AMD‘s Threadripper 3000 processors are finest identified for wreaking full devastation on Intel’s HEDT lineup, simply outclassing the incumbent Cascade Lake-X processors in key areas, and upsetting our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy and Finest CPUs for Workstations rankings in a single fell swoop. Whereas we actually weren’t accustomed to seeing Intel so completely trounced in a section it has historically dominated with pricing impunity, the Threadripper 3000 processors did fall quick in a single space – they did not allow all eight reminiscence channels or the total complement of PCIe lanes. AMD‘s Threadripper Professional fixes that, and the chips are coming to shops quickly.
The ludicrously-appointed 64-core 128-thread 3995WX serves as the top of AMD‘s new four-pronged Threadripper Professional lineup, which extends all the way down to 12-core models. At launch, the entire chips had been unique to Lenovo’s ThinkStation P620 workstations. Nevertheless, AMD not too long ago introduced that it was bringing the highest three models to shops, and the corporate’s companions introduced a number of new motherboards, just like the ASUS Professional WS Sage SE and the Gigabyte WRX80-SU8. Sadly, AMD hasn’t shared retail pricing particulars but.
The patron Threadripper models additionally weren’t designed to completely tackle the wants of the high-volume and high-margin OEM workstation market, which is essential as AMD seems to broaden its market share-stealing streak. AMD by no means particularly designed or marketed its Threadripper lineup for the workstation market, however the brand new Threadripper Professional chips are designed to permit the corporate to penetrate the profitable OEM workstation section for the primary time in 15 years, opening a brand new entrance in AMDs battle in opposition to Intel’s highest-end chips.
| Cores / Threads | Base / Increase (GHz) | L3 Cache (MB) | PCIe | DRAM | TDP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Threadripper Professional 3995WX | 64 / 128 | 2.7 / 4.2 | 256 MB | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 280W |
| Threadripper Professional 3975WX | 32 / 64 | 3.5 / 4.2 | 128 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 280W |
| Threadripper Professional 3955WX | 16 / 32 | 3.9 / 4.3 | 64 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 280W |
| Threadripper Professional 3945WX | 12 / 24 | 4.0 / 4.3 | 62 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 280W |
Provided that AMD‘s Threadripper 3990X has already solely redefined the excessive finish desktop (HEDT) on the buyer aspect of the equation, it is pure to count on AMD to finally deliver some great benefits of its Zen 2 microarchitecture and the 7nm course of to the workstation market – however that hasn’t been a fast and straightforward path. Fielding OEM-class techniques requires passage by means of strict validation procedures. Previously, AMD‘s prospects with a strict want for OEM techniques both went with the Ryzen Professional or EPYC server models as an alternative, or selected a consumer-focused Threaddripper system from smaller customized system makers. That is a spot that the brand new Threadripper Professional sequence goals to fill, and it actually additionally helps AMD construct OEM relationships and readies them for AMD‘s future chips, just like the Zen Three Threadripper models that may undoubtedly come sooner or later.
The Threadripper Professional 3995WX comes with loads of components to earn the excellence of probably the most highly effective workstation chip in the marketplace – it is 64 cores simply outweigh Intel’s most of 28 cores in a single-socket workstation. In threaded workloads, the 3995WX may even outperform dual-socket Intel techniques that include as much as 56 cores.
Other than the class-leading core counts, AMD‘s Threadripper Professional additionally comes with different options that give it a leg up over competing chips. In lots of respects, the 3995WX is akin to AMD‘s consumer-focused Threadripper 3990X – however on steroids. Whereas each chips characteristic the identical general design with 64 cores and 128 threads, the Professional sequence brings eight DDR4-3200 reminiscence channels to bear, thus offering elevated reminiscence throughput over AMD‘s quad-channel Threadripper models, to not point out Intel’s six-channel Xeon W models that high out at DDR4-2933. You will need to step as much as a dual-socket Intel-powered workstation to seek out extra out there reminiscence channels.
