AMD has unleashed it’s most ambitious line up of processors yet – the Ryzen Threadripper family. Two variants, the 1920X and the 1950X processors will be offered in our brand new WS-1160A professional workstation from the 10th of August 2017. As a close launch partner for this revolutionary new technology our in house research and development team have been working on a new High-end professional workstation. We have discovered that end users are likely to benefit due to impressively high performance levels and AMD’s aggressive pricing strategies.
Who Will Benefit From AMD Threadripper CPU’s?
Those whose workflows involve a lot of Multi-Threaded tasks such as CPU rendering, Simulations or simply working with many pro applications simultaneously are in for a treat. AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X come with 16 Cores 32 Threads and 12 Cores 24 Threads respectively. This is about 4 to 8 times larger than what you would expect to find from a similar priced CPU only a few months ago. With these additional cores and threads performance benchmarks are fantastic, as we found out when running Cinebench R15. We produced a Cinebench score of 3,052 using a 1950X compared to 2,330 from a Core i9 7900X which is a massive 31% difference.
The single threaded performance is also quite impressive. Whilst not as impressive as our Frequency Enhanced solutions, AMD Ryzen Threadripper based systems will perform adequately in 3D Design workflows in SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, Creo etc.. Our in house tests show this processor family will benefit end users most if their workflow requires a broad array of different applications. This processor is a very impressive, highly adaptable workhorse that enables professionals to feel confident that their workstation will perform no matter what task you ask of it.
Here is a breakdown of AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper CPUs:
Based on the much touted Zen’ architecture, Threadripper CPUs seem like a well-oiled machine making good use of a new core design and several other new features:
- Cores/Threads – The 1950X features 16 cores and 32 threads while the 1920X features 12 cores and 24 threads, both a huge step up from Intel’s offerings at the same price tag.
- Cache – The entire Threadripper range will boast a 32MB L3 cache across the board and 512KB L2 cache per core. This would add up to 40MB of total cache memory for the top end 16 core chips, promising us with speedy and reliable data transfers.
- Clockspeed – The 1950X and 1920X clock at 3.4GHz base (4GHz boost) and 3.5GHz base (4GHz boost) respectively.
- Power Consumption – AMD haven’t always been the best when it comes to energy efficiency in the past and on first impressions this doesn’t appear to have changed with both processors advertised as 180W TDP default. However using their new “Pure Power” technology these processors are able to lower Clockspeeds when possible, which we expect will substantially increase energy efficiency in real world workflows.
- Quad-Channel Memory – The entire Threadripper family is compatible with quad-channel DDR4 memory.
The AMD Threadripper CPU and X399 Chipset Combination
The X399 platform is the perfect companion to the Threadripper line of processors. There are two vital stats that stand out. Firstly, there are 64 PCIe Gen3 lanes which is 20 more than that found in Intel’s Skylake-X processors. Secondly, the X399 based motherboards lets you take full advantage of the Threadripper processors’ quad channel DDR4 memory capabilities with up to 8 DIMMs.
Coming to the layout itself, the TR4 socket looks humongous, intimidating and boasts a massive pin count – 4,094 to be precise. It is hard to speculate what might have made AMD ditch the PGA approach and adopt LGA like their counterparts, but we believe most people in the industry will be happy with this move.
AMD’s Computex demos were widely acclaimed by critics, as they managed to showcase a host of GPU configurations the X399 could run. With the X399 chipset, AMD made it a point to offer complete freedom to consumers. This means that with AMD Ryzen Threadripper workstations such as our WS-1160A you will find a large array of multi GPU configuration options.
Performance
An on paper comparison certainly shows the Threadripper winning fights when compared to other options on the market around the same price point. Only recently, AMD carried out a Blender demo which proved that both 1950X and 1920X were considerably faster than Ryzen 7 processors. This is obvious, but there was a significant 16-second difference in rendering comparison. The Ryzen 7 is pretty much on par with the Core i7 CPUs, so that should give you a fair idea of how well engineered the Threadripper family is.
Threadripper is in early days but our in-house tests are demonstrating positive results. It is important to note that AMD isn’t trying to make the world’s fastest CPU with this project. It is trying to put an affordable price tag on high-end performance that was previously out of reach to a large chunk of the market. Well, so far, so good.
SenseMI Brings Next Generation technology To Todays Processors
- Pure Power – With smart monitoring of temperatures, power draw and resource usage AMD are able to adjust power consumption without affecting performance leading to cooler, quieter and more energy efficient operation.
- Precision Boost – Processor can dynamically increase clockspeeds in 25MHz increments ensuring your system remains stable whilst outputting the performance required for your application.
- Extended Frequency Range – This technology allows the CPU go beyond the standard advertised max boost clockspeed whilst the system remains cool enough to do so safely. This delivers even greater levels of performance to your workstation.
- Neural Net Prediction – Artificial Intelligence comes to your processor allowing the system to be more efficient by predicting your programs behaviours and therefore the fastest processing pathway to achieve the next task.
- Smart Prefetch – Is a learning algorithm that enables AMD Ryzen Threadripper Processors to predict and pre load data into the CPU cache, enabling the processor to keep working and not waiting for data to perform operations.
Let’s Talk Money
The 1950X will set you back around the £999, while the 1920X will cost you a measly £799 at the time of writing. You might wonder why we’d call £799 ‘measly’. A month ago, if you were to buy a decent processor to render a professional animation movie on, you would have to dive straight into Intel’s Core i7 or Intel Xeon range. Last year’s Core i7-6950X retailed at over £1400 featuring only 10 Cores 20 Threads compared the Threadrippers 16 Cores and 32 Threads. This quarter, Intel is set to launch the Core i9 7960X (18 cores, 36 threads) which we believe will be in the region of £1999. In essence, AMD offers around 40% more performance for your money when compared to its closest competitor. AMD is all set to disrupt the market because of this single fact alone.
Conclusion
All in all, AMD looks set for a grand entry into the high end/enthusiast segment of the processor market. They have finally managed to pull all the right strings – right from the core count to the price. Moreover, the X399 platform promises to bring out the best of the Threadripper family with its huge lane count and quad memory support. With the wind blowing in the right direction for AMD and consumers in general, we are looking forward to getting these systems to customers soon.
