Technology

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X evaluate – the workstation king

Soar to: WX vs Non-Professional | Fashions | Efficiency | Conclusion

Transferring the content material creator and workstation efficiency needle to the best in superb trend, AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper vary of CPUs arrived in August 2017 and rapidly grew to become the bridge between high-end Ryzen desktop and mission essential Epyc server processors. Although seemingly forgotten for some time, immediately sees AMD injecting critical mojo again into the workstation vary with all-new Ryzen Threadripper Professional WX and non-Professional 7000 Sequence chips based mostly on the newest Zen 4 microarchitecture.

2023’s premier Ryzen Threadrippers take pleasure in a brand new lease of life made doable by consigning earlier platforms to the dustbin of historical past. Out goes incumbent Professional’s sWRX8 and non-Professional’s sTRX4, in comes all-encompassing sTR5. With this straightforward stroke, AMD’s cancelled any notion of upgrading from earlier generations. Don’t be alarmed, nevertheless, as a result of this abrupt departure with previous platforms is precisely what occurred when each Ryzen and Epyc took on their shiniest and most performant incarnations we see immediately.

A story of the Threadripper tape

Threadripper 7000 Sequence Threadripper 5000 Sequence Threadripper 3000 Sequence
Core structure Zen 4 Zen 3 Zen 2
Most cores / threads 96 / 192 Professional WX
64 / 128 non-Professional
64 / 128 64 / 128 Professional
32 / 64 non-Professional
Most frequency 5.3GHz 4.5GHz 4.5GHz
Variations Professional
non-Professional
Professional solely Professional
non-Professional
Socket sTR5 sWRX8 sTRX4 / sWRX8
Most energy 350W 280W 280W
Built-in graphics No No No
Reminiscence Registered DDR5 DDR4 DDR4
Reminiscence assist 8-channel Professional WX
4-channel non-Professional
8-channel Professional WX 8-channel Professional WX
4-channel non-Professional
Greatest PCIe 128 PCIe 5.0 Professional WX
48 PCIe 5.0 non-Professional
128 PCIe 4.0 128 PCIe 4.0 Professional WX
64 PCIe 5.0 non-Professional
Most value $9,999 $6,500 $5,400

It’s positively value peering down the rabbit gap to totally realise that sweeping adjustments are afoot. The theme is just extra of every part that issues for customers requiring the following degree of workstation efficiency. Non-Professional chips make a comeback, there are extra cores, larger frequencies, enhanced energy, higher connectivity, and larger reminiscence bandwidth. You get the thought. Befitting this bounty of extra, most value is, effectively, greater than any Ryzen Threadripper that’s come earlier than. The value of progress.

Professional WX versus Non-Professional

Drilling down additional, similar to the 3000 Sequence, AMD segments these new chips into Professional WX and common variations. They exist to serve barely totally different markets and are subsequently endowed with particular options. Professional WX is the efficiency chief and gobbles up the headline specs of as much as 96 cores / 192 threads, 8-channel reminiscence, and 128 PCIe 5.0 growth lanes. Normal ‘ripper, in the meantime, makes do with fewer cores, much less reminiscence, and solely 48 super-fast growth lanes.

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When it comes to positioning, AMD’s imaginative and prescient of Threadripper as a more in-depth cousin of Epyc reasonably than Ryzen is realised with Professional WX, whereas commonplace fashions have extra commonality with desktop Ryzen. That is AMD saying have it your means, relying upon price range and software use.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series platform comparison slide.

Sharing the identical sTR5 socket, nevertheless, brings attention-grabbing interoperability into play. Designated WRX90, supporting motherboards primed for Professional WX naturally carry the total eight reminiscence channels and baked-in assist for heaps of growth lanes. Cheaper fashions constructed for non-Professional, generally known as TRX50, carry solely 4 reminiscence channels and fewer peripheral assist, befitting its stripped-down characteristic set.

You may’t use a Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Sequence non-Professional chip in a motherboard designed for Professional WX. Although it plonks into the bodily socket simply tremendous, it falls quick on, you guessed it, the RAM and I/O division. However the shoe suits on the opposite foot, as Professional WX works in any board, even when it’s designed for non-Professional. After all, you lose half the reminiscence channels and tonnes of I/O, however the cheaper platform choice is engaging for core-dense workloads that don’t profit from reminiscence bandwidth.

In a nutshell, pair WX Professional with costlier motherboards catering for its full gamut of options, whereas take into account non-Professional for a cost-sensitive HEDT method.

Fashions

Cores/threads Base/increase L3 cache Worth
Threadripper Professional 7995WX 96 / 192 2.5 / 5.1GHz 384MB $9,999
Threadripper Professional 7985WX 64 / 128 3.2 / 5.1GHz 256MB $7,349
Threadripper Professional 7975WX 32 / 64 4.0 / 5.3GHz 128MB $3,899
Threadripper Professional 7965WX 24 / 48 4.2 / 5.3GHz 128MB $2,649
Threadripper 7980X 64 / 128 3.2 / 5.1GHz 256MB $4,999
Threadripper 7970X 32 / 64 4.0 / 5.3GHz 128MB $2,499
Threadripper 7960X 24 / 48 4.2 / 5.3GHz 128MB $1,499

The magnificent seven, if you’ll, cut up between 4 Professional WX and non-Professional trio. You’ll want a discrete video card in each occasion as a result of these chips lack the built-in graphics current on desktop Ryzen. Core counts are replicated on each variations till the headline 96-core Professional WX unique. There’s completely no technical purpose why AMD can’t launch an identical non-Professional chip – the infrastructure is actually there – however why do this when you’ll be able to cost extra for one thing else.

Utilizing a modular chiplet design philosophy, as much as 12 CCDs – dwelling to eight cores and 32MB L3 cache every – connect with a central I/O die conveniently generally known as IOD. AMD builds numerous core and L3 cache configurations by massaging the variety of CCDs. Easy maths informs us the top-bin Professional 7995WX 96-core chip employs all 12 CCDs and carries 384MB of L3; others will use both four- or eight-CCD bases as their blueprint.

These chips sit on an LGA 4844 sTR5 socket that’s bodily an identical to the SP6 type issue utilized by AMD’s newest telco-optimised Siena server processor. They’re not electrically suitable, after all, as a result of they carry totally different options. sTR5, really, can also be the identical dimension as last-generation Threadripper sockets, and that’s nice information because the cooling that labored on them will, by and huge, be tremendous this time round.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X secure in the motherboard's socket.

You’ll want a beefy heatsink to drag warmth away from monster Ryzen Threadripper 7980X. Geared up with a 350W TDP when working full chat, AMD’s advice is investing in high-quality AIO cooling. One thing like an honest 360 must do the trick.

Encouraging this line of thermal intervention, AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X is bundled with the identical AIO bracket as seen on the earlier technology. Working nice with Asetek-built pump heads, merely twist the bracket on to the cooler after which screw in. The entire course of takes fewer than 5 minutes for an MSI MEG CoreLiquid S360.

Power consumption and temperature for Ryzen 7980X when cooled by an MSI CoreLiquid S360 AIO.

Mentioned cooling tames the beast reasonably effortlessly. Temperature nudges as much as round 75°C when the CPU’s pulling very near its 350W restrict, leaving scope for overclocking.

Efficiency

Understanding the scope of Ryzen Threadripper 7980X’s energy requires comparability towards high-performance desktop PCs you’re accustomed to. Benchmarked from the bottom up, now we have two of the most effective client platforms to this point – AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel Core i9-14900K run at their manufacturer-recommended energy settings of 170W and 253W, respectively.

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This time round, we run particular benchmarks which can be indicative of the work accomplished on workstations and high-end desktop machines.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in AIDA memory bandwidth read test.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in AIDA memory bandwidth write test.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in AIDA memory bandwidth latency test.

You’ll now admire that AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X makes use of a quad-channel reminiscence structure that presents half the bandwidth obtainable on the octo-channel Professional WX chips. However, run at DDR5-6400, there’s round double the throughput of dual-channel reminiscence discovered on each main client platforms.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in Adobe Photoshop Puget test.

