The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X is a extremely funky CPU. With this newest technology of AMD Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7000WX and Threadripper 7000 processors, AMD made some segmentation selections which may appear odd at first. What’s extra, and extra vital, is that the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X is quick however in a cool manner. With 64 cores and 4 DDR5 channels, one would possibly assume that it isn’t as quick because the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7995WX with 96 cores and eight channels however that will not be the case relying on which techniques you examine. One factor is for positive although, in response to this CPU, Intel might want to modify its Xeon W-3400 sequence pricing for the reason that “Threadripper” high-end desktop (HEDT) CPU is basically an EPYC CPU in disguise.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X Overview
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X is the corporate’s 64 core, 128 thread HEDT half. The HEDT here’s a bit unusual because it means we now have a component someplace between an EPYC processor and a Ryzen desktop processor, and there’s actually some overlap between the strains. Whereas this may increasingly appear to be a Threadripper (Professional) or EPYC processor of yesteryear, it’s certainly, very totally different.
Simply as an instance why, allow us to check out the again of the processor. Listed below are the contact pads.
Listed below are the contact pads for the previous-ish Milan-based Threadripper Professional 5995WX. One can see these usually are not socket-compatible regardless of what one would possibly assume at a fast look, and there are numerous causes for that.
CPU-Z as of Model 2.08 nonetheless studies this Storm Peak CPU as a SP5 socket half as an alternative of a SP6 half. Nonetheless, the core counts and 350W max TDP are appropriate. Additionally, from this screenshot, you may even see we’re hitting over 5.5GHz. That may be a large a part of what makes this a desktop half.
Shifting to the SKUs, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X at $4999 is actually a higher-end desktop half, but additionally a higher-end priced half than we noticed beforehand.
Only for some reference factors:
From the desk above, one might discover a number of areas the place AMD lowered the specs of the Threadripper sequence versus Threadripper Professional, together with decreasing the reminiscence channels from 8 to 4 and reducing the PCIe Gen5 lane rely from 128 to 48. Personally, I don’t love that sort of segmentation on a $4999 half since at that value, this isn’t a funds gaming platform. AMD additionally had the AMD EPYC 8004 Siena sequence within the combine that it has to cost in opposition to. Siena can scale to 64 cores and extra DDR5/ PCIe Gen5 I/O however at decrease energy ranges. Nonetheless, if we return to the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX’s “funky” format the place solely two of the 4 CCDs had DDR4 and PCIe lanes hooked up, we *strongly* favor the brand new Threadripper 7000 sequence defeaturing.
The darkish horse right here is the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X. This 32-core half at half the price ($2,499) is superb. In reality, it’s the half I’d purchase if I have been shopping for a pre-built Threadripper 7000 sequence from a conventional OEM. We’re going to do a evaluate of this half later, however in a 350W normal energy envelope, apart from in rendering, oftentimes the 32-core half is correct with the 64-core half as a result of it will get extra energy per core and subsequently, extra efficiency per core.
A welcome change for a lot of with the sequence is that the brand new sequence must assist RDIMMs. We mentioned this in our piece Why DDR5 is Completely Obligatory in Trendy Servers however UDIMMs which might be widespread within the desktop Ryzen and Intel Core strains and RDIMMs which might be widespread within the server lineups are not pin suitable. You possibly can be taught extra about that right here:
For the Threadripper sequence, that signifies that, in contrast to earlier generations, the brand new elements want to make use of RDIMMs, not normal desktop UDIMMs.
Whereas the quad channel DDR5 is a problem, there’s one other manner to take a look at it. As an alternative of DDR4-3200 within the earlier technology, we get DDR5, and there at the moment are overclocked modules. We had entry to a 128GB equipment (4x 32GB) of G.Ability Zeta R5 Neo reminiscence that has AMD EXPO timings and may run at DDR5-6400 speeds.
Whereas we solely get 4 channels of reminiscence, utilizing these sooner DIMMs we will get an efficient reminiscence bandwidth extra much like the 8-channel Threadripper Professional 5000WX sequence regardless that we solely have 4 channels of reminiscence.
On the PCIe Gen5 aspect, we get 48 lanes. Allow us to not fake that is something however what it’s: this sucks. On the 32-core and decrease finish of the Threadripper line, one might argue that it’s a large step up from the desktop elements. For a $5000 CPU, AMD must do higher. One might argue that fewer PCIe lanes imply lower-cost motherboards. It could, however the ASUS Professional WS TRX50-SAGE WiFi shouldn’t be an affordable platform by any means, and we don’t count on to see $399 motherboards available in the market. The buy-in value is probably going going to be extra like twice that and extra. As soon as motherboards hit the $1000-ish value vary, together with tax and delivery, it’s more durable to justify solely having sufficient I/O for 3 full-speed PCIe Gen5 x16 lanes.
With that stated, we put a system collectively utilizing a Hyte Y60 (Amazon Affiliate), a NZXT Kraken 360 liquid cooler (Amazon Affiliate), and the lately launched AMD Radeon Professional W7700 16GB ECC GPU, and the system not solely carried out effectively, nevertheless it was a zero drama Home windows 11 Professional set up.
The efficiency of this technique ought to scare conventional OEMs like Lenovo, HP, and Dell. Allow us to get to why subsequent.
