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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Jansen - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
Bit disappointing that the memory controller only supports DDR5-5200, considering that JEDEC compliant DDR5-6400 RDIMMs are available.Ryan Smith - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
At the end of the day it's the same I/O die as Genoa. So it comes with roughly the same restrictions.TEAMSWITCHER - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
Not surprised by this at all. My 3960X Threadripper system was never able to run 64gb (16gb x 4) at even the promised DDR4-3200 speed. I tried three different RAM kits and even a different CPU (replaced by AMD) and the problem never went away. In the end I believe it to be motherboard issue, it was simply incapable of running stable with any RAM faster than DDR-3000.After spending so much on the ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha motherboard, 64GB of DDR-3600 RAM, and a $1400 CPU, the end result was very disappointing. Support from ASUS, AMD, and G-Skill was a long process, and eventually I had to just accept what was working and move on.
Ultimately, I don't believe that AMD and ASUS can properly deliver and support any HEDT platform that is worth the money they ask for it. I sincerely wish Intel would return to this segment, as I never had a problem with my X99 Deluxe II motherboard.
lemans24 - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
Intel is definitely in HEDT with their xeon w-2400 chipsStormyParis - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
I've blacklisted Asus. Lots of issues with both specs, reliability, and service.vfridman - Monday, November 20, 2023 - link
I have two systems with 3990X and two systems with 3970X, ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha motherboard and 256GB of 3600 speed G.Skill RAM in each system. All runs perfectly and completely stable, even with maxed out PBO overclock. I regularly run compilation jobs that require almost entire 256GB of RAM and never experienced any problems. I suspect you got unlucky with your CPU memory controller.Mikewind Dale - Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - link
I have a ThreadRipper Pro 3950X on a Supermicro WRX80 motherboard. I run 8x64 (512) GB of Supermicro-branded DDR4 3200 ECC RDIMM without a problem.Adam7288 - Wednesday, November 22, 2023 - link
Same exact config! Ram Bros.tygrus - Saturday, January 6, 2024 - link
How are you going with those >200GB matrices & statistics?Many years ago I had to use raw frequency stats, then a program to generate blocks of SAS code that could analyse cross-tab by cluster (weighted) with smaller subsets of interest from every possible combination (multi-morbidity data). Making sure the stats methods still gave correct results. Divide & conquer to fit in limited RAM of circa 2013 computers. In those days it was mostly constrained by single thread & disk/network IO speed (~100MB/s).
TEAMSWITCHER - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
Ya know.. I have yet to build an AMD system that didn't suffer from some kind of issue. I don't think I'm unlucky either. I need to stop buying AMD gear thinking... "this time will be different." Because it never is.