Lenovo ThinkStation P620 Review: A Vehicle for Threadripper Pro
by Dr. Ian Cutress on February 16, 2021 9:30 AM ESTSystem Tests: Dual Channel vs 8-Channel
For testing the processor at full glory, head on over to our review of the AMD Threadripper Pro 3995WX, which shows all the data with respect to other CPUs when it is fully enabled with eight memory modules – we go more in depth in our testing in that review, and the results of those tests and more can be found in our benchmark database, Bench. For this review, we’re doing something slightly different.
Our review sample from Lenovo was shipped with two 16 GB modules of DDR4-3200 ECC, enabling only dual channel memory. The list price difference between a 2x16 GB arrangement and an 8x16 GB arrangement if you buy modules from the open market is $600-$1000 depending on where it is sourced. At the rates that Lenovo buys the memory, this is more likely to be nearer $200-$300. So why did Lenovo skimp on the memory for a system that is sold for nearer $20000? I have no idea. But the performance difference is so much more than the 1% price increase of filling it full of memory. This is something I want to report on, because it matters.
We’ve asked Lenovo in the past why they ship review systems with fewer memory modules than at least one module per channel. The response usually boils down to ‘that is how our customers buy them’ or ‘it doesn’t matter for benchmarks like SPECviewperf’. Of the other media who were sampled this system, we know at least two others were similarly sampled with only two memory modules, both in the US, whereas our European counterparts were shipped with all eight modules, likely down to how each region manages review samples. Luckily Kingston came in to save the day, and supplied sixteen of their 16 GB KSM32RD8/16ME DDR4-3200 RDIMMs for all of our server testing.
But we want to compare the difference between a dual channel system, and proper system performance. Rather than offer a dozen pages showing all our test results, we’ll list the separate the sections we test, and score how many benchmarks are affected by the memory difference for a given percentage, along with notable highlights.
Benchmark Results
| 8-Channel Benefits over 2-Channel | |||||
| AnandTech | # Tests in Segment |
# Tests > 103% of 2-Ch |
# Tests < 97% of 2-Ch |
Average % |
Highlight |
| Rendering | 11 | 2 | 0 | +1% | Corona, +7.5% |
| Office | 3 | 1 | 1 | +2% | Agisoft, +8% |
| Science | 9 | 6 | 1 | +53% | yCruncher MT, +212% |
| Simulation | 5 | 1 | 0 | +10% | DigiCortex, +47% |
| Encoding | 8 | 6 | 0 | +34% | 7z Encode, +135% |
| Legacy | 10 | 0 | 0 | Equal | - |
| Web | 3 | 0 | 0 | Equal | - |
| OpenSSL | 8 | 0 | 0 | Equal | - |
| SPEC2006 ST | 18 | 3 | 0 | +2% | 470.lbm, +10% |
| SPEC2017 ST | 22* | 3 | 1 | +1% | 549.fotonik3d +13% |
| SPECviewperf | 8 | 1 | 0 | +1% | Maya, +5% |
| Total | 105 | 25 | 2 | +15% | - |
| *521.wrf_r doesn't run in our suite due to WSL limitations | |||||
Overall, we’re seeing +15% uplift with the 8-channel configuration. But that’s skewed by several super high results:
- yCruncher MT: +212%
- AES: +62%
- DigiCortex: +47%
- NAMD: +39%
- 7-zip Overall: +31%
- AIBench: +29%
- WinRAR: +23%
If we move to an even tighter 1% margin, then more than 50% of our tests still fall within that +/- of 1% (55/105).
To the point of rendering programs and SPECviewperf, having eight channels of memory doesn't make a difference to performance. As we discussed in our Threadripper Pro 3995WX review, the key market for these processors is the rendering market. For most of our rendering tests, we didn’t see that much difference between 8-channel and 2-channel, with the most notable being the Corona renderer. Similarly if we look at SPECviewperf, overall results are comparable – 8-channel is +1% higher in SPECviewperf overall. This would tend to agree with Lenovo’s line of reasoning, that certain customers are more concerned about memory capacity and performance, than filling up the memory channels.
However, if the workload is encoding (+34% gain) or science (+53%) gain, then that memory upgrade is crucial to the performance of this system.
The full run-down of the side-by-side tests can be found in our benchmark database.
