7970X Review: Revived HEDT Brings More Cores of Zen 4
by Gavin Bonshor on November 20, 2023 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- AMD
- HEDT
- ThreadRipper
- Zen 4
- Threadripper 7000
- TRX50
TR 7000 vs. Intel: Rendering
Rendering tests, compared to others, are often a little more simple to digest and automate. All the tests put out some sort of score or time, usually in an obtainable way that makes it fairly easy to extract. These tests are some of the most strenuous in our list, due to the highly threaded nature of rendering and ray-tracing, and can draw a lot of power.
If a system is not properly configured to deal with the thermal requirements of the processor, the rendering benchmarks are where it would show most easily as the frequency drops over a sustained period of time. Most benchmarks, in this case, are re-run several times, and the key to this is having an appropriate idle/wait time between benchmarks to allow for temperatures to normalize from the last test.
Some of the notable rendering-focused benchmarks we've included for 2024 include the latest CineBench 2024 benchmark and an update to Blender 3.6 and V-Ray 5.0.2.
We are using DDR5-5200 RDIMM memory on the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X and 7970X as per JEDEC specifications. For Intel's Xeon W9-3495X, we are using DDR5-4800 RDIMM memory as per Intel's JEDEC specifications. It should be noted that both platforms are run with their full allocation of memory channels, eg, TR7000 in 4-channel and Sapphire Rapids in 8-channel.
Below are the settings we have used for each platform:
- DDR5-5200 RDIMM - AMD Threadripper 7000
- DDR5-4800 RDIMM - Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids WS
- DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th Gen
- DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
Now we come to where the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 (and Xeon W9-3495X) excel, rendering. In all of the multi-threaded rendering benchmarks, the Threadripper 7980X makes the desktop chips look fairly insignificant in comparison. Interestingly, the Threadripper 7970X ($2499) with 32C/64T performs relatively close to the Xeon W9-3495X ($5889) with 56C/112T. This shows AMD's Zen 4 core not only performs exceptionally well in rendering from a price to performance point of view compared to Intel, but the Threadripper 7980X ($4999) with 64 Zen 4 cores is very well suited to users looking to render videos and other rendering based workloads.
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Jansen - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
Bit disappointing that the memory controller only supports DDR5-5200, considering that JEDEC compliant DDR5-6400 RDIMMs are available.Ryan Smith - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
At the end of the day it's the same I/O die as Genoa. So it comes with roughly the same restrictions.TEAMSWITCHER - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
Not surprised by this at all. My 3960X Threadripper system was never able to run 64gb (16gb x 4) at even the promised DDR4-3200 speed. I tried three different RAM kits and even a different CPU (replaced by AMD) and the problem never went away. In the end I believe it to be motherboard issue, it was simply incapable of running stable with any RAM faster than DDR-3000.After spending so much on the ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha motherboard, 64GB of DDR-3600 RAM, and a $1400 CPU, the end result was very disappointing. Support from ASUS, AMD, and G-Skill was a long process, and eventually I had to just accept what was working and move on.
Ultimately, I don't believe that AMD and ASUS can properly deliver and support any HEDT platform that is worth the money they ask for it. I sincerely wish Intel would return to this segment, as I never had a problem with my X99 Deluxe II motherboard.
lemans24 - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
Intel is definitely in HEDT with their xeon w-2400 chipsStormyParis - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
I've blacklisted Asus. Lots of issues with both specs, reliability, and service.vfridman - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
I have two systems with 3990X and two systems with 3970X, ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha motherboard and 256GB of 3600 speed G.Skill RAM in each system. All runs perfectly and completely stable, even with maxed out PBO overclock. I regularly run compilation jobs that require almost entire 256GB of RAM and never experienced any problems. I suspect you got unlucky with your CPU memory controller.Mikewind Dale - Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - link
I have a ThreadRipper Pro 3950X on a Supermicro WRX80 motherboard. I run 8x64 (512) GB of Supermicro-branded DDR4 3200 ECC RDIMM without a problem.Adam7288 - Wednesday, November 22, 2023 - link
Same exact config! Ram Bros.tygrus - Saturday, January 6, 2024 - link
How are you going with those >200GB matrices & statistics?Many years ago I had to use raw frequency stats, then a program to generate blocks of SAS code that could analyse cross-tab by cluster (weighted) with smaller subsets of interest from every possible combination (multi-morbidity data). Making sure the stats methods still gave correct results. Divide & conquer to fit in limited RAM of circa 2013 computers. In those days it was mostly constrained by single thread & disk/network IO speed (~100MB/s).
TEAMSWITCHER - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
Ya know.. I have yet to build an AMD system that didn't suffer from some kind of issue. I don't think I'm unlucky either. I need to stop buying AMD gear thinking... "this time will be different." Because it never is.