AMD is launching new 12 and 24-core 2nd-gen Threadripper parts known as the 2920X and 2970WX. Almost three months take passed since nosotros commencement checked out the flagship TR 2950X and 2990WX, the 16 and 32-core models. Nonetheless AMD did warn us at the fourth dimension at that remainder of the 2d-gen Threadripper lineup wouldn't go far until October, and hither we are at the tail end of the month.

Before we go to the testing and criterion results, here's a quick refresher covering the design and specs...

There are two models in the WX serial, where the 'Westward' 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 sixteen-core processors pack two Zeppelin dies, the 24-core and 32-cadre models feature four.

Typically such a configuration would have 4 dual-channel memory controllers for 8-channels, this even so isn't possible on the X399 platform, limiting these cadre heavy parts to quad-channel retention.

Although there are 2 more than Zeppelin dies, the additional dies are compte dies, in AMD'south words. This means they take no local PCIe or DRAM access, for that they must travel via the Infinity Fabric to the IO dies. As in that location are twice as many dies, the Infinity Fabric bandwidth is besides halved, so now the throughput between dies is but 25Gbps, assuming yous're using DDR4-3200 retention.

Considering of this design that sees ii of the dies without straight admission to the DRAM, information technology means that unlike the 2920X and 2950X, the 2970WX and 2990WX utilize NUMA exclusively. AMD claimed that this quad-NUMA configuration allowed them to create the earth'south first 32-cadre consumer processor and but as important information technology has immune them to do it while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing TR4 products.

This shift on how the CPU operates internally caused some compatibility issues, or rather performance issues with games and some applications, namely Windows x. Windows 10'southward scheduler has been proven to be very inefficient at managing these cadre heavy CPUs and we found significantly better performance when testing the aforementioned applications with a Linux based operating system.

Unfortunately this remains a huge problem for the 2990WX -- and nosotros suspect the 2970WX -- and while Microsoft hasn't washed anything to meliorate the situation nevertheless, AMD has. The latest version of the Ryzen Master software which will exist available for download today, introduces a Dynamic Local Fashion and crucially y'all don't need to reset the organization in gild to enable it.

In AMD's words, Dynamic Local Mode automatically migrates the system'south virtually demanding application threads onto the Threadripper 2990WX and 2970WX CPU cores with local memory access. In other words: applications and games that prefer local DRAM admission volition automatically receive it, but applications that scale to many cores will still exist gratuitous to do and so.

Cost Cores / Threads Base of operations / Turbo Clock (MHz) L2 Cache (MB) L3 Enshroud (MB) TDP
TR 2990WX $1720 32/64 3.0 / 4.2 xvi 64 250 W
TR 2970WX $1299 24/48 12 64
TR 2950X $900 sixteen/32 iii.5 / 4.4 8 32 180 W
TR 1950X $680 sixteen/32 3.4 / four.2 8 32
TR 2920X $649 12/24 iii.5 / 4.iii 6 32
TR 1920X $390 12/24 3.5 / 4.2 6 32

Information technology's dandy to see AMD working to amend the user experience with these high-end desktop processors, but ultimately the biggest improvements will come up when Microsoft updates the Windows scheduler. For at present the 2990WX and 2970WX volition be safer purchases for those using a Linux based operating arrangement, simply for sure tasks such as rendering they're nonetheless beasts in Windows.

Spec-wise the 12-core function is virtually identical to the 16-core function, minus the obvious reduction in core count and the aforementioned is true when comparing the 24-core and 32-cadre parts.

For testing all systems were configured with DDR4-3200 CL14 retentivity. The quad-channel platforms received 32GB and the dual-channel systems 16GB. The Threadripper CPUs were benchmarked with the Enermax Liqtech 360 TR4 while the Skylake-X CPUs used a 360mm open up loop setup, this won't skew stock 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 Ti Gaming OC.

Benchmarks

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

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

Of course, it's the multi-threaded operation that'southward of most importance for these core heavy CPUs and here nosotros meet the 2970WX cleaning up, coming second only to it's 32-core version. A score of roughly 4300 pts made it only over thirty% faster than Intel Cadre i9-7980XE. Meanwhile the 2920X just edged ahead of the 1920X making it just 25% slower than Intel 16-core 7960X.

Again the 2920X offers a small operation improvement over the 1920X, this fourth dimension in our Blender test. The 2970WX is also a big step up from the 7980XE, equally it was over again a fiddling over 30% faster. It was also 36% faster than the Threadripper 2950X, taking only 9.five seconds and that mean it was also but 13% slower than the 32-core 2990WX.

The 2970WX was even so faster than the 7980XE in Corona though unlike previous tests where it won by a thirty% margin or greater, here it'south just 8% faster. The 2920X was again 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 at is V-Ray and over again the 2970WX makes short work of the more expensive 18-cadre processor from Intel, here it beat the 7980XE past a 22% margin. Information technology was also just 13% slower than the 2990WX, then a solid upshot for the new 24-core CPU. The 2920X also does well despite offer just v% more than performance than the 1920X, here it was 13% faster than the Core i9-9900K.

The PCMark ten gaming criterion shows the 2970WX doing much meliorate than the 2990WX though the 2950X is still past far the all-time Threadripper CPU in this test, and well the best CPU overall.