AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X and 7970X Review



It's no longer every day that we get to check a $5,000 CPU, however don't worry, we've a greater affordable $2,500 choice as well, so this ought to be amusing.

The new Ryzen Threadripper 7980X and 7970X, percent sixty four and 32 cores respectively, a part of AMD's contemporary excessive-give up computer lineup, those are brilliant powerful chips which can be glaringly no longer meant for the mainstream marketplace. There's additionally the TR 7960X presenting 24 cores for $1,500, however that model isn't always part of this overview due to the fact we were not able to get one in time.

The Threadripper 7000 series is a piece extra complex than previous releases because it's break up into systems. Today we are searching on the HEDT fashions, however there may be additionally the "Pro" collection providing as much as ninety six cores, greater PCIe lanes, and more memory channels, with the catch that they cost more money.

But in preference to delve into all six Pro models, which we might not be checking out nowadays, we're going to fast show you the specs whilst we circulate on to talk about the models we are trying out.

table.Article-desk td, table.Article-table th vertical-align: middle; border: 1px strong ssharpp105ab23b; Model MSRP Cores/Threads Core Config Chiplets Base GHz Boost GHz L3 Cache PCIe five.0 Lanes Mem Ch TDP TR 7980X $5,000 sixty four / 128 8 x eight 8 × CCD, 1 × I/OD three.2 GHz 5.1 GHz 256 MB forty eight four 350 W TR 7970X $2,500 32 / sixty four 4 x eight 4 × CCD, 1 × I/OD four.Zero GHz five.3 GHz 128 MB TR 7960X $1,500 24 / 48 4 x 6 four.2 GHz TR Pro 7995WX $10,000 ninety six / 192 12 x 8 12 × CCD, 1 × I/OD 2.Five GHz five.1 GHz 384 MB 128 eight 350 W TR Pro 7985WX $7,350 sixty four / 128 eight x eight 8 × CCD, 1 × I/OD three.2 GHz 256 MB TR Pro 7975WX $3,900 32 / sixty four 4 x 8 four × CCD, 1 × I/OD 4.Zero GHz five.3 GHz 128 MB TR Pro 7965WX $2,650 24 / 48 4 x 6 four.2 GHz TR Pro 7955WX $1,900 16 / 32 2 x 8 2 × CCD, 1 × I/OD 4.5 GHz sixty four MB TR Pro 7945WX $1,four hundred 12 / 24 2 x 6 4.7 GHz

It's well worth noting that the Threadripper 7000 series has moved to a brand new 4844-pin sTR5 socket and it's no longer well matched with the previous 4094-pin sWRX8 platform used by the TR 5000 collection. There are also two sTR5 chipsets, the WRX90 and TRX50, the WRX90 helps the Pro CPUs and the Pro CPUs most effective, at the same time as the TRX50 chipset supports each Pro and HEDT parts.

As stated earlier than, the key distinction is the PCIe lane count number and memory channels. If you operate a Pro CPU on a WRX90 board you may have one hundred forty four usable PCIe lanes and octa memory support. But if you deploy a Pro CPU on a TRX50 board, you may be constrained to 88 usable PCIe lanes and quad-channel reminiscence.

Speaking of memory, Threadripper 7000 processors can accommodate up to eight channel/2TB of reminiscence on WRX90 motherboards the use of 256GB DIMMs, or up to 4 channel/1TB of memory on TRX50 forums. Both systems officially assist DDR5-5200 in single or twin rank configurations.

Though it's no longer your regular DDR5 memory, each platforms use registered DIMMs, so that you would require DDR5 RDIMM, LRDIMM or 3DS RDIMM. Also, RDIMMs aren't well matched with conventional unbuffered or unregistered memory – the type of reminiscence utilized by AM5 processors, as an instance.

For checking out, AMD supplied a 128GB kit of G.Skill's Zeta R5 Neo DDR5-6400 RDIMM memory. These are 32GB modules and at the same time as we do not have precise pricing for them, they may be going to be very luxurious because the eight-stick 128GB package charges ~$1,000.

