AMD 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper 2990X 32 Core / 64 Thread CPU Review Ft. ASRock X399 Professional Gaming and ASRock X399 Taichi

AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 2990X, HEDT Revolutionized - Conclusion

It was the beginning of 2017, Intel thought the year would go really smoothly for them in regards to their mainstream and high-end desktop launches. Intel launched their 7th generation core family, offering consumers the same architecture, slightly enhanced process and slightly higher CPU clock speeds, calling it a day. What they didn't know was that their rival, AMD, was going to make an epic return just a few months after and when they did, Intel's worst fears had come to life.

While Ryzen was anticipated to arrive on the mainstream consumer platform, offering IPC on par with Intel's latest generation processors, it was Threadripper that no one, even the press had not expected. A full-fledged lineup of high-end desktop processors designed to tackle Intel's Core X line up. AMD's Ryzen Threadripper and the accompanying X399 platform is designed for enthusiasts, it offered features that are not available otherwise at incredible value while the new Zen cores delivered CPU performance on par with Intel's modern core architectures.

One year later, AMD is launching their 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper processors. In similar fashion, the 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper processors disrupt the market once again with a beastly performance at an unprecedented value which has yet to be seen.

Featuring the highest core count we have ever witnessed on a consumer platform. In a way, AMD's HEDT is now a more grand scheme of things and a platform which is the pinnacle of enthusiast and workstation grade performance. Some features of the new platform are listed below:

1. 12 nm LP process technology 
   - 1st generation Ryzen and 1st generation Threadripper were manufactured using 14L LPP (Low Power Plus) process technology of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, whereas 2nd generation Ryzen Threadripper based on Zen + microarchitecture was manufactured by GLOBALFOUNDRIES 12 nm LP (Leading Performance) process technology adopted. If the same power consumption is higher than the first generation Threadripper, AMD is appealing that it can realize lower power consumption than the first generation Threadripper for the same clock.
2. Precision Boost 2 
   - The automatic clock-up technology "Precision Boost" adopted by the 1st generation Ryzen and the 1st generation Threadripper had the operation clock determined by the number of loaded cores, but this time the CPU voltage, current, core It has been redesigned to detect the temperature and select an appropriate operation clock. As a result, regardless of the number of cores under load, clock up according to the situation.
3. XFR 2 (Extended Frequency Range 2) 
   ~ "If the CPU temperature condition permits," XFR "to operate with a higher clock beyond the maximum clock of Precision Boost becomes the 2nd generation, and as with Precision Boost 2, the number of cores is restricted lost. Depending on the performance of the CPU cooling system, the performance will improve up to 7%
4. Reduction of access delay of cache and main memory - Access delay to cache and main memory is smaller for first generation Threadripper. Up to 13% improvement in L1, up to 34% in L2, up to 16% in L3, up to 11% in main memory, resulting in a 3% increase in instruction execution count (IPC, Instruction per Clock) per clock It is said that

For this review, I will be testing the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990X flagship processor on the full array of ASRock's X399 motherboard lineup which includes the FATAL1TY Professional Gaming, the X399 Taichi, and the X399M Taichi. You can read my reviews of these motherboards below:

• ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Review
• ASRock X399M Taichi Motherboard Review
• ASRock X399 Taichi Motherboard Review

AMD X399 HEDT Chipset -  Continuing Support To 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper CPUs

X399 is the next generation and the first AMD high-end desktop platform designed for enthusiasts and power craving users. It is an entirely fresh platform which brings with itself a load of new tech and features that I haven't seen on high-end platforms for a while now. To start off with details, the X399 platform is very similar to AMD's server end EPYC platform.

It features support for AMD Ryzen Threadripper chips in which AMD is using the top 5% dies for HEDT consumers, the same monolithic SP3 socket, known as the TR4 and the many PCIe lanes that we should expect on server level platforms.

The platform is made in a way that it can cater not only to HEDT consumers but also to the workstation community. In terms of features, the X399 socket now supports up to 32 cores and 64 threads and there's no doubt that we will get more cores and threads on the same socket and platform in the future with future iterations of the Zen core.

It can support chips with up to 250W TDP and can deliver full 64 PCIe lanes to users. This means for the first time, we have a platform that can drive four graphics cards with full native x16 link speeds.

This marks a major revolution and a win-win for AMD. In addition to that, we get 8 PCH PCIe lanes, support for NVMe and NVMe RAID, quad channel memory, up to 12 SATA 3 ports and 14 USB interfaces. The only rival on the market for X399 is X299 and honestly speaking, the X399 takes the lead in terms of raw specifications and features.

A year later, we are looking at a slew of new refreshed designs, specifically built for the 2nd generation HEDT processors. We have already seen the MSI MEG X399 Creation and AORUS X399 Extreme designs so we can also expect other products from the remaining manufacturers.  For existing motherboards, partners have released new BIOS firmware that enables support on them (read more here).

