Over the past two decades, not so often appeared CPU, which can be called "revolutionary." But AMD in November 2019 managed to do this. The first tests of the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X processors (24 and 32 cores, 7 nm, Zen 2) show that this is a completely new level of performance in almost all applications, see Phoronix tests, ExtremeTech tests , AnandTech benchmarks , Hot Hardware tests , etc.
On the same day, November 25, Intel released the 18-core Core i9 10980XE (Cascade Lake, minus a thousand dollars to the price). For the first time in history, Intel and AMD released processors on the same day.
With the test results, we now have a complete picture, and we can conclude: Intel and AMD have switched places in the market. Now AMD is releasing the fastest and most expensive processors. Intel can not compare with them in terms of performance, so it is forced to compete with the second tier of processors from AMD. That's why Intel had to drastically cut prices.
The Threadripper 3960X and 3970X are built on the architecture of the Zen 2 processor and use the same chiplet design as the EPYC 2 server processors. The company calls it sIOD.
AMD EPYC2 / Threadripper 3000 sIOD, physical substrate size 28.04 × 15.29 mm (428.73 mm²). Photo: Fritzchens Fritz . Microscope: Olympus BH2-UMA. The enlarged image , as well as the full-size original image 24 460 × 13 327 pixels, 185 MB, are available by reference
The chiplet is not completely symmetrical, but is divided into four quadrants, which are actually physically and logically separated from each other.
Specifications
We already analyzed their technical specifications Threadripper 3960X and 3970X two weeks ago, after the official announcement.
In short, the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X (24 cores, 48 threads, 3.8-4.5 GHz) and the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X (32 cores, 64 threads, 3.7-4.5 GHz) are built from four chipsets each. These are the first processors of the 3rd generation Threadripper on the 7-nanometer Zen 2 architecture. The processors are focused on powerful gaming systems and high-performance workstations (HEDT market, high-end desktop).
The 32-core TR 3970X has 64 PCIe 4.0 lanes, a 128 MB L3 cache, four DDR4-3200 memory channels (1DPC), a TDP of 280 W and a recommended price of $ 1999.
The 24-core TR 3960X has a slightly higher base frequency: 3.8 GHz. The rest of the specifications are the same, but the recommended price is $ 1399.
A new sTRX4 socket and new TRX40 motherboards have been developed for the TR 3960X and TR 3970X processors, although technically the socket still has 4094 pins, as in the previous one. The new socket had to be implemented due to the new PCIe 4.0 x8 requirement.
PCIe 4.0 x8 connects the chipset and processor, four times increasing throughput compared to the old PCIe 3.0 x4. The TRX40 chipset supports up to 72 useful PCIe 4.0 lines and up to 12 USB 3.0 ports. Technically, the TRX40 has 88 PCIe 4.0 lanes, but 16 of them are reserved for use by the system. Threadripper now supports up to 256 GB of RAM with ECC support.
Unlike the competitor's new products, the Intel Core i9-10980XE is manufactured using the 14 nm ++ manufacturing process. The main difference between the Cascade Lake family is not so much an increase in productivity, but a significant reduction in prices: about half as compared to the previous generation processors. That is, the 10980XE costs about two times cheaper than the Core i9-9980XE. Accordingly, it is much cheaper than any of the new Threadripper. The main competitor for the Core i9-9980XE is the $ 750 Ryzen 9 3950X.
Core i9-9980XE and 10980XE are today Intel's most powerful processors for the desktop market. Apparently, Intel is not trying to position the Xeon family here. Although in its arsenal there is a 28-core Xeon W-3275M chip (2.5-4.6 GHz), which can surpass the 3970X in benchmarks. But this is a $ 7,453 processor.
Until today, AMD has not tried to compete in performance with top Intel processors, but it has competed in price with weaker CPUs from Intel, offering better performance for a dollar price. So, the 16-core Threadripper 2950X was faster than the 10-core Core i9 processors at the same price. But he did not try to compete with the Core i9-9980XE, which cost much more and was definitely more productive.
Now Intel and AMD have swapped places. Now AMD offers the most high-performance and expensive processors with which Intel does not even think to compete. Instead, Intel is trying to compete with weaker AMD processors. As mentioned above, the top-end Core i9-10980XE in performance can compete with the Ryzen 9 3950X.
