The AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Deep Dive Review: 3700X and 3900X Raising The Bar
by Andrei Frumusanu & Gavin Bonshor on July 7, 2019 9:00 AM ESTSection by Gavin Bonshor
X570 Motherboards: PCIe 4.0 For Everybody
One of the biggest additions to AMD's AM4 socket is the introduction of the PCIe 4.0 interface. The new generation of X570 motherboards marks the first consumer motherboard chipset to feature PCIe 4.0 natively, which looks to offer users looking for even faster storage, and potentially better bandwidth for next-generation graphics cards over previous iterations of the current GPU architecture. We know that the Zen 2 processors have implemented the new TSMC 7nm manufacturing process with double the L3 cache compared with Zen 1. This new centrally focused IO chiplet is there regardless of the core count and uses the Infinity Fabric interconnect; the AMD X570 chipset uses four PCIe 4.0 lanes to uplink and downlink to the CPU IO die.
Looking at a direct comparison between AMD's AM4 X series chipsets, the X570 chipset adds PCIe 4.0 lanes over the previous X470 and X370's reliance on PCIe 3.0. A big plus point to the new X570 chipset is more support for USB 3.1 Gen2 with AMD allowing motherboard manufacturers to play with 12 flexible PCIe 4.0 lanes and implement features how they wish. This includes 8 x PCIe 4.0 lanes, with two blocks of PCIe 4.0 x4 to play with which vendors can add SATA, PCIe 4.0 x1 slots, and even support for 3 x PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 slots.
| AMD X570, X470 and X370 Chipset Comparison | |||
| Feature | X570 | X470 | X370 |
| PCIe Interface (to peripherals) | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Max PCH PCIe Lanes | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| USB 3.1 Gen2 | 8 | 2 | 2 |
| Max USB 3.1 (Gen2/Gen1) | 8/4 | 2/6 | 2/6 |
| DDR4 Support | 3200 | 2933 | 2667 |
| Max SATA Ports | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| PCIe GPU Config | x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x8* |
x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x4 |
x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x4 |
| Memory Channels (Dual) | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |
| Integrated 802.11ac WiFi MAC | N | N | N |
| Chipset TDP | 11W | 4.8W | 6.8W |
| Overclocking Support | Y | Y | Y |
| XFR2/PB2 Support | Y | Y | N |
One of the biggest changes in the chipset is within its architecture. The X570 chipset is the first Ryzen chipset to be manufactured and designed in-house by AMD, with some helping ASMedia IP blocks, whereas previously with the X470 and X370 chipsets, ASMedia directly developed and produced it using a 55nm process. While going from X370 at 6.8 W TDP at maximum load, X470 was improved upon in terms of power consumption to a lower TDP of 4.8 W. For X570, this has increased massively to an 11 W TDP which causes most vendors to now require small active cooling of the new chip.
Another major change due to the increased power consumption of the X570 chipset when compared to X470 and X370 is the cooling required. All but one of the launched product stack features an actively cooled chipset heatsink which is needed due to the increased power draw when using PCIe 4.0 due to the more complex implementation requirements over PCIe 3.0. While it is expected AMD will work on improving the TDP on future generations when using PCIe 4.0, it's forced manufacturers to implement more premium and more effective ways of keeping componentry on X570 cooler.
This also stretches to the power delivery, as AMD announced that a 16-core desktop Ryzen 3950X processor is set to launch later on in the year, meaning motherboard manufacturers needed to implement the new power deliveries on the new X570 boards with requirements of the high-end chip in mind, with better heatsinks capable of keeping the 105 W TDP processors efficient.
Memory support has also been improved with a seemingly better IMC on the Ryzen 3000 line-up when compared against the Ryzen 2000 and 1000 series of processors. Some motherboard vendors are advertising speeds of up to DDR4-4400 which until X570, was unheard of. X570 also marks a jump up to DDR4-3200 up from DDR4-2933 on X470, and DDR4-2667 on X370. As we investigated in our Ryzen 7 Memory Scaling piece back in 2017, we found out that the Infinity Fabric Interconnect scales well with frequency, and it is something that we will be analyzing once we get the launch of X570 out of the way, and potentially allow motherboard vendors to work on their infant firmware for AMD's new 7nm silicon.
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beginning - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
I noticed that at the E3 2019 tech day, AMD recommended DDR4-3600 CL16 RAM. I see that 3200 MHz RAM has been used in the AMD testbench. I read the description about avoiding overclocking but 3600 MHz RAMs come with a factory clock of 3600 MHz, right? I know I am missing something. What am I missing?sknaumov - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Do you plan to make some tests of these CPUs on older, cheaper and colder motherboards? It would be very interesting to see results of b450 chipset and whether it is possible to use DDR4-3600MHz with tight timings on these older boards. Or at least provide more info about what has more priority for memory speed and timings on AMD platform - CPU or chipset.viperswhip - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
I am going to wait to build a PC for a bit, however, I am super excited by this launch and disappointed by the video card launch. I expect to have an AMD chip since Intel has no answer for this, and we shall see on the video cards, but if I was building today I'd probably get a 2070 RTX super.PProchnow - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
Here's is Jus' a good ol' boy trying out. No OC off stock Multi but 3333Mhz RAM#1
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13863634
Rather a new rig and it is X470 up to the A.A BIOS and it is MSI Gaming Plus.