AMD X399 PCH Features

WCCFTECH	Whitehaven (Ryzen Threadripper)	Intel Core X (Skylake-X)	Pinnacle Ridge (Ryzen)	Summit Ridge (Ryzen)
Target Platform	HEDT	HEDT	Mainstream	Mainstream
Socket	TR4	LGA 2066	AM4 (PGA)	AM4 (PGA)
Socket Pins	4094 Pins (LGA)	2066 Pins (LGA)	1331 Pins (PGA)	1331 Pins (PGA)
Max Cores	Up to 32	Up to 18	Up to 8	Up to 8
Max Threads	Up to 64	Up to 36	Up to 16	Up to 16
Max L3 Cache	64 MB	24.75 MB	16 MB	16 MB
TDP	Up To 250W	Up To 165W	Up To 105W	Up To 95W
CPU PCI-E Lanes	64	44	24	24
PCH PCI-E Lanes	8	24	8	8
PCI-E NVME Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NVME RAID Support	Yes (Firmware Update from AMD webpage)	Yes (Locked, Key Required)	No	No
DDR4 Channels	4 Channel	4 Channel	2 Channel	2 Channel
SATA 6 Gbps	8+4	8	6+2	6+2
USB 3.1 Ports	2	2	2	2
USB 3.0 Ports	6	10	6	6
USB 2.0 Ports	6	14	6	6
Launch	Q3 2017	Q2 2017	Q1 2018	Q1 2017

The HEDT TR4 (LGA 4094) Socket - Supports All Ryzen Threadripper Processors

The AMD TR4 socket is the same as their server end SP3 socket which has been repurposed for the HEDT market. It is a monolithic design that features 4094 pins in the LGA (Land Grid Array) design and looks absolutely beast.

Cooler Compatibility With The TR4 Socket

Since the socket hasn't changed, all coolers that were previously compatible with Threadripper CPU would run fine with the 2nd Generation Threadripper chips. Despite that, new coolers are going to be available by various manufacturers since the WX series have TDPs of up to 250W. Those require better heat transfer and cooling solutions and I will be testing my sample chip with a range of air and water cooling solutions.

Initially, there were only 9 manufacturers who were offering support for TR4 socket with their coolers but now, the list has expanded and you can find many TR4 socket coolers with ease. Following is a list of cooler manufacturers who are offering TR4 socketed products:

(More details on the cooling solutions here):

• Noctua
• Enermax
• Swiftech
• BYSKI
• Raijintek
• BeQuiet!
• Liqtech
• DeepCool
• Arctic
• Cooler Master
• Corsair
• Cryorig
• EVGA
• Fractal Design
• NZXT
• Thermaltake

It took AMD several years to perfect their core design to rival Intel. The resultant Zen core delivered exceptionally great performance when it finally launched after five long years of development. The Ryzen mainstream processors were widely acclaimed and featured some of the most impressive performance, efficiency and pricing figures we have seen to date. But AMD didn't stop there, they went one step ahead and pitted their Zen core in a field where Intel had been dominant for years.

While Zen was a powerful and efficient new core from AMD, the optimized 12nm based Zen+ cores would further strengthen AMD processors a year later. Till now, AMD only had Zen+ cores inside of their Ryzen 2nd Generation processors but now, they are bringing those cores in Threadripper CPU lineup too. Today, AMD finally launches their 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper processors with advanced Zen+ cores.

With Zen+, AMD manages to bring their IPC on par with Intel's modern cores and use that CPU efficiency advantage to deliver a processor with multiple cores. 32 in fact on the flagship CPU and that's just the start of things we expect to see from AMD. Following is the entire CPU family under the 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper brand.

AMD 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper Processors

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2000 series processor lineup would feature a total of four new HEDT processors. These will include the flagship Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX, 2970WX, 2950X and 2920X. The ‘WX’ models are aimed at content creators and developers while the ‘X’ series processors are aimed at gamers and enthusiasts.

While AMD’s ‘X’ series Threadripper chips are said to be aimed at enthusiast and high-end gaming systems, they are still very capable of workstation and developer-grade content creation system environments. All 16, 24, 32 core models are designed for complex workflows which include a range of different tasks such as Media Editing, Visual Effects, Modeling, Rigging, Animation, Data Science, Code Compiling and Machine Learning/Rendering.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX 32 Core $1799 US Processor – The Undisputed and The Unmatched Flagship of the 2nd Gen AMD HEDT Family

The Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX will rock 32 cores and 64 threads that eclipses Intel’s halo product which will sport 28 cores and 56 threads. The chip is expected to feature a base frequency of 3.0 GHz (3.4 GHz all core precision boost) and a maximum boost frequency of 4.0 GHz while the precision boost overdrive frequency is rated at +200 MHz so expect up to 4.20 GHz in single core optimized workloads.

This shows that Zen+ cores can still achieve very high clock speeds even when they jumped to twice as many as their previous flagship, the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X.

Other details include 16 MB of L2 and 64 MB of L3 cache which rounds up to a total of 80 MB of available cache on a single chip. The TDP of the chip as stated before will be kept at 250W and all current generation TR4 socketed boards will be fully compatible with the 2nd generation Ryzen Threadripper processors.

When compared to the Core i9-7980XE, the Ryzen Threadripper 2990X at $1799 US offers a better architecture based on a 12nm process, 14 more cores, 28 more threads and for $200 less since the i9 costs a grand $2000 US. Comparing it to the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, we get 16 more cores, 32 more threads, and faster clocks at $800 US more.

