The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X Review: 24 and 32 Cores on 7nm
by Dr. Ian Cutress, Andrei Frumusanu & Gavin Bonshor on November 25, 2019 9:05 AM ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |
| AMD TR3 | Threadripper 3970X Threadripper 3960X |
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme (BIOS 0601) |
| CPU Cooler | Thermaltake Riing 360 CLC |
| DRAM | Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 8x8 GB DDR4-3200 |
| GPU | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G |
| PSU | Corsair AX860i |
| SSD | Crucial MX500 2TB |
| OS | Windows 10 1909 |
For our motherboards, we are using the latest firmware. It should be noted that our Intel tests do not have the latest Intel security updates for JCC and others, as the motherboard vendors for the models we used have not implemented them yet.
The latest AMD TR3 benchmarks were run by Gavin Bonshor, while I attended Supercomputing in Denver last week. Unfortunately both Intel and AMD decided to sample processors before the annual trade show conference, with launches only a couple of days after the show finished. As a result, our testing has been split between Gavin and myself, and we have endeavored to ensure parity through my automated testing suite.
Also, our compile test seems to have broken itself when we used Windows 10 1909, and due to travel we have not had time to debug why it is no longer working. We hope to get this test up and running in the new year, along with an updated test suite.
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
| Hardware Providers | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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Dizoja86 - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
"Intel is going to have to have a shift its design strategy to compete."im.thatoneguy - Tuesday, December 3, 2019 - link
Any temperature stats? You recommend a good water cooler so it would be helpful to know how the thermaltake ring did under load.cdb000 - Sunday, January 26, 2020 - link
Seconded!In fact, a good write-up on how to cool a 280W CPU that is continuously running flat out.
My (old, slow) 1950X is cooled by a 280mm AIO and gets to ~61C when run flat out. These new Threadrippers use 55% more power which suggests that a 420mm or 480mm radiator will be required.
pvrvideoman - Thursday, December 5, 2019 - link
Great for AMD! Popular YouTube tech reviewers and others really need to stop saying that AMD has "crushed" Intel. That is just stupid. What they have done is deliver a very powerful, competitively priced product that delivers mostly the same or better performance at different price points. The desktop market is small. It's not making AMD or Intel all that much money. But it is great when companies like Amazon and Google talk about moving forward or transitioning to AMD Epyc line of processors. The enterprise and High Performance Computing contracts are where the real victory lies.tamalero - Tuesday, December 24, 2019 - link
holy intel apologist batman..alpha754293 - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link
When are the results from the benchmarking for the AMD Threadripper 3970X going to be on the benchmarking database?I tried looking for it just now and couldn't find it listed when I wanted to compare that and the AMD Ryzen 3950X.
Thanks.
lxxxxl - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
Is Chromium compilation still on the list of tests?And these new Threadrippers are not in Bench database?
soultorntech - Monday, December 23, 2019 - link
People concerned about the price between AMD and Intel HEDT processors need to calculate the per core cost and they will find out that the cost between the HEDT processors are pretty close. Add in the fact that Threadripper has a lot more L3 cache than the 10980XE plus can utilize up to 4 times as much RAM then the price of Threadripper 3 processors are a little easier to justify.stefanbatros - Sunday, December 29, 2019 - link
Hi everyone,I bought a 3970x + a Gigabyte Designare mobo. These will be used in a 4GPU setup for rendering and physics simulations.
Right now I have to chose between these 2 Ram kits, which are available and at a decent price in my country:
1. Corsair VENGEANCE® 128GB 3000MHz C16 -750$
2. G.Skill TridentZ 3000MHz C14 - 981$
Do you guys think that the C14 Gskill justifies the 200$ dollar difference? Will it be great improvement over the C16?
I am leaning toward the Vengence more because of price +is in stock in store + it is low profile and it will fit better with the Noctua nh-u14s tr4-sp3.
Any suggestions will ge appreciated.
Thanks,
Stefan
InfernusTitan - Friday, January 3, 2020 - link
A GTX 1080?Not Bottlenecking a 32 Core CPU in any ways??? I know core counts doesnt matter that much but still.