OK link #2 is here and I stroked the DDR$ up top 3333Mhz. I also stroked the fan
to stay sub 70C. Wild OCs will take water at least "in The Home" versus LiqN2 Lab.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13865361
BTW where is the Bragging Thread? My MOBO is the MSI X470 Gaming Plus BIOS A.A makes Ryzen 9 go BTW.
I have yet to up the MULTI in case you want to know. I wonder what good Ocers will get with the right stuff.
Single-Core Performance
Memory Score 6431
Floating Point Score 5409
Integer Score 5190
Crypto Score 6888
Single-Core Score 5589
You underst and that RAM set at 1672 is 1/2 the common referred to speed. 3344Mhz is the common nomenclature.
***Single-Core Score ***Multi-Core Score
5589 47755
Geekbench 4.3.4 Tryout for Windows x86 (64-bit)
Result Information
Upload Date July 12 2019 08:16 PM
Views 2
System Information
System Information
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Model Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7B79
Motherboard Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. X470 GAMING PLUS (MS-7B79)
Memory 32768 MB DDR4 SDRAM 1672MHz
Northbridge AMD Ryzen SOC 00
Southbridge AMD X470 51
BIOS American Megatrends Inc. A.A0
Processor Information
Name AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Topology 1 Processor, 12 Cores, 24 Threads
Identifier AuthenticAMD Family 23 Model 113 Stepping 0
Base Frequency 3.80 GHz
Maximum Frequency 4.53 GHz
Maxiking - Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - link
Why would anyone brag about something ifYou can't reach 5.0ghz +
You can't reach even the boost frequency on a single core
You can't beat consistently competitor's older 14nm cpu architecture which has been on the market since 2016...
You can't beat RAM OC'ing records either because over 3733mhz IF gets actually downlocked and due tu that, "faster" ram performs worse unless you OC 7400mhz, which is not possible even with liquid nitrogen.
PProchnow - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
These are my scores with my Ryzen 9 3900X.#1
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13863634
Rather a new rig and it is X470 up to the A.A BIOS and it is MSI Gaming Plus.
OK link #2 is here and I stroked the DDR$ up top 3333Mhz. I also stroked the fan
to stay sub 70C. Wild OCs will take water at least "in The Home" versus LiqN2 Lab.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13865361
BTW where is the Bragging Thread? My MOBO is the MSI X470 Gaming Plus BIOS A.A makes Ryzen 9 go BTW.
I have yet to up the MULTI in case you want to know. I wonder what good Ocers will get with the right stuff.
Single-Core Performance
Memory Score 6431
Floating Point Score 5409
Integer Score 5190
Crypto Score 6888
Single-Core Score 5589
You underst and that RAM set at 1672 is 1/2 the common referred to speed. 3344Mhz is the common nomenclature.
***Single-Core Score ***Multi-Core Score
5589 47755
Geekbench 4.3.4 Tryout for Windows x86 (64-bit)
Result Information
Upload Date July 12 2019 08:16 PM
Views 2
System Information
System Information
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Model Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7B79
Motherboard Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. X470 GAMING PLUS (MS-7B79)
Memory 32768 MB DDR4 SDRAM 1672MHz
Northbridge AMD Ryzen SOC 00
Southbridge AMD X470 51
BIOS American Megatrends Inc. A.A0
Processor Information
Name AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Topology 1 Processor, 12 Cores, 24 Threads
Identifier AuthenticAMD Family 23 Model 113 Stepping 0
Base Frequency 3.80 GHz
Maximum Frequency 4.53 GHz
Now you can cross ref with others.
Meteor2 - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Nice!willis936 - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link
The editor's choice awards are a bit strange to me. Zen 1 didn't receive one even though it was the largest CPU performance increase from a company this century. The i7-4950HQ received an editor's choice silver award even though it had little importance to the industry. And the 3700X, which offers comparable SP performance to competing intel products at a huge discount and smaller power budget gets the same editor's choice level as the i7-4950HQ?willis936 - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link
I know it was a different editor at the time, but the selective excitement is a bit of a bummer. eDRAM was exciting to see at the time and then nothing ever came of it. The enthusiasm of chiplets under the new editor comes through much less. That too is fine. However if the rating system is what it is then I don't think it's much to argue that chiplets are much more disruptive than eDRAM and is already making much larger waves.Maxiking - Monday, July 22, 2019 - link
AMD fraund getting finally the attention it deserveshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x03FyPQ3a3E
check at 05m25s