The expanded reminiscence throughput additionally addresses a key weak spot that limits AMD‘s shopper Threadripper processors in some purposes – reminiscence throughput per core – whereas additionally handily serving up extra complete reminiscence bandwidth than a single Intel Xeon W chip.
AMD additionally bumped most reminiscence capability as much as 2TB in techniques that assist two DIMMs per channel, a giant soar over the 256GB supported with the corporate’s personal shopper models, to not point out Intel’s competing Xeon W chips which have a 1TB restrict. You will need to step as much as Intel’s Xeon Scalable lineup, which is basically meant for servers as an alternative of workstations, to match Threadripper Professional’s 2TB of reminiscence capability.
AMD additionally elevated PCIe 4.Zero assist from 72 lanes with the usual Threadripper models to 128 with each chip within the Professional sequence, all whereas Intel’s Xeon W stays mired on the PCIe 3.Zero interface with 64 lanes. The doubled throughput of every PCIe 4.Zero lane, to not point out that the 3995WX has 2.5X extra lanes, is a boon for skilled customers that wish to use the quickest high-performance storage and networking components, or have the flexibility to attach 4 Quadro GPUs in a single-socket chassis.
AMD positions the Threadripper Professional chips for skilled studios, designers, engineers, and knowledge scientists, all of which might profit from elevated connectivity. We put the chips to the take a look at in professional-class purposes and our commonplace desktop PC take a look at suite. And sure, we took the chip for a spin by means of our gaming suite to see how the additional 4 reminiscence channels impression gaming efficiency.
AMD Threadripper Professional Specs
The Threadripper Professional chips include the ‘WX’ suffix to indicate they’re designed particularly for the skilled workstation market and drop into specialised single-socket WRX80 motherboards that includes the sWRX8 socket. The LGA4094 socket is bodily equivalent to the Threadripper shopper and EPYC knowledge middle platforms. Nonetheless, it options completely different pin assignments: AMD enabled some pins to assist extra reminiscence channels and PCIe lanes than can be found on the Threadripper shopper chips, and disabled sure pins used to assist a number of sockets on EPYC platforms. The chips characteristic the identical inside chiplet-based structure because the desktop variants, albeit with a fully-enabled I/O Die (IOD) that prompts the additional PCIe lanes and two further dual-channel reminiscence controllers.
| Cores / Threads | Base / Increase (GHz) | L3 Cache (MB) | PCIe | DRAM | TDP | MSRP/RCP | |
| Threadripper Professional 3995WX | 64 / 128 | 2.7 / 4.2 | 256 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 280W | N/A |
| Threadripper 3990X | 64 / 128 | 2.9 / 4.3 | 256 | 88 Gen 4 (72 Usable) | Quad DDR4-3200 | 280W | $3,990 |
| EPYC 7442 | 64 / 128 | 2.25 / 3.4 | 256 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 225W | $6,950 |
| EPYC 7542 | 32 / 64 | 3.9 / 3.4 | 128 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 225W | $3,400 |
| Threadripper Professional 3975WX | 32 / 64 | 3.5 / 4.2 | 128 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 280W | N/A |
| Xeon 8280 | 28 / 56 | 2.7 / 4.0 | 38.5 | 48 Gen 3 | Six-Channel DDR4-2933 | 205W | $10,009 |
| Intel W-3175X | 28 / 56 | 3.1 / 4.8 | 38.5 | 48 Gen 3 | Six-Channel DDR4-2666 | 255W | $2999 |
| Threadripper 3970X | 32 / 64 | 3.7 / 4.5 | *128 | 88 Gen 4 (72 Usable) | Quad DDR4-3200 | 280W | $1999 |
| Xeon W-3275 | 28 / 56 | 2.5 / 4.6 | 38.5 | 64 Gen3 | Six-Channel DDR4-2933 | 205W | $4,449 |
| Threadripper 3960X | 24 / 48 | 3.8 / 4.5 | *128 | 88 Gen 4 (72 Usable) | Quad DDR4-3200 | 280W | $1,399 |
| Xeon W-3265 | 24 / 48 | 2.7 / 4.6 | 33 | 64 Gen 3 | Six-Channel DDR4-2933 | 205W | $3,349 |
| Threadripper Professional 3955WX | 16 / 32 | 3.9 / 4.3 | 64 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 280W | N/A |
| Ryzen 9 3950X | 16 / 32 | 3.5 / 4.7 | 64 | 64 | Twin DDR4-3200 | 105W | $749 |
| Threadripper Professional 3945WX | 12 / 24 | 4.0 / 4.3 | 62 | 128 Gen 4 | Eight-Channel DDR4-3200 | 280W | N/A |
All Threadripper Professional models additionally assist 128 lanes of PCIe 4.Zero connectivity. The chips additionally characteristic a 280W TDP ranking that matches the buyer models however stretches past the utmost 250W TDP discovered with the EPYC frequency-optimized sequence of processors.