Realistically, for now you'll probable most effective be the usage of up to 256GB of memory with such a Threadripper HEDT components on a TRX50 motherboard given all currently to be had models best provide four DIMMs, and 128GB registered DDR5 modules are quite costly at around $1,000 for DDR5-4800 spec kits. But in case you need a 512GB kit you'll be looking at over $five,000 proper now, so correct luck with that.

The Threadripper 7980X is available in at $five,000, gives 64-cores/128-threads the use of eight CCD's and a single I/OD. In overall, there may be 256 MB of L3 Cache, 48 PCIe five.0 lanes, and 4 reminiscence channels. The cores run at a base clock of three.2 GHz with a 5.1 GHz enhance clock, and prefer all Threadripper 7000 collection components, the TDP is ready to 350 watts.

The Threadripper 7970X is essentially reduce in half of, with just four CCD's giving it 32-cores/64-threads and 128MB of L3 cache, and the price has been reduce in 1/2, too, at $2,500. Because the TDP stays the identical at 350 watts, the base clocks had been dramatically improved to 4 GHz, and we even see a slight growth to the enhance clock hitting five.Three GHz.

For trying out we are the usage of the Asus Pro WS TRX50-Sage WiFi, 128GB of DDR5-6400 CL32 reminiscence and the GeForce RTX 4090. AMD additionally furnished the NZXT Kraken 360 for cooling, however didn't include the mounting equipment within the field, so at the final minute we needed to get our hands on something else for testing, and that some thing become the DeepCool LT520, a 240mm AIO. We examined using the modern day build of Windows eleven, with all drivers up to date, so let's get into it…

Productivity Benchmarks

Starting with the Cinebench multi-middle take a look at, we discover that the 7980X is 28% quicker than its predecessor, the 5995WX. Meanwhile, the 7970X turned into just 15% slower, that is first-rate considering it has half of as many cores. Compared to the 3970X, a 32-center element the use of Zen 2 cores, it become an impressive 67% quicker.

Sadly, we don't have any competing Intel workstation processors for comparison, even though it's our know-how that the state-of-the-art fifty six-center flagship Xeon version plays similarly to the 5995WX in this take a look at.

What's sincerely awesome here is that for kind of the identical electricity usage, the 7980X was 150% quicker than the 14900K.

Where the Threadripper CPUs are not all that amazing is single-core overall performance. Obviously, 32 and sixty four-center processors aren't going to excel here when in comparison to higher-clocked mainstream desktop components. Still, the 7970X turned into 36% faster than the 5995WX in this area, and the 7980X turned into 32% faster. So, the Zen four based Threadripper CPUs are an awful lot quicker than the older Zen three version, a significant development of over 30%.

The Blender Open Data results are much like what we located in the Cinebench multi-core take a look at. The 7980X is 41% faster than the 5995WX, a fairly magnificent end result. It also intended that the 7970X turned into just 13% slower than the preceding generation sixty four-core part.

In the 7-zip compression take a look at, the 7980X turned into nearly forty% quicker than the 5995WX, any other high-quality end result. In fact, even the 7970X outperformed the 5995WX, besting it by means of a 7% margin, which supposed the 7980X become just 30% faster than the 32-middle version.

The 7-zip decompression performance is even greater striking with AMD's new 64-core HEDT part. Here, the 7980X become 62% quicker than the 7970X and 45% quicker than the 5995WX.

In packages like Adobe After Effects, which can be more lightly threaded, the center-heavy Threadripper CPUs aren't as exceptional, even though their performance is a long way from weak. It's simply no longer representative in their full capacity as a good deal of the CPU goes unused. However, compared to the 5995WX, we are searching at round a fifteen% performance growth with these more recent fashions.

Photoshop struggles more with making use of core-heavy CPUs. It usually taxes a single middle, so the Threadripper elements don't score especially nicely here and don't justify their fee for most users. Essentially, if you're commonly the usage of gently threaded programs, a new Threadripper CPU wouldn't be a realistic preference.

