The 64 Core Threadripper 3990X CPU Review: In The Midst Of Chaos, AMD Seeks Opportunity
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on February 7, 2020 9:00 AM ESTAMD 3990X Against $20k Enterprise CPUs
For those looking at a server replacement CPU, AMD’s big discussion point here is that in order to get 64 cores on Intel hardware is relatively hard. The best way to get there is with a dual socket system, featuring two of its 28-core dies at a hefty $10k a piece. AMD’s argument is that users can consolidate down to a single socket, but also have better memory support, PCIe 4.0, and no cross-memory domain issues.
| AMD 3990X Enterprise Competition | |||
| AnandTech | AMD 3990X |
AMD 7702P |
Intel 2x8280 |
| SEP | $3990 | $4450 | $20018 |
| Cores/Threads | 64 / 128 | 64 / 128 | 56 / 112 |
| Base Frequency | 2900 | 2000 | 2700 |
| Turbo Frequency | 4300 | 3350 | 4000 |
| PCIe | 4.0 x64 | 4.0 x128 | 3.0 x96 |
| DDR4 Frequency | 4x 3200 | 8x 3200 | 12x 2933 |
| Max DDR4 Capacity | 512 GB | 2 TB | 3 TB |
| TDP | 280 W | 200 W | 410 W |
Unfortunately I was unable to get ahold of our Rome CPUs from Johan in time for this review, however I do have data from several dual Intel Xeon setups that I did a few months ago, including the $20k system.
This time with Corona the competition is hot on the heels of AMD's 64-core CPUs, but even $20k of hardware can't match it.
The non-AVX verson of 3DPM puts the Zen 2 hardware out front, with everything else waiting in the wings.
When we add in the AVX-512 hand tuned code, the situation flips: Intel's 56 cores get almost 2.5x the score of AMD, despite having fewer cores.
Blender doesn't seem to like the additional access latency from the 2P systems.
For AES encoding, as the benchmark takes places from memory, it appears that none of Intel's CPUs can match AMD here.
For the 7-zip combined test, there's little difference between AMD's 32-core and 64-core, but there are sizable jumps above Intel hardware.
Verdict
In our tests here (more in our benchmark database), AMD's 3990X would get the crown over Intel's dual socket offerings. The only thing really keeping me back from giving it is the same reason there was hesitation on the previous page: it doesn't do enough to differentiate itself from AMD's own 32-core CPU. Where AMD does win is in that 'money is less of an issue scenario', where using a single socket 64 core CPU can help consolidate systems, save power, and save money. Intel's CPUs have a TDP of 205W each (more if you decide to use the turbo, which we did here), which totals 410W, while AMD maxed out at 280W in our tests. Technically Intel's 2P has access to more PCIe lanes, but AMD's PCIe lanes are PCIe 4.0, not PCIe 3.0, and with the right switch can power many more than Intel (if you're saving 16k, then a switch is peanuts).
We acknowledge that our tests here aren't in any way a comprehensive test of server level workloads, but for the user base that AMD is aiming for, we'd take the 64 core (or even the 32 core) in most circumstances over two Intel 28 core CPUs, and spend the extra money on memory, storage, or a couple of big fat GPUs.
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lipscomb88 - Sunday, February 9, 2020 - link
Ltt showed crysis running on a software renderer on a 3970x and a 3990x. Definitely a difference between those two chips but it still chugs at times. Really cool to see.At some point, a high cord count cpu mimics the parallelization in gpus well enough to render well.
Spunjji - Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - link
It's notable in that video that the vast majority of the cores flicker around 2-5% utilisation; it looks like there's still a significant bottleneck besides the sheer number of cores for processing.ZoZo - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
Better grap this one before it is replaced by the 4990X at $4990.Irata - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
Ian and Gavin: Thanks for the review and particularly the Windows version analysis.While I agree with your conclusions, I have a suggestion for future high core count CPU reviews:
How about trying to run several things at once, i.e. A game while the CPU is rendering, rendering while compiling....
Perhaps there are actual use cases that could apply where you run several demanding tasks at once that could not be done so far since the CPU power was not there.
Hulk - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
I second this suggestion. One thing that annoys me with my 4770k is that if I'm rendering a video using Handbrake and trying to work on an audio project in Presonus Studio One there isn't enough compute for Studio One so it's all distortion. But realistically 12 cores would probably do this for me;)Irata - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
I remember seeing one review for TR3 (the 32c version) that die a multi tasking stress test which was very interesting.Afair it was on Adoredtv but another reviewer did it.
DannyH246 - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
Compiling was asked for in previous workstation class CPU reviews, and many people asked for it for AMD's 16 core Ryzen release....instead we get a gaming benchmark where they show Intel's 8 core CPU winning. What do you expect from IntelTech.com.Thanny - Saturday, February 8, 2020 - link
That used to be routine in the early days of multi-core CPU reviews.Seems these days everyone has forgotten about the concept of multitasking.
alpha754293 - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
I'm currently in discussions/in the works of getting a system put together in order to replace my four-node micro-cluster with either one or two of these AMD 3rd gen Threadripper systems.The price-per-performance is too compelling of a story for me NOT to dump my entire micro-cluster now and switch over to this.
eastcoast_pete - Friday, February 7, 2020 - link
Thanks Ian and Gavin! While the business cases for this 64 core TR CPU are limited, video editing and software-based encoding are two of them. A lot of people don't realize that a lot of video is already shot in 8K 60p, and those RAW files are enormous and tax any CPU, even this beast. Also, some of these editing suites either already have patches available, and apparently one of two of them are from AMD. So, not the CPU for gaming, but it has a place for certain tasks.