AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX Review: 24 Cores on a Budget
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Rendering, Encoding and Compression
Rendering
Many of these workloads stress the memory subsystem, diminishing Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX's core count advantage due to accesses from the remote memory controllers. The 2970WX benefits from higher clock rates to surpass the 2990WX in our single-threaded POV-Ray and Cinebench tests. Both are closely matched after we active PBO, though.
If you're looking for single-threaded supremacy, Intel's ninth-gen chips cannot be beaten, as evidenced by Core i9-9900K's dominance.
Threaded workloads are an ideal match to Threadripper's high core counts. But the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX doesn't scale linearly in these types of workloads. That means the 2970WX's $500-cheaper price is attractive for high-end desktop PCs.
Encoding & Compression
Our compression and decompression metrics work directly from system memory, removing storage throughput from the equation. This workload should benefit from threading. But either memory throughput or poor software scaling holds the 2990WX back from realizing its potential in the compression test. The same issue affects Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX, though Dynamic Local Mode provides a slight performance uptick. But neither the 2970WX nor the 2990WX are a match for the 2920X and 2950X with their dual-die architectures. Conversely, the WX chips dominate our decompression tests, illustrating the performance trade-offs AMD's highest-end CPUs force you to make.
y-cruncher, a single- and multi-threaded program that computes pi using AVX instructions, is a great test to measure Threadripper’s AVX performance. Intel’s Core i9 employs two 256-bit AVX FMA units per core that operate in parallel, whereas Ryzen's Zen architecture divides 256-bit AVX operations across two FMA units per core. Intel's AVX instruction support shines during the single-threaded benchmark. However, spreading the workload across Threadripper's many cores helps improve its standing. Despite an eight-core advantage, the 2990WX offers little benefit over the 2970WX in the threaded y-cruncher test. Clearly, their cores suffer from a memory bandwidth bottleneck.
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Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.
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Peter Martin Threadripper and Cake or Death!Reply
I'll have the Threadripper please.
Very well! Give him Threadripper!
This would be ideal for me, but it is pricey for now. -
1_rick Basin Falls may be soldered, but considering that the solder in the 9000-series doesn't seem to do as much as people had hoped, we should be prepared for there not to be a lot of OC headroom.Reply -
kinggremlin If you can't afford it, you don't need it. Anyone who can make actual use of this CPU is using it in a business which is generating the money necessary to pay for it.Reply -
g-unit1111 21441427 said:If you can't afford it, you don't need it. Anyone who can make actual use of this CPU is using it in a business which is generating the money necessary to pay for it.
Exactly, if I were in a business to generate content I would take the 24 core TR4 CPU over the 18 core Intel equivalent for less money any day of the week. Not everything is made to play games on it. -
Dorian Kunch Why he is the internet IT god, bow to it it it it one one one oneReply
Give it the Threadripper.
Give it! -
Peter Martin I would be able to make some money with that for sure. fine, now where is that business plan?Reply