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Billy Tallis - Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - link
Since Lenovo offers extended warranties out to five years for surprisingly low prices, it's reasonable to assume they'll be able to provide compatible replacement PSUs for at least five years past when they stop selling this machine. That's long enough to make this a non-issue in a corporate environment, even if it may hurt the secondhand market for these machines.Calin - Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - link
People that pay $20,000 for such a workstation will replace it in a couple of years with something better. However good this Threadripper Pro workstation is, five years from now it will be a dog (well, at least compared to another $20,000 workstation).I don't really see this level of performance being enough for more than about 3-4 years, and a well designed power supply will certainly last more than that.
DanNeely - Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - link
I think I've only had 1 PSU fail in waranty over a dozenish self built PSUs over 20 years. The failure wasn't with the AC-DC hardware but the pins on the modular interface to attach one of one of the PCIe cables getting pushed into the PSU and no longer making contact.Other than that every PSU I've owned has lasted at least 7 (or more recently 10) years before failing. Most of them were in environments of 24/7 full CPU/GPU loads from distributed computing. Granted I don't buy cheap PSUs (at high continious load gold/platinum models increased efficiency actually does pay for itself over the life of the PSU). OTOH I doubt Lenovo is using low quality units in systems this expensive either.
Calin - Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - link
While you might buy very good quality PSUs, in such flagship workstations Lenovo will put only the best power supplies money can buyHul8 - Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - link
Really appreciate the rickrolling in these recent TR Pro articles. Always brings a smile.Smell This - Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - link
I asked for the base ThinkStation P620 Tower Workstation (xxxx FH00) and pulled the trigger ... my CC only has a $1,800 limit so Martin at Lenovo RTP hooked me up to the interest-free payment plan. LOL Suckers. HA! (j/k)
Configuration Details
● Processor: AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 3945WX Processor (4.0 GHz, up to 4.30 GHz Max Boost, 12 Cores, 24 Threads, 64 MB Cache)
● Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64
● Memory: 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz RDIMM ECC (2 x 16 GB)
● Hard Drive: 512 GB M.2 Gen 3 PCIe SSD, OPAL
● Graphics: NVIDIA® Quadro® P2200 5GB
● Optical Drive: DVD-RW
● Form Factor: Tower
● 1000W Fixed 92% Autosensing, 80 PLUS Platinum qualified
● Network Card: Integrated Ethernet
● Key lock: Key Lock Kit w/ Common Key
● Keyboard: USB Traditional - US English
● Pointing Device: USB Optical Mouse
● Memory Card Reader: 15 in 1 Card Reader
● 4Y Premier Support Upgrade from 3Y Onsite
The 4-year support upgrade was a condition of the financing. The onboard 10 GbE is the Marvell AQtion AQN-107. The Quadro® P2200 5GB was a nice bump but no NV link.
The 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz RDIMM ECC (2 x 16 GB) would appear to be the minimum. Didn't leap at the PCIe 4.0 NVMe 'upgrade.' I've used Lenovo keyboards before -- they're solid but maybe a little 'mushy' (not a great typist, anyway)
Grand total: $2,423.18 with NC sales tax, shipped to my door -- gave me an additional $1,000 credit with $100-off on my next purchase.
Smell This - Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - link
Link
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/think-workstations/th...
bobsmith1492 - Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - link
Very nice. You can customize and add 8 channels of RAM. I've been planning a Threadripper build and their configuration with the recent coupon is pretty reasonably priced compared to a custom build.Smell This - Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - link
I'm hoping a standard modular GPU cable(s) will work!
I'm thinking Rendering/Encoding with GPU compute in Vegas may not need the umphh of that 8-channels of RAM but we shall see. Maybe 4-channel 4x16GB could be a nice compromise.
It may be of benefit using scratch drives in Adobe, but I try to avoid the big "A" for the most part. I'm heading toward a down-clocked RX Vega 56, or even a Fury on AMD Radeon Pro software, depending upon that Quadro P2200.
TanelPoder - Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - link
It’s an excellent machine. Thanks to the 128 PCIe lanes, 4 PCIe root complexes and 8 memory channels, I got over 11M IOPS and 66 GiB/s scanning rate out of it (I used 10x Samsung 980 PRO SSDs with quad PCIe-M.2 adapters) for it.For anyone interested, here’s an article about it:
https://tanelpoder.com/posts/11m-iops-with-10-ssds...