AMD Threadripper 3990X Scores Another Win: We Test New SPECWorkstation 3 Update
tomshardware.com
tomshardware.com
Sure, these are great CPUs (I have a 3950x myself), but there is something needs to be mentioned: AMD has artificially restricted the memory limit. They have a max configuration of 256GB. I get that they want to segment these from Epyc, but it already only has four memory channels instead of eight (not a lot with 64cores/ 128 threads). Nor is 256GB a lot for such a CPU (the Ryzen 3000's support 128GB on two channels), previous Threadrippers supported 2TB!
I think AMD went too far here with their artificial limit, so it is worth mentioning.
(I'm not really a fan of TRX40, I think it is overpriced for what you get and they don't even throw in 10gbe when they start at £400+)
But now it’s actually here. Kudos to AMD for proving how Intel has held back the industry for years and years.
Now though, what’s next? AMD has shocked (disrupted?) the CPU scene with a completely unthinkable increase in computing power at several affordable pricing levels. Everyone can upgrade their rigs to something immensely better, no matter the budget.
So where does AMD go from here?
We know that Zen3 does away with that split. That's potentially double the L3 for single cpu, which helps some loads. Additionally, better process might mean they can also make the L3 cache bigger.
AMD hasn't talked much about Zen3 because it's a ways off (H2, potentially Q4), but from the information they've given out, we know that IPC increase is over 15%.
This will widen the gap with Intel, and it's assumed that Intel's negligible advantage in some videogames, to do with memory access latency, will be gone by then.
Intel has a couple of significant advantages here i.e. AVX-512 and DLBoost.
The most important for AMD right now is to maintain that position and level, so they can get market share (especially in server space).
It's automatic overclocking, implemented by extending the normal power management and turbo mechanisms to work with power draw limits the user can set beyond the normal specs.
In general I prefer cost range based comparisons (or first for any cost) for this reason.
There is certainly more and better optimized software for x86_64, but this makes it sound like there's nothing, which is false.