The AMD Threadripper 2 Teaser: Pre-Orders Start Today, Up to 32 Cores
by Ian Cutress on August 6, 2018 9:00 AM ESTEnough Jibber-Jabber, Show Me the Money Chips
All-in-all, the new chips look a lot like the old ones:
AMD sampled us the 2990WX and the 2950X for our launch day review. Both of these CPUs are coming out in August, first with the 2990WX on the 13th, and then with the 2950X on the 31st.
On the rear, there are slightly different component arrangements to account for the different dies that are active:
2990WX (left) and 2950X (right)
The packaging is certainly different, with AMD taking into account the public's commentary about the packaging from the first generation. My only feedback to AMD on this is to make the new CPU packaging stackable – as a reviewer having these chips around un-stacked is an organizational nightmare.
Also in the box is a Torx screwdriver for the socket and an Asetek water cooler bracket, as with the first generation.
If we add some EPYCness to the mix, there’s a pretty pattern. Here are 172 cores of Zen:
AMD also bundled two motherboards with the press kits: a second revision of the ASUS X399 Zenith Extreme, with a new VRM cooling kit, and the MSI X399 MEG Creation, the 19-phase monster seen at Computex.
At first, Summer wasn’t interested.
Then she had a sniff.
Now they are good friends. I think. (ed: Ian, if you kill that processor with static electricity, I will end you)
A side note about stacking. The processors do kind of stack on their own.
But this isn’t an advised strategy.
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blppt - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
R15 is very well multithreaded, not the ideal indicator of real-world performance, so would we really expect an 8700K to dominate a 2600X in an ideal multithreaded benchmark?mapesdhs - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Cinebench as a benchmark may be reaching EOL, unless they update it again somehow. See:https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/815405-cinebe...
A better test in some ways would be c-ray, as LTT mentions, since it can scale to hundreds of threads no problem.
Ian.
eastcoast_pete - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Yes, every company puts their best foot/benchmark forward. The 7920/40/60 (all x) chips from Intel will still have a serious advantage in any application that can really utilize AVX 512, as that provides a huge performance boost. Unfortunately (for Intel), using AVX 512 also makes their chips run really, really hot (might be time for Intel to invest in some better thermal solutions for their pricey chips). Ultimately, it still boils down to: What are using your workstation for?virpuain@gmail.com - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Like winrar ??? lelDug - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
Yes! All day long, every day. :) I can't stop using it! Have to compress everything!Midwayman - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
I have no legitimate use for 32 cores, but Hrrrrrgggghhhhhh. Fully torqued for that many cores.HStewart - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
I would rather have fewer stronger cores than more weaker cores.The Hardcard - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Even if it was barely more than half the cores that are less than 15 percent stronger? Come on, even your 35-year-old scalar, nonpipelined processor with no branch prediction will quickly tell you that you will be far behind on nearly every workstation task.Make a list of the top 15 reasons people who actually do work and could use a high-end workstation to take care of business. Now question: will the Core i9-7980XE be faster atany single one?
DigitalFreak - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
People here, and on most tech sites for that matter, keep thinking of these processors in terms of gaming. That's obviously not what they're designed for.drajitshnew - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
@digitalfreak It is quite correct & true. Even three 1st gen threadripper was not marketed for pure gaming-- more towards content creaters and those who want to stream games professionally.On an other note I have reduced going to the sister site "Tom's " because Anandtech has a less FPS centric editorial outlook.