Even compared to the new Ryzen Threadripper 2950X, the 2990WX delivers up to 64% better performance in creation tasks which is absolutely killer performance. Given these prices, it will be another great product for the high-end market and put Intel’s HEDT in a lot of trouble which can cost in excess of $2000 US considering their new platform and Xeon Platinum prices.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX 24 Core $1299 US Processor – Insane Multi-Thread Performance at an Extreme Value

The second chip in the lineup is the Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX which features 24 cores and 48 threads for a price of just $1299 US. Intel’s 12 core chip in comparison costs $1200 US so we are looking at twice the number of cores at $100 US premium. The chip features clock speeds of 3.0 GHz base and 4.0 GHz boost (4.2 GHz XFR).

Keeping things in line and if the chip comes with the same die configuration as the 1950X, we will be looking at 64 MB of L3 cache and 12 MB of L2 cache which totals 76 MB total cache size. The chip will feature the same amount of PCIe lanes as the 2990WX and will have a TDP of 250W and would be supported by existing and upcoming X399 motherboards.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X 16 Core For $899 US – 16 Zen+ Cores With Faster Clocks

The Ryzen Threadripper 2950X will feature the same core config as its predecessor, the 1950X. We are looking at the same 16 cores and 32 threads. At the same time, the chip will be enhanced by the new Zen+ cores and provide higher clock speeds of 3.5 GHz base and 4.4 GHz boost with a 180W TDP. The chip will also come at a $100 US lesser price tag than its predecessor, at just $899 USD.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2920X 12 Core For $649 US – 12 Zen+ Cores at $100 US Less Than Its Predecessor

The Ryzen Threadripper 2920X will feature the same core config as its predecessor, the 1920X. We are looking at the same 12 cores and 24 threads. At the same time, the chip will be enhanced by the new Zen+ cores and provide higher clock speeds of 3.5 GHz base and 4.3 GHz boost with a 180W TDP. The chip will also come at a $100 US lesser price tag than its predecessor, at just $699 USD.

On the X399 front, we will be looking at a slew of new refreshed designs, specifically built for the 2nd generation HEDT processors. We have already seen the MSI MEG X399 Creation and AORUS X399 Extreme designs so we can also expect other products from the remaining manufacturers.  For existing motherboards, partners have released new BIOS firmware that enables support on them (read more here). Expect to see full performance reviews in a few days of the flagship CPU, the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2000 Series CPU Specifications:

CPU Name	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2920X
CPU Family	AMD 2nd Gen Threadripper (COFLAX)	AMD 2nd Gen Threadripper (COFLAX)	AMD 2nd Gen Threadripper (COFLAX)	AMD 2nd Gen Threadripper (COFLAX)
CPU Architecture	12nm Zen+	12nm Zen+	12nm Zen+	12nm Zen+
Cores/Threads	32/64	24/48	16/32	12/24
Base Clock	3.0 GHz	3.0 GHz	3.5 GHz	3.5 GHz
Boost Clock	4.2 GHz	4.2 GHz	4.4 GHz	4.3 GHz
Cache (L3)	64 MB	64 MB	64 MB	64 MB
Cache (L2)	16 MB	12 MB	8 MB	6 MB
TDP	250W	250W	180W	180W
Platform	TR4 X399	TR4 X399	TR4 X399	TR4 X399
Price	$1799 US	$1299 US	$899 US	$649 US

AMD 1st/2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper Official Gaming Performance - Game Mode and Creator Mode Explained

AMD has also released the official gaming performance data of their Ryzen Threadripper CPUs against Intel's Core X parts and their own HEDT chips. The data shows that the Intel Core i9-7900X still goes ahead of the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X 16 core and Ryzen Threadripper 1920X 12 core while featuring ten cores. AMD Threadripper trails the Intel Core X CPU but on the other hand, we are still looking towards decent performance figures in gaming at 1080p and the gap is lower when gaming on higher resolutions.

Once again, like 1st Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs, the 2nd Gen series will feature support in Ryzen Master, allowing users to switch between Game Mode or Creator Mode. There will also be options to switch between legacy mode which will disable the extra threads on the processors to avoid incompatibility in legacy or older applications.

Both can be set through the Ryzen Master configuration utility which has now been updated to support 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper processors. The utility also provides other nifty features and configuration tool which can be used by overclockers to fine tune their chips.

Another thing worth noting is that in game mode, Ryzen Threadripper processors will optimize to run with 8 cores, 16 threads. That means only 2 CCX or 1 die would be enabled, reducing latency. This will allow the Ryzen Threadripper 2950X to operate at speeds of 4.4 GHz with Precision Boost 2.0, achieving the maximum 8 core default frequency on any Ryzen processor released to date.

With memory access modes, users can select between UMA (maximum memory bandwidth) and NUMA (lowest latency) modes. While on the topic of Ryzen Master, it should be pointed out that a new updated version will be released on launch day, 13th August, offering more fine tuning and control over the HEDT processors.

So what the Threadripper profiles do is that they optimