AMD landed a double blow to Intel today by announcing the highly anticipated Ryzen Threadripper 7000 (Storm Peak) series and Threadripper Pro 7000 WX series with up to 96 cores. With these new core-heavy Zen 4 chips, AMD aims to revive the HEDT market and cement its spot on the list of the best CPUs for workstations.
PC Magazine got the opportunity to take the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX for a spin. The news outlet compared the 96-core processor to the 64-core Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX, the previous Threadripper Pro flagship, and the 56-core Xeon w9-3495X, Intel's overclockable Sapphire Rapids Xeon W part. Intel doesn't have a direct response for AMD's high-core count parts. The Xeon Platinum 8490H, the top Sapphire Rapids Xeon chip, comes with 60 cores and 120 threads.
Ryzen Threadripper 7000 shares the same DNA as AMD's 4th-generation EPYC Genoa server processors. The processors wield the latest Zen 4 cores and have a chiplet design comprising Zen 4 CCDs (Core Complex Dies) and one gigantic IOD (I/O Die) in the center. As a result, it wasn't surprising that AMD was able to bump the core count for the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 WX series up to 96 cores. The feature set differs between Storm Peak and Genoa to avoid product cannibalization. For instance, EPYC Genoa supports up to 12 channels of DDR5 memory, whereas the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 WX series is confined to eight channels.
The Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX is at the forefront of AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-series lineup. Like the EPYC 9654 or EPYC 9654P, the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX has 96 cores, 192 threads, and 384MB of L3 cache. AMD tuned the processor's clock speeds to 2.5 GHz for the base clock and up to 5.1 GHz for the maximum boost clock. The higher base clock on the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX is minor compared to the EPYC 9654P. The maximum boost clock, however, is around 38% higher. Despite the higher clock speeds, the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX has a 350W TDP, 10W lower than the EPYC 9654P.
Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX Benchmarks
| Processor | Cinebench R23 | Blender* | Adobe Photoshop 22 CC | 3DMark CPU 1-Thread | HandBrake 1.4* | Crossmark | Geekbench 5.4.1 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX | 100,291 | 22 | 1,133 | 1,027 | 3:03 | 1,452 | 52,817 |
| Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX | 64,405 | 43 | 1,032 | 883 | 3:21 | 1,857 | N/A |
| Xeon w9-3495X | 55,309 | 50 | N/A | 531 | 3:43 | 1,152 | 33,987 |
*Lower is better.
It's important to highlight that PC Magazine didn't have physical access to the Dell Precision 7875 system with the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX. Storm Peak will hit the market in late November; therefore, the chips likely won't be in reviewers' hands until that timeframe. Instead, Dell granted the publication remote access to the test system at the company's Customer Solutions Center (CSC) Lab in Round Rock, Texas. The company used Parsec, a remote desktop software, for communication. This creates a performance overhead, which Dell claims to be between 1% to 3%. The publication used various benchmarks, and we collected those that we consider the most relevant.
The Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX posted 81% higher performance than the Xeon w9-3495X in Cinebench R23. It also outperformed the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX by 51% in the same benchmark. In Blender, the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX had 56% and 49% lower rending times than the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX and Xeon w9-3495X, respectively.
Regarding single-threaded performance, PC Magazine measured a 16% generation-over-generation improvement for the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX with 3DMark. It delivered a 93% higher score compared to the Xeon w9-3495X.
PC Magazine's choice of mainstream benchmarks and workloads limited the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX's full potential. Crossmark had the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX outpacing the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX. For instance, the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX only beat the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX by 10% despite having 50% more cores.
As workstation product, the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX deserves to tackle professional and more specialized workloads. Software that can't support the chip's 96 cores will obviously hold it back. Treat these figures as preliminary results now, as we're likely to see more complex workloads in final reviews.
