The AMD Threadripper 2 CPU Review: The 24-Core 2970WX and 12-Core 2920X Tested
by Ian Cutress on October 29, 2018 9:00 AM ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |||||
| AMD TR4 | TR2 2970WX TR2 2920X |
ASUS ROG X399 Zenith |
1501 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 4x8GB DDR4-2933 |
| TR2 2990WX TR2 2950X |
ASUS ROG X399 Zenith |
0508 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
G.Skill FlareX 4x8GB DDR4-2933 |
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| TR 1950X TR 1920X |
ASUS ROG X399 Zenith |
0508 | Enermax | G.Skill FlareX 4x8GB DDR4-2666 |
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| TR 1900X | ASUS X399-A Prime |
0407 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
Crucial Ballistix 4x4GB DDR4-2666 |
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| AMD EPYC | EPYC 7601 | GIGABYTE MZ31-AR0 |
F07 | Gamerstorm Fryzen |
Micron LRDIMM 8x128GB DDR4-2666 |
| AMD 2000 | R7 2700X | ASRock X370 Gaming K4 |
P4.80 | Wraith Max* | G.Skill SniperX 2x8 GB DDR4-2933 |
| Intel HEDT | i9-7980XE i9-7960X i9-7940X i9-7920X i9-7900X i7-7820X i7-7800X |
ASRock X299 OC Formula |
P1.40 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x4GB DDR4-2666 |
| Intel 9th Gen | i9-9900K | ASRock Z370 Gaming i7 |
P1.70 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x4GB DDR4-2666 |
| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
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| PSU | Corsair AX860i Corsair AX1200i |
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| SSD | Crucial MX200 1TB | ||||
| OS | Windows 10 x64 RS3 1709 Spectre and Meltdown Patched |
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| *VRM Supplimented with SST-FHP141-VF 173 CFM fans | |||||
All of AMD’s Threadripper 2 processors are unlocked, allowing users to push the frequency and voltage higher for extra performance. Due to time constraints, we will hopefully examine this in a later review.
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
| Hardware Providers | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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schujj07 - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
You would be far to limited with RAM to run 60 VMs on that system. I've got 80 on dual Dell 7425's with dual 24 Core Epycs and 512GB RAM and I'm already getting RAM limited.Again I wouldn't install ESXi on these. Use Win 10 and Workstation for your test/dev and you will have a more agile system. If you don't need it for testing that day you still have Windows. FYI I'm VMware Admin.
Ratman6161 - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
All depends...in my home lab environment (which lets me test things at will and do whatever I want as opposed to at work where even the lab is more locked down) . For me, the Threadrippers would be great...but extreme overkill. I actually use old FX8320's which I bought when they were dirt cheap and DDR3 RAM was cheap too. The free version of ESXi works fine for me too. For my purposes the threadrippers would be really cool but more expensive than they would be worth.Icehawk - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
I would love one of these high cores boxes for our test lab, using W10 and VM on my desktop is very limiting for me (work rig is 7700 & 32gb) - one of these would let me put plenty of resources onboard. Currently my lab runs off a G6 Dell server which is totally fine but if I could get myself a new, personal, lab I'd want a TR rig since it can host a lot more RAM than Intel's option.odrade - Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - link
Hi I completely agree with you.With security enhancement moving to sandbox/VM (Application Guard, Sandboxed Defender in 19H1) virtualization scenario will be more prevalent beyond developper or test scenarios.
One major disappointment is that after 12+ months since GA there is no support for nested virtualization for TR/TR2 ?, Ryzen ? Epyc ?.
This issue seems to be general and not limited to hyper-v (KVM, etc..).
This is strange since EPYC made is way through Azure or Oracle Cloud catalog.
During Ignite 2018 there was a demo with an EPYC box (VM or Server).
Regards G.
GreenReaper - Wednesday, October 31, 2018 - link
You could ask for HyperV over here:https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-...
But such features are often buggy in their initial implementations:
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/vme-broken-on-amd-ryze...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/8ljgph/has_t...
It wouldn't surprise me if they ran into too many problems to want to push out a solution. And Intel has had issues here too - most recently L1 Terminal Fault relating to EPT:
https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/understanding-l1-te...
If people buy enough of them, and there is a performance benefit or it otherwise becomes a feature differentiator, support will doubtless be developed. Chicken and egg, I know.
odrade - Monday, November 5, 2018 - link
Hi,Thanks four your inputs.
This feature is handy if you want to build advanced lab scenarios while preserving your work environment or avoid the hassle to use dual boot.
Maybe this feature will be enabled with the 2019 Epyc / TR iteration.
And if the the socket and compatibility promises is kept by AMD refreshing
my setup will do it and put those extra pcie lanes to use (upgrading storage as well).
At least the 7mm process will help to kept the power compatibility in line.
Regards G.
Blindsay - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
For the chart on the last page, the "12-core Battle" it would be interesting to see a "similar price battle" of like the 9900k vs 7820X vs 2920X. I suspect the 9900k would hold up rather well especially once it returns to its SRPmapesdhs - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
A battle for what? If it's gaming, get the far cheaper 2700X and using the difference to buy a better GPU, giving better gaming results by default (some niche cases at 1080p, but in general the 9900K is a poor value option for gaming, except for those who've gone the NPC route into high refresh displays from which there's no way back, ironic now NVIDIA has decided to move backwards to sub-60Hz 1080p with RTX).Blindsay - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
Definitely not for gaming lol. It is for a home server (unraid)PeachNCream - Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - link
That's a lot of compute for a home server. Home servers (outside of those used for the development of professional skills or to test software outside of a setting where there are office usage policies) serve very limited useful purposes. They're mainly a solution looking for a problem or just fun to mess around with. I have an old C2D E8400-powered desktop PC with 8GB of RAM that I just recently put online as a local file, media, and internal web server connected via a cheap TPLink PCI (non-e) wifi card. There's nothing that the kids and I have done to it yet that brings it anywhere close to its knees. Even streaming videos from it to three other systems at once is a non-issue and all of those files are stored on a single 1TB 5400 RPM 2.5 inch mechanical HDD. TR is extreme overkill for a toy server at home. Literally any old scavenged desktop or laptop can act as a home server.