The entire Threadripper Professional processors characteristic a most frequency over 4.Zero GHz, which is necessary not just for lightly-threaded workloads but additionally for purposes which can be licensed on a per-core foundation, that means you pay greater licensing charges primarily based on the variety of cores current within the system. Naturally, quicker cores equate to extra value on your software program licensing greenback.
The 280W Threadripper Professional 3995WX is AMD‘s first 64-core workstation processor and, prefer it’s comparable EPYC and Threadripper models, comes with 256MB of L3 cache. Base frequencies weigh in at 2.7 GHz, which is far greater than EPYC’s most of two.25 GHz for a 64-core processor, and 4.2 GHz for the single-core increase, which additionally outstrips EPYC’s 3.Four GHz increase. Nevertheless, the 3995WX’s increase is 100 MHz decrease than the consumer-focused Threadripper 3990X.
The 280W Threadripper Professional 3975WX weighs in at 32 cores and 64 threads that run at a 3.5 GHz base and 4.2 GHz increase, which is considerably decrease than the Threadripper 3970X’s 3.7/4.5 GHz base/increase. The chip has a considerably greater increase frequency than its 32-core EPYC 7542 comparable (+800MHZ) however a decrease base frequency.
In the meantime, the 16-core 32-thread Threadripper 3955WX provides the identical core counts because the Zen 2-powered Ryzen 9 3950X that drops into mainstream desktop platforms however has quadruple the reminiscence throughput with eight reminiscence channels together with 128 lanes of the PCIe 4.Zero interface. The chip options a lot decrease peak frequencies of 4.Three GHz than the 3950X’s 4.7 GHz, however a 400 MHz greater base clock of three.9 GHz.
Lastly, the Threadripper Professional 3945WX slots in as AMD‘s first 12-core processor that surpasses a 4.Zero GHz increase pace, weighing in with 4.0/4.Three GHz base/increase frequencies. This processor additionally comes with the total complement of eight reminiscence channels and 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0, with excessive clock charges positioning the chip for purposes that prize per-core efficiency.
AMD says its 4 Threadripper Professional chips compete with Intel’s whole complicated stack of workstation chips, which incorporates three households (W-3200, W-2200, and Xeon Scalable) which have various options, sockets, and reminiscence assist. Even with an enormous product stack that spans 85 chips, Intel’s techniques high out at six channels of DDR4-2933, that means that AMD has the reminiscence throughput benefit that’s key for large-scale simulations and models.
AMD stepped up Threadripper Professional’s ECC reminiscence assist to incorporate UDIMMs, RDIMMs, LRDIMMs, and 3DS RDIMMs (3D stacked reminiscence). AMD‘s consumer-focused Threadripper platforms ‘unofficially’ assist ECC reminiscence, that means true full assist is spotty. As you’ll be able to think about, all Threadripper Professional workstations will come fully-validated for ECC reminiscence. The processors additionally assist AMD‘s Reminiscence Guard reminiscence encryption. AMD says that comes with a slight efficiency penalty (just a few %) that’s offset by the safety benefits.
MORE: Finest CPUs
MORE: Intel and AMD CPU Benchmark Hierarchy
MORE: All CPUs Content material