Premiere is a piece more center-heavy, though it closely relies upon at the workload. In the Puget systems benchmark, for fashionable enhancing, the 7980X and 7970X carry out higher than standard computer Zen four components, however no longer by way of a sizable margin.

The ultimate utility take a look at is a browser benchmark, which is extra indicative of preferred usage. In this take a look at, those new Threadripper parts are similar to standard computer processors, because net surfing is a gently threaded mission.

Gaming Benchmarks

Time for a short look at some gaming performance, which virtually is not the focal point of these Threadripper components, however good day, perhaps you furthermore mght want to game on your workstation PC.

We'll begin with Baldur's Gate three. Both Threadripper 7000 series components are slightly slower than the slowest AM5 Zen 4 processor, the Ryzen five 7600X, so we're really looking at noticeably playable overall performance, however it's no longer on par with the 14900K or three-D V-Cache.

Given the range of cores those components %, the full system intake whilst playing Baldur's Gate three is quite astonishing. However, efficiency isn't always remarkable, given that we had been searching at comparable performance to the 7600X, for a 22% growth in general system utilization.

The Threadripper performance in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty wasn't super. Sure, it changed into surprisingly playable, but with simply a hundred and twenty fps on average, they had been approximately 14% slower than the 7600X. Still, the 7980X was 23% quicker than the 5995WX, so that is a superb improvement.

Something we have to mention is that Zen 4 cores are memory touchy. The AM5 processors are using low latency DDR5-6000 CL30 reminiscence, whereas the Threadripper 7000 collection has to use RDIMM's. AMD provided DDR5-6400 CL32 memory, which runs at more comfortable secondary and tertiary timings, and this can negatively effect fps overall performance in positive titles.

Again, electricity intake isn't always awful, in spite of the relatively weak fps overall performance. When as compared to Intel Core i7 and Core i9 components, these 32 and sixty four-middle monsters do not appearance outrageous.

Spider-Man Remastered performs surely nicely on the 7970X and 7980X, both handing over around 7700X/7600X ranges of overall performance. The 7980X changed into 14% quicker than the 5995WX, so a nice little enhance there.

That stated, you do pay for that overall performance inside the form of electricity usage, as the 7980X controlled to out strength even the 14900K, and that's no clean feat, even for a sixty four-center processor.

Next, we've Assassin's Creed Mirage, and right here overall performance is an awful lot decrease than you may expect. The 7980X came in 16% slower than the 7600X, although it was 23% faster than the 5995WX, so by Threadripper requirements, it truly is a terrific end result.

Again, power efficiency whilst gaming is quite negative, with the 7980X pushing total device usage almost as excessive because the 14900K, in spite of being 22% slower.

The Watch Dogs: Legion performance is extra what you would assume based on the 7600X end result. Essentially, we are searching at Zen four Ryzen 5 performance with 146 - 148 fps on common, that's a 24% improvement over the older 5995WX.

Unfortunately, when compared to the 7600X, general machine consumption has increased through 33%, so the 7980X is not the maximum green gaming processor. But then, it's no longer a gaming processor at all, so probably now not a huge deal.

Finally, we've got Hitman 3, and again, the 7980X and 7970X can not even in shape the 7600X, trailing by a ten% margin. This is nearly sincerely all the way down to the distinction in memory used between the Threadripper and AM5 processors. However, it's now not an issue as Threadripper isn't always designed for gaming; rather, these are middle-heavy productiveness processors. But as we said, some will want to recognize how nicely they are able to game on their laptop.

Lastly, here's a have a look at total system strength utilization while gambling Hitman three. As you could see, 32-middle and 64-core processors are not the most efficient for gaming, who knew.

Operating Temperatures

Let's now check working temperatures the usage of the DeepCool LT520, a 240mm all-in-one liquid cooler. Starting with the 7970X, jogging an all-core workload in Cinebench, after an hour the machine hit a height hotspot temperature of 88c at the cores and sustained a middle clock frequency of 4.6 GHz, a terrific end result the use of a modest cooler.

