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
Threadripper 7000 vs. Threadripper 3000: Generational Improvements
Looking at how the latest AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors compare against the previous Threadripper 3000 series, we are essentially testing apples against apples (or older apples). Both sets of Threadripper CPUs share the same core/thread counts, including the 7980X and 3990X, which both have 64C/128T, albeit being Zen 4 vs Zen 2, given AMD didn't launch non-Pro SKUs for the 5000 series. The same can be said with the 7970X and 3970X, which are both 32C/64T chips.
All four of the AMD Ryzen Threadrippers hit a max power in line with their rated TDPs, including 280 W for the 3000 series and 350 W for the 7000 series.
In 3DPM V2.1, it's worth highlighting that AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 3000 series doesn't support AVX 512/AV2 workloads. Given that AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series does, it means that performance in comparison is much higher as expected in this benchmark.
In Dwarf Fortress, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series CPUs (7980X and 7970X) run much faster in this benchmark than the 3000 series. In the larger of the three tests, the 7980X is around 39% faster than the 3990X, showing that Zen 4 versus Zen 2 is very beneficial.
In Factorio, both the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series chips perform similarly here, although are around 30% faster than the 3000 series.
Looking at CineBench R23 single-threaded performance, there are substantial gains going from Zen 2 to Zen 4, as expected. In the CineBench R23 multi-threaded benchmark, we can see that even the Threadripper 7970 (32C/64T) is 10% faster than the 3990X, which is a 64C/128T part. The Ryzen Threadripper 7980X decimates the other three chips with a gain of 71% over the previous generation chip with the same core/thread count.
While our WinRAR 5.90 benchmark is quite sensitive to memory performance, the Threadripper 7970X beats the 7980X, while both are marginally ahead of the Threadripper 3000 series chips.
Overall, as we can see regarding rendering and simulation performance, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 chips are both vastly superior to the 3000 series chips. It does have to be said that Threadripper 7000 is two generations of cores ahead of the 3000 series (Zen 4 vs Zen 2), as AMD didn't launch non-Pro 5000 series SKUs. Users looking to update from the Threadripper 3000 series platform for HEDT will certainly see benefits across the board opting to elect for Ryzen Threadripper 7000.
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Makaveli - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
So how did you not catch that the memory you were looking at was using Hynix?I just had to look at the specs and I knew just by the Cas latency. There was no good memory in the DDR4 range that came in at CL18.
meacupla - Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - link
Well, clearly, the site that I used thought it was B-die, when it was false info for the 2x16GB model.tamalero - Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - link
I remember when samsung released low quality "b" dies. It was in the news i think in tomshardware.These were used as "b dies" in corsair high end ram.
And they were not as good as the top class high binned true b die.
Someone correct me If I am wrong.
29a - Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - link
The PCB the memory is mounted on matters too.kn00tcn - Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - link
micron m-die(?) 3600c16 working great on am4, it just wasnt available until a couple years after launch, samsung isnt the only choiceand actually hynix had different dies, some tighter and more stable than others
first hand anecdotal:
1) in 2018 hynix cjr(?) 3200c16 / 2600x / msi b450m mortar = never fully stable, had to tweak low level ohms, maybe the cpu had issue, linux randomly showed amdgpu pcie timeouts in log
2) though in 2023 the same hynix sticks work fine with 5600g / asrock deskmeet
3) in 2020 micron 3600c16 / 3600x / asus tuf b450m = solid
4) in 2023 different micron 3600c16 / 5600 with pbo / same msi b450m mortar from 2018, everything fine
demu - Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - link
Before b-die memory I also had a G.Skill Trident set with Hynix ic:s (G.Skill 64GB (4 x 16GB) Trident Z, DDR4 3600MHz, CL17, 1.35V CL17-19-19-19).They also worked @3600 CL16-18-18-18 or 3733 CL17.
iamkyle - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
I see unlike previous generations of Threadripper, AMD and its board partners are abandoning the "content creator/gamer" segment.Great for the workstation crowd, a loss for the aforementioned.
Threska - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
The people who created Crysis could have used this. :-)kn00tcn - Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - link
and what does a content creator need tons of pcie lanes and quad+ channel memory for? regular desktop isnt weak with 16 high freq cores and 3d cacheif workloads like rendering scale so well with cores then they also scale across multiple networked computers for a cost effective render farm instead of a single expensive threadripper
main issue is probably the daw niche of extremely complex realtime audio synths/effects, but this has workarounds for years (prerender specific tracks), and it's not like we had better performance available in the past
thestryker - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
HEDT isn't back when the platform price of entry is more than double that of the top desktop setups. AMD did release Zen 4 TR cheaper than Intel's current closest equivalent ($1500 vs $2100), but when $1500 is the cheapest it gets CPU wise you could put together CPU/DRAM/mobo for less. This is why I've contended TR 3xxx actually marked the end of HEDT as that is when the price of entry became significantly higher than desktop.