AMD is launching modern 12 and 24-core 2nd-gen Threadripper parts called the 2920X and 2970WX. Almost three months stimulate passed since we first checked out the flagship TR 2950X and 2990WX, the 16 and 32-CORE models. Tranquil AMD did warn U.S.A at the time at that rest of the 2nd-gen Threadripper card wouldn't arrive until October, and present we are at the tail final stage of the calendar month.

Before we get to the examination and bench mark results, here's a quick refresher covering the figure and specs...

There are cardinal models in the WX serial publication, where the 'W' signifies that this is a workstation series. The workstation 2990WX and 2970WX models are configured very differently to the 2950X and 2920X processors. Whereas the 12 and 16-core processors pack two Zeppelin dies, the 24-core and 32-core models lineament four.

Typically such a configuration would give 4 threefold-channel memory controllers for 8-channels, this however isn't possible connected the X399 platform, limiting these core heavy parts to quad-line memory.

Although thither are two more Zeppelin dies, the additional dies are compte dies, in AMD's words. This means they have atomic number 102 local anesthetic PCIe operating theatre DRAM admittance, for that they must travel via the Infinity Fabric to the IO dies. As on that point are twice as some dies, the Eternity Fabric bandwidth is also halved, thus now the throughput betwixt dies is just 25Gbps, assuming you're using DDR4-3200 memory.

Because of this design that sees two of the dies without direct approach to the Drachm, it means that unlike the 2920X and 2950X, the 2970WX and 2990WX use NUMA exclusively. AMD claimed that this quad-NUMA configuration allowed them to create the world's first 32-core consumer C.P.U. and even as important it has allowed them to do it while maintaining back compatibility with existing TR4 products.

This shift on how the Mainframe operates internally caused some compatibility issues, or rather performance issues with games and some applications, namely Windows 10. Windows 10's scheduler has been proven to atomic number 4 very inefficient at managing these core heavy CPUs and we plant significantly better performance when testing the same applications with a Linux based operating system.

Unfortunately this stiff a big job for the 2990WX -- and we suspect the 2970WX -- and while Microsoft hasn't through with anything to improve the spot yet, AMD has. The latest version of the Ryzen Master software which will be available for download nowadays, introduces a Mechanics Local Mode and crucially you don't motive to readjust the system in order to enable it.

In AMD's words, Energetic Local Mode automatically migrates the organization's almost demanding practical application threads onto the Threadripper 2990WX and 2970WX CPU cores with local access. In other lyric: applications and games that prefer local DRAM access code leave mechanically receive it, but applications that plate to umteen cores will still be free to do so.

Cost Cores / Threads Foundation / Turbo Time (MHz) L2 Cache (Bachelor of Medicine) L3 Cache (MB) TDP
TR 2990WX $1720 32/64 3.0 / 4.2 16 64 250 W
TR 2970WX $1299 24/48 12 64
TR 2950X $900 16/32 3.5 / 4.4 8 32 180 W
TR 1950X $680 16/32 3.4 / 4.2 8 32
TR 2920X $649 12/24 3.5 / 4.3 6 32
TR 1920X $390 12/24 3.5 / 4.2 6 32

Information technology's great to see AMD working to ameliorate the substance abuser experience with these overlooking-close screen background processors, but ultimately the biggest improvements will come when Microsoft updates the Windows scheduler. For now the 2990WX and 2970WX will be safer purchases for those using a Linux based operating system, but for certain tasks much Eastern Samoa rendering they'Re even beasts in Windows.

Spec-wise the 12-core part is virtually identical to the 16-core part, harmful the obvious reduction in core count down and the same is avowedly when comparing the 24-core group and 32-core parts.

For testing all systems were configured with DDR4-3200 CL14 memory. The quad-epithelial duct platforms received 32GB and the dual-canal systems 16GB. The Threadripper CPUs were benchmarked with the Enermax Liqtech 360 TR4 while the Skylake-X CPUs victimised a 360mm open loop setup, this won't skew tired performance in Intel favor. The Coffee Lake and 2nd-gen Ryzen parts were both tested with the Corsair H115i Pro and finally the graphics card of choice is Gigabyte's RTX 2080 Atomic number 2 Gaming OC.

Benchmarks

As expected the 2920X roughly matches the 1920X and 2950X when it comes to uninterrupted memory bandwidth execution. The 2970WX though, information technology surprised with a throughput of 67 GB/s which is a few Gigabytes per second faster than the 2990WX and 6% more memory bandwidth than a typical Threadripper CPU.

Cinebench single thread performance is right where we expected information technology to be, the 2920X scored 178 pts placing it on par with the 2950X spell the 2970X matched the 2990WX and older 1920X.

Of course, it's the multi-threaded performance that's of most importance for these core cloudy CPUs and here we see the 2970WX cleaning sprouted, coming second only to information technology's 32-core adaptation. A score of some 4300 pts made it just over 30% faster than Intel Core i9-7980XE. Meanwhile the 2920X just edged ahead of the 1920X fashioning information technology just 25% slower than Intel 16-core 7960X.

Again the 2920X offers a small performance improvement over the 1920X, this time in our Blender tryout. The 2970WX is also a big ill-use up from the 7980XE, as it was once again a trifle terminated 30% quicker. It was also 36% quicker than the Threadripper 2950X, attractive just 9.5 seconds and that mean it was also just 13% slower than the 32-core 2990WX.

The 2970WX was still faster than the 7980XE in Corona though different previous tests where it South Korean won by a 30% margin or greater, here it's simply 8% faster. The 2920X was once more a few percent faster than the 1920X and 9% faster than the 9900K running without a TDP limit in place.

The last rendering benchmark we're looking is V-Beam and again the 2970WX makes myopic act upon of the more expensive 18-sum processor from Intel, present it flummox the 7980XE by a 22% margin. It was also just 13% slower than the 2990WX, indeed a unbroken resultant for the new 24-core CPU. The 2920X also does well despite offering just 5% more performance than the 1920X, here it was 13% faster than the Core i9-9900K.

The PCMark 10 gaming bench mark shows the 2970WX doing much better than the 2990WX though the 2950X is still by far the best Threadripper Mainframe in that test, and intimately the best CPU overall.