Installing the 7980X we ran the same take a look at and discovered an average clock frequency of 4.1 GHz with a height hotspot temperature of just 85c. Another amazing end result, because of this preserving those new 32 and sixty four-center Threadripper CPUs cool is a extraordinarily clean venture.

Overclocking

Because those processors are unlocked, we are just going to permit PBO via Ryzen Master to see what that does. Both CPUs noticed round a 7% overall performance increase in Cinebench with PBO enabled, so it's quite good, although it's far from free performance.

With the 7980X total gadget electricity utilization accelerated by way of 26% and we saw a 19% boom with the 7970X, so we can't say we recommend overclocking these computing device processors.

Issues with Threadripper 5000

Something we desired to discuss on this review is our enjoy with the Threadripper 5000, specifically the 5995WX, which, sadly, wasn't excellent, however allow us to give an explanation for. We've been the usage of Threadripper CPUs in our principal PCs for years now, in truth, it all started with the 1950X, which on the time changed into a godsend for editing movies. That CPU became quickly replaced with the 2950X, which we had been even more impressed with. It presented barely better performance whilst addressing the susceptible memory help of the 1950X. Best of all, it changed into supported on the equal X399 motherboards, making for a quick, easy, and value-effective improve.

We skipped the 24 and 32-middle models of the Threadripper 2000 series, as the janky 4 CCD layout did not work very well, leaving us unimpressed with the 2970WX or 2990WX.

After that, Tim and I migrated to the 3970X for our editing PCs, and once more, the enjoy became amazing. However, we had been disappointed that AMD dropped compatibility with this series, basically alienating Threadripper a thousand and 2000 series customers by using moving the 3000 series to the TRX40 chipset. It receives even worse because the 3000 series had been the only CPUs like minded with TRX40 boards. Still, it turned into excellent to eventually pass to 32 cores with out handling janky center configurations. The 3000 series additionally provided a 64-middle version, but at $four,000 every, we were not capable of get the ones for our editing PCs.

Then there was the Threadripper 5000 collection, the Zen 3-primarily based models, which all over again required a brand new motherboard. So, if you invested drastically in a TRX40 board, you had to do it all another time with a WRX80 board to help the 5000 collection processors.

Still, whilst we first were given our palms at the 5995WX, we had been blown away via the performance. Surely, it fees $6,500, however for paintings, the 64-middle monster appeared worth it, or at least so we idea.

We'll try and make this short as the story spans over three hundred and sixty five days of troubleshooting. Initially, all went nicely; we were the use of the MSI WS WRX80 motherboard, the equal one we used to review the 5995WX. For roughly six months, the whole lot became perfect, and it become a dream to edit our movies with encoding performance that become blisteringly fast. But then, matters began to head awry.

At first, it was just small but very disturbing troubles. The chipset fan could constantly ramp up to maximum velocity, and there has been no manner to modify it. So, we removed it and hooked up a new fan that we could manage via an onboard fan header. Then, the VRM lovers commenced randomly spinning as much as maximum pace, which was very unpleasant, and once more, there has been no repair, so we eliminated them.

At that point, MSI swapped the board out for a brand new model. Quite bizarrely, that board would not, and nevertheless would not to this day, POST the usage of a GeForce GPU. This compelled us to use Radeon, which became best as we were the use of a 6900 XT anyway. However, it have become an difficulty later while we started troubleshooting overall performance-associated troubles.

Before lengthy, the enthusiasts had been the least of our issues. The system commenced randomly crashing whilst the usage of Premiere, which we to begin with chalked up to an Adobe-related difficulty. However, we observed that our older 3970X gadget, which we still had, changed into running just exceptional. We additionally noticed that the 5995WX changed into in no way as fast as when we first reviewed it, and after numerous clean Windows installs and much head-scratching, we never worked it out.