Test results
In almost all tests, the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X are superior to the Core i9-10980XE, in some tests the difference is very large. For example, in Cinebench R15 they have approximately the same performance on a single thread, but AMD has an overwhelming advantage in multi-threaded performance.
In the compression and decompression test 7zip 19.00 (64-bit), the Threadripper 3960X and 3970X again win by a wide margin: the difference is more than two times. On the other hand, the Core i9-10980XE takes precedence over its direct competitor Ryzen 9 3950X in the archiving test, surpassing it by 25%.
We see a similar picture in other tests, where the Core i9-10980XE is much inferior to the Threadripper 3960X and 3970X, but roughly equivalent in performance to the Ryzen 9 3950X, outperforming it somewhere and inferior somewhere.
Handbrake - H.264 and H.265 encoding tests. In this test, a video clip was encoded with a resolution of 4K with settings for fast 1080p encoding.
Qt compilation test in Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 (antivirus scanners are disabled everywhere).
The Threadripper 3960X and 3970X are the first CPUs in the world to compile the Linux kernel in less than 30 seconds .
Photorealistic renderer of Corona.
The AnandTech edition included in the benchmark results not only three new Intel and AMD processors, but also other processors, including Xeon, so there is an opportunity to see the big picture.
Separate V-Ray benchmark from Chaos Group. This is a raytracing renderer in which there are several algorithms for calculating global lighting.
Calculation of the number of pi up to 5 billion characters: y-cruncher 0.78 benchmark.
The Core i9-10980XE unexpectedly defeated everyone in the Dolphin test, a game console emulator that is sensitive to single-threaded performance and cache speed.
Dolphin benchmark results from AnandTech website.
In addition, the Core i9-10980XE won the Matlab test provided by Intel.
Apparently, there remain some specific tasks and applications where Intel processors retain an advantage over AMD, probably due to architectural differences.
Games
As for games, we can conclude: apparently, the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X are not for games. In most tests, they do not give any advantage over cheaper Intel and AMD processors. In some benchmarks, it seems that the Core i7-9700K is better suited for games.
conclusions
With the launch of the Threadripper 3960X and 3970X, AMD has taken a clear lead in the High Performance Desktop Computing (HEDT) market.
A sharp price cut from Intel objectively makes Cascade Lake a much more attractive purchase than any previous Intel Core X processor. For example, if you refrained from buying the 7900X for $ 1,000, then the 10980XE for the same price would be the best upgrade option. At the same time, in a number of tests the 16-core AMD processor now surpasses the 18-core Intel processor. Although the twofold reduction in prices on Cascade Lake is pleasing to many, the Ryzen 9 3950X comes on Intel's heels here.
While the Ryzen 9 3950X steps on the heels of the Cascade Lake processor family, the new Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X are generally out of competition. They provide an overwhelming advantage in many tests, which allows some observers to talk about a new revolution in the desktop processor market. It is difficult to say when Intel will be able to release a product that can compete with AMD processors that are already on sale.
Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX came out last year, it also promised great expectations, but in fact suffered from many shortcomings. The Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X have no such drawbacks: their performance in games is excellent, and in applications it is simply phenomenal. At the same time, Intel processors still have their own niche of games and applications that are optimized for them. Core i9-10980XE still has excellent single-threaded performance
However, it seems that AMD is securing technological leadership. The Threadripper 3960X and 3970X are one of the biggest leaps in the high-performance desktop market in its history, ExtremeTech writes .
Let's see what will happen next.
64-core Threadripper 3990X
And then AMD’s technological leadership can strengthen. The company confirmed plans for the release in 2020 of the 64-core Threadripper 3990X processor.
The company has not yet published many details about the future processor. It is only known that it will have 256 megabytes of L3 cache, compared with 128 MB for the 3960X and 3970X. Power consumption will remain the same: TDP 280 watts.
Based on the “gap” in the names of processors (3960X, 3970X, ..., 3990X), we can also assume the release of the 3980X model. Theoretically, it should have between 32 (3970X) and 64 (3990X) cores, i.e. 48.
Athlon 3000G
As promised, AMD began selling Athlon 3000G processors for $ 49. This is a dual-core CPU with three Vega graphics cores. With an inexpensive motherboard based on the AMD B450 chipset, such a configuration should be enough for many popular games at 720p, including the Rocket League (163 FPS), Fortnite (55 FPS) and CS: GO, see test results 1 , 2 .
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