Threadripper on Zen+ 32 Cores - Launching Q3 2018

[Molesy79]

Memory bandwidth issue with 2990WX

Maybe better with the 2970WX?

 

[awaybreaktoday]

No gaming on the 2990WX

 

[Deleted member 66701]

No gaming on the 2990WX

It's more than capable of playing games.

Not that anyone will be building a gaming rig with one though.

 

[Klo]

No gaming on the 2990WX

Gaming will work fine for most cases.

 

[8 Pack]

Gaming is working fine.........Just not as good as some alternatives....But if you need teh cores and threads this is the CPU to choose .....

 

[sideways14a]

So pretty much what we thought, the 32 core works well in tasks suited to it and where the memory doesn't become a problem. When it sees trouble though it does fall off fast.
The new 16 core seams great though.

Wonder if the 24core part will bridge the gap between the 2, giving more of the big core performance but with less of the strangled memory issues.

 

[awaybreaktoday]

However when you start throwing multiple tasks at the 2990WX its untouchable....

Watch from 14 minutes.....

 

[Hotwired]

So pretty much what we thought, the 32 core works well in tasks suited to it and where the memory doesn't become a problem. When it sees trouble though it does fall off fast.
The new 16 core seams great though.

Wonder if the 24core part will bridge the gap between the 2, giving more of the big core performance but with less of the strangled memory issues.

It's not just memory. Some programs are performing worse if given more threads than the creators expected.

Which might be reasonable considering it's a 32 core/64 thread cpu in a desktop.

 

[Curlyriff]

It's not just memory. Some programs are performing worse if given more threads than the creators expected.

Indeed and to a point a number of software programmers have not worried about this as most users have relied on 4-8 cores at close to if not 5Ghz for the last 5 years so have set their software to suit. This will change now Intel are going more core too and hopefully we shall see programmers going more batch processing to utilise as many threads as possible.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have started a review thread:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/ocuk-threadripper-2-review-thread.18828183/

Linux reviews seem to paint a better picture it seems:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd-linux-2990wx&num=1
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd-tr2950x-linux&num=1

Here are some cooler reviews:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd-2990wx-cooling&num=1

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Linux reviews seem to paint a better picture it seems:

Linux has always been better at utilising more cores - it was the same with gen 1 TR. If I have any heavy rendering to do in Blender, I always boot to Linux to do it.

 

[Gerard]

It's not just memory. Some programs are performing worse if given more threads than the creators expected.

Which might be reasonable considering it's a 32 core/64 thread cpu in a desktop.

You can turn on "game mode" in ryzen master and that knocks it down to 8 cores afaik.

 

[beany_bot]

I'd love a 32 core TR system.

Absolutely no use case for it.

But I would love it.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

You can turn on "game mode" in ryzen master and that knocks it down to 8 cores afaik.

Yeah, you can make it behave exactly like a 1950x/1800x (I wont say 2950x/2700x as the clock speeds are still lower) - but who wants to do a hard reboot to do that?

 

[Gerard]

Yeah, you can make it behave exactly like a 1950x/1800x (I wont say 2950x/2700x as the clock speeds are still lower) - but who wants to do a hard reboot to do that?

Well if you're playing a game and its behaving oddly its an option. Not like rebooting with m.2 ssd these days take long anyway

 

[DarrenM343]

I don't think it's worth me upgrading from 1950X to 2950X but might upgrade a second system later in the year to the 2950X, or may wait for TR3.I've thought about the 2990WX, great as it is, but it's aimed further away from my use case. I've hardly stretched the 1950X as much as I planned, due mostly to working away. I don't do content atm, just dev work and use VM's.
Will look forward to reading actual use reviews. 2950X seems the sweet spot for a more all round system.

 

[AndreiD]

https://techreport.com/review/33977/amd-ryzen-threadripper-2990wx-cpu-reviewed
Pretty detailed review up, 2990WX definitely more of a niche CPU, it's here and there in a lot of those tests (as expected since only 2 of the dies have direct memory access, the other 2 have to hop through the fabric) and very not ideal for gaming.
2950X looks like the best of the bunch, good middle road and that MSRP is fantastic.

 

[4K8KW10]

https://techreport.com/review/33977/amd-ryzen-threadripper-2990wx-cpu-reviewed
Pretty detailed review up, 2990WX definitely more of a niche CPU, it's here and there in a lot of those tests (as expected since only 2 of the dies have direct memory access, the other 2 have to hop through the fabric) and very not ideal for gaming.
2950X looks like the best of the bunch, good middle road and that MSRP is fantastic.

The conclusion is that most software doesn't know what to do...

Conclusions

AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX often proves to be the best-performing high-end desktop CPU on the planet, but its potential isn't fully realized yet.

When this chip rips, it really rips. We've never seen the kind of speed the 2990WX delivers in Blender and Corona rendering before. The 2990WX also turns in chart-topping performances in HPC workloads like the SPECwpc NAMD benchmark. Handbrake transcoding with the x265 encoder and the Indigo "Supercar" scene are about the only tests we've yet run where Intel's i9-7980XE (and i9-7960X) take large leads over AMD's uberchip.

In other cases, software doesn't seem to know quite what to make of the 2990WX, as evidenced by our 7-zip compression results, the Indigo benchmark's "Bedroom" test scene, and our Veracrypt AES test. AMD acknowledges that the 2990WX's hardware might be in front of the software in some cases, so some patience might be required until developers can tune their applications to get the most from the chip. I'm fairly confident devs will be able to smooth out those wrinkles with time, but we have to judge the Ryzen 2990WX as it stands today.

 

[AndreiD]

In a lot of those it's not the software that's the issue, compression is heavily memory limited, while decompression is not. Some reviews have the WX compared to the full 8 channel Epyc and you can see the disparity in some of those benches.
It's still a very good CPU for some niche use. Also according to the phoronix review, it's a great Linux workstation CPU: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd-linux-2990wx&num=1

 

[AndreiD]

Phoronix posted a Windows 10 vs Linux 2990WX performance comparison and Linux definitely handles NUMA a lot better: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=2990wx-linux-windows&num=1
Linux seems to get the most out of the 2990WX.