At the identical time, we have been running with each AMD and MSI to solve the various issues we have been having, however no actual progress was being made. We couldn't discern out why MSI had not issued a single BIOS release considering saying their WS WRX80 motherboard. After quizzing our neighborhood contact, we learned that the WS WRX80 by no means entered manufacturing. Apparently, call for turned into so low that MSI in no way stricken to make the board, beyond the handful of samples that had been sent out to the media. We simplest learned this about a yr after using the board and looking to recognize why not one of the troubles were addressed. So, having discovered that we were using an unsupported product, AMD agreed to swap out the 5995WX for a logo-new one in case there was an problem with our CPU. We were given Asus to provide their WRX80E-Sage SE WiFi, a WRX80 motherboard that become virtually being manufactured and offered.

To make an extended tale brief, we were given the new CPU and motherboard, set up them into our notebook, set it all up, and things seemed excellent, even though never as top because the 5995WX firstly turned into. Performance was inconsistent; on occasion encoding motion pictures surely fast, even as different instances taking numerous instances longer than it ought to. Despite in no way crashing, it just failed to seem proper.

In the stop, we needed to surrender on the 5995WX build; it become a big unhappiness. The answer was to construct 7950X3D workstations, one for me and one for our video editor. We've been the usage of them for nearly a yr now, and the revel in has been wonderful.

We will flow over to the 7980X and spot how that goes. However, this has brought on us to have a few reservations regarding AMD's Threadripper platform, particularly if we were paying clients. That said, this is in no way an AMD-most effective hassle. It's greater of an HEDT problem. Simply put, now not sufficient people purchase pro-grade hardware, and therefore support may be lacking, in particular while compared to mainstream merchandise.

Years ago, we used Intel HEDT processors, and it changed into frequently a chunk of a multitude, with troubles like USB troubles and more severe issues like crashing. That stated, the 5995WX enjoy has been considered one of our worst, if no longer the worst, to this point.

What We Learned

Our biggest problem with Threadripper 7000 up to now is the confined compatibility. Of course, with Zen four we are moving to DDR5, so it makes feel that there could be no backwards compatibility, or which you can't use the 7980X on a WRX80 motherboard.

Rather our situation is for destiny Threadripper releases. We don't count on that the TR 8000 series will work on TRX50 boards both, and AMD in reality hasn't made any such claims – so be aware of that. As a whole lot as we hate the mess around Threadripper compatibility, that is in reality less of an fanatic platform because it used to as soon as be, or even the non-Pro models are severe notebook CPUs.

With mainstream elements such as the Ryzen 9 7950X now supplying 16 cores and 32 threads for under $six hundred, there has been no hazard it wasn't going to head in this route. Truth be told, cutting-edge Ryzen nine and Core i9 processors are more than powerful enough for most responsibilities and for most users, even for 4K video enhancing, leaving Threadripper as extra of a specialty item.

As a aspect be aware, the Intel opposition to a component like the Threadripper 7980X would be the Xeon W9-3495X, a CPU we can not get our arms on, even though it does value a cool $6,seven hundred at retail. It's a fifty six-core processor that rankings round 64500 pts within the Cinebench R23 check, or barely less than that of the older 5995WX, making the new 7980X nearly 50% faster in that take a look at.

That being the case, those new Threadripper 7000 processors haven't any direct competition. If you're in want of a middle-heavy processor or require tons of PCIe lanes, there is no higher alternative than this.

Finally, we plan to update one among our Ryzen 9 7950X3D modifying PCs with the TR 7980X, planning to use that each day, and we'll preserve you inside the loop approximately how that works out. Fingers crossed it's in the direction of our TR 3970X enjoy.

Shopping Shortcuts:

• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X on Amazon
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X on Amazon
• AMD Ryzen nine 7950X on Amazon
• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D on Amazon
• Intel Core i9-14900K on Amazon
• AMD Ryzen 9 7900X on Amazon
• Intel Core i7-14700K on Amazon
• AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D on Amazon

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