All this speak of monster efficiency falls flat within the first take a look at. Working the confirmed Adobe Photoshop take a look at from Puget methods, Ryzen Threadripper 7980X is off the tempo. A few causes clarify this efficiency. The take a look at doesn’t reply to extra cores and threads in the identical means rendering purposes do. One other issue is 7980X’s comparatively low frequency, averaging round 4.5GHz, evaluating unfavourably with the 5.5GHz achieved on client chips.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in Blender test.

But it’s all about context. 64-core 7980X comes into its personal when peak utilisation nears 100%. There’s each purpose to count on it to be sooner than the most effective client chips, however the degree of victory verges on staggering. It’s effectively over thrice as quick as an Intel Core i9-14900K. Extrapolation is vital on this regard, evidently, as a result of any rendering challenge taking on three hours on the Intel chip will take round one hour on Ryzen Threadripper 7980X.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance versus Intel Core i9-14900K.
Smoking-fast numbers in Blender.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in Cinebench R23 1T test.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in Cinebench R23 MT test.

A typical theme reoccurs. Single-thread outcomes aren’t this beast’s forte. All-core runs, alternatively, most actually are. Nearing 100k is actually Epyc territory.

In case you have been questioning, 7980X scores 5,692 within the new Cinebench 2024 multi-core take a look at, in comparison with 2,160 and a pair of,206 for 7950X and 14900K, respectively.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in Corona Render test.

No surprises for guessing the massive bar belongs to 7980X.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in Geekbench 61T test.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in Geekbench 6 MT test.

Benchmarks with a medium load naturally don’t present large uplifts.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in KeyShot Viewer test.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in SPEC Financial test.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in V-Ray test.

But if the applying scales effectively throughout cores and threads, efficiency is the most effective we’ve seen from an HEDT answer.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance AC Valhalla.

The underlying Zen 4 structure and forward-looking TRX50 platform must do effectively sufficient in gaming, you’d assume.

Gaming efficiency is slightly shy of class-leading client options as a result of sheer frequency is missing. However, when the boss isn’t wanting, the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X and GeForce RTX 4090 mixture is tasty sufficient for an satisfying fragging expertise.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in FF Endwalker test.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X power consumption.

No surprises to see peak CPU-intensive energy consumption is manifestly larger than client platforms. The slight fear is the a lot loftier idle consumption. Working 128GB of registered DDR5-6400 reminiscence and a extra advanced platform clarify a piece of that extra energy requirement.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X performance in V-Ray efficiency test.

Rendering effectivity is calculated by dividing the rating achieved in V-Ray by peak energy consumption. Nearly doubling the rating posted by Ryzen 9 7950X is not any imply feat.

Conclusion

The 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X takes pleasure of place as essentially the most spectacular non-Professional chip to this point. It’s a beast of a processor, all proper, constructed utilizing the newest Zen 4 structure. Working at larger frequencies than earlier generations, it makes quick work {of professional} purposes that scale effectively with core counts.

Placing efficiency into context, 7980X is commonly thrice speedier than main client platforms that additionally tout HEDT credentials. It’s protected to say Ryzen Threadripper is again with a bang.

But there are provisos to pay attention to. Breaking with the previous, the brand-new platform requires funding in a TRX50 motherboard and RDIMM reminiscence. Pushing the price of adoption up considerably, there’s no means round this hurdle, so bear it in thoughts earlier than leaping in.

Make no mistake, the mainstream workstation firmament has a brand new CPU boss. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X is formidable chip teasing the most effective out of the Zen 4 structure. However hey, if it’s not quick sufficient, you’ll be able to all the time chuck the 96-core Professional 7995WX within the socket. Decisions, decisions.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X sandwiched between Epyc processors.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X

Verdict: A thundering-fast chip born to gobble up skilled workloads.


Club386 Recommended

Execs

Gobsmacking efficiency
True HEDT dominance
Can use 96-core chip
Nice multi-core effectivity

Cons

Requires new platform

Purchase


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Alex Reed

Alex Reed has a background in computer science and journalism, holding a degree in Computer Science from a reputable university and a journalism certification from a leading journalism school. This unique blend of technical expertise and writing skills positions Alex as an authoritative voice in the world of technology journalism.
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