AMD Threadripper Pro Review: An Upgrade Over Regular Threadripper?
by Dr. Ian Cutress on July 14, 2021 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- AMD
- ThreadRipper
- Threadripper Pro
- 3995WX
CPU Tests: Synthetic
Most of the people in our industry have a love/hate relationship when it comes to synthetic tests. On the one hand, they’re often good for quick summaries of performance and are easy to use, but most of the time the tests aren’t related to any real software. Synthetic tests are often very good at burrowing down to a specific set of instructions and maximizing the performance out of those. Due to requests from a number of our readers, we have the following synthetic tests.
Linux OpenSSL Speed: SHA256
One of our readers reached out in early 2020 and stated that he was interested in looking at OpenSSL hashing rates in Linux. Luckily OpenSSL in Linux has a function called ‘speed’ that allows the user to determine how fast the system is for any given hashing algorithm, as well as signing and verifying messages.
OpenSSL offers a lot of algorithms to choose from, and based on a quick Twitter poll, we narrowed it down to the following:
- rsa2048 sign and rsa2048 verify
- sha256 at 8K block size
- md5 at 8K block size
For each of these tests, we run them in single thread and multithreaded mode. All the graphs are in our benchmark database, Bench, and we use the sha256 results in published reviews.
AMD has had a sha256 accelerator in its processors for many years, whereas Intel only enabled SHA acceleration in Rocket Lake. That's why we see RKL matching TR in 1T mode, but when the cores get fired up, TR and TR Pro streak ahead with the available performance and memory bandwidth. This is all about threads here, and 128 threads really matters.
GeekBench 5: Link
As a common tool for cross-platform testing between mobile, PC, and Mac, GeekBench is an ultimate exercise in synthetic testing across a range of algorithms looking for peak throughput. Tests include encryption, compression, fast Fourier transform, memory operations, n-body physics, matrix operations, histogram manipulation, and HTML parsing.
I’m including this test due to popular demand, although the results do come across as overly synthetic.
DRAM Bandwidth
As we're moving from 2 channel memory on Ryzen to 4 channel memory on Threadripper then 8 channel memory on Threadripper Pro, these all have associated theoretical bandwidth maximums but there is a case for testing to see if those maximums can be reached. In this test, we do a simple memory write for peak bandwidth.
For 2-channel DDR4-3200, the theoretical maximum is 51.2 GB/s.
For 4-channel DDR4-3200, the theoretical maximum is 102.4 GB/s.
For 8-channel DDR4-3200, the theoretical maximum is 204.8 GB/s.
Here we see all the 4-channel Threadripper processors getting around 83 GB/s, but the Threadripper Pro can only achieve closer to its maximums when there are more cores present. Along with the memory controller bandwidth, AMD has to manage internal infinity fabric bandwidth and power to get the most out of the system. The fact that the 64C/64T achieves better than the 64C/128T might suggest that in 128T there is some congestion.
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Threska - Friday, July 16, 2021 - link
One could have more than one.https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/mc8j2c/...
Especially depending upon the memory type.
https://semiengineering.com/what-designers-need-to...
croc - Monday, July 19, 2021 - link
The first year anniversary of the Threadripper Pro! And a timely review to celebrate it! Not the CPU, the release... Because that might be the last Threadripper we see for quite some time....I get the impression that AMD has been in the position of runer up for so long now that they don't know how to capitalize on a lead. Either that or by selling off their fab they have lost touch with how to design for fabrication, which might explain their failure to deliver product at the 7NM node. Unfilled Epycs, no Zen 3 Threadrippers...
mode_13h - Monday, July 19, 2021 - link
What a croc!; )
> that might be the last Threadripper we see for quite some time....
The announcement for Chagall is rumored to be coming in August, with volume shipping in September. Have you heard otherwise?
> by selling off their fab they have lost touch with how to design for fabrication
Huh? Why do you think the issue is design-related?
And if we're contemplating counter-factuals, then let's not lose sight of the fact that GF is still on 12 nm. And if AMD still owned them, we should also consider whether the whole enterprise would still be doing business, at all.
> which might explain their failure to deliver product at the 7NM node.
Or maybe they're in the same boat as everyone else, facing higher demand and restricted supply?
croc - Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - link
Lemmee see.... Wasn't Chagall an artist? And wasn't the code name for the Threadripper Zen 3 to be Genesis Peak? And aren't you quoting a rumor? Have there been ANY leaked benchmarks? Has ANY processor EVER launched without leaked benchmarks?The lack of things often speak volumes...
mode_13h - Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - link
> And aren't you quoting a rumor?Yes, that's exactly what I said.
> Have there been ANY leaked benchmarks?
> Has ANY processor EVER launched without leaked benchmarks?
It's a niche product. There typically aren't many motherboard options for them (and even fewer, at launch). I think it's not surprising, if there aren't any benchmark leaks as of yet. There won't be many engineering samples floating around.
Anyway, we'll know within about 5 weeks if there's any truth to the rumor.
croc - Wednesday, July 21, 2021 - link
I will know when a bios with AGESA support for a Zen 3 Threadripper arrives. None have arrived yet, and typically they do so about a month prior. Chagal is an artist, and artist names are usually reserved for apus. Supposedly the next TR will use the TRX40 socket, which means that there are many MBs for testing / leaking. Given that the Epyc still uses the SP3 socket, I believe this to be tue The latest 'chagall' rumor is that it won't release before Sept, mebbe as late as November. Gotta love them movable goal postsPersonaly, I don't think that AMD can get the cores to deliver at the frequencies required for an HEDT product Hell, given their back orders for their server chip I doubt that they even care. Bigger fish to fry, all that. Still, a bit of egg-on-face for Dr. Su. And niche? don't tell the CGI world that they are niche...
Qasar - Wednesday, July 21, 2021 - link
sorry croc, but you could be wrong, looks like TR based on zen 3 could be Chagall, and on both STRX4 and SWRX8, at least according to here :https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/amd-threadripper...
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Zen-3-based-Ryzen-Th...
from moores law is dead, a video about TR zen 3 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-7Q_VsWUM
but no concrete info as of yet, but a search on google for threadripper zen 3, all seems to say the same, code name chagall
croc - Saturday, July 24, 2021 - link
No new BIOS since April... 7 days to August, so looks like another no-show, eh...Qasar - Saturday, July 24, 2021 - link
and the point is ? considering their has been no official announcement from amd when zen 3 TR is to be released, why would there be a bios for it yet ?the point of my reply was that you could be wrong on the code name, not the release date.
at least amd HAS a HEDT cpu, when was the last one from intel ?
bottom line : all there are, are rumors, which should be taken with some salt.
croc - Monday, July 26, 2021 - link
That would be the Xeon w-3175x