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.
47 Comments
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CranPars - Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - link
HP's Z workstations have long had many of the design points praised in this review, such as easy PCIe card retention, easy to remove fans, etc. Might be worth a look at them sometime.Spunjji - Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - link
They're still stuck on 14nm Intel CPUs, though.Spunjji - Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - link
Have to say, I *do* feel let-down by that final image on Page 1.Valantar - Friday, February 19, 2021 - link
I've always been impressed by the engineering of workstations like these, and this is no exception. 33 liters is significantly smaller than my old Fractal Define R4, and this houses a lot more (and more powerful) components while running cooler. It also shows just how great you can make your cooling if you design around it - some 92mm fans and some baffles, and you're able to effectively shunt nearly 600W of power (640W at 92% PSU efficiency = 589W internal power draw, the rest goes out the PSU) out with no issues, and quietly to boot.Consumer case designers definitely have something to learn here, though of course designing baffled and sectioned-off airflow is difficult when you don't know the socket positioning, CPU cooler used, etc. It's still a great demonstration of the efficiency of targeted design.
atlr - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
I think you are stating that kitting out 8 RDIMM sockets on a Lenovo order is cheaper than buying 3rd party RAM, but Lenovo's Feb-2021 price in the P620 configurator for 16 GB RDIMMs is US$300 per RDIMM which is about 3x higher than the open market. "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."atlr - Saturday, February 20, 2021 - link
correction:Lenovo 16GB RDIMM $266
Kingston 16GB RDIMM $107
Lenovo price ~2.5x
Snowleopard3000 - Sunday, February 28, 2021 - link
Let me know when you can fit all this in a Clevo so I can take it from one office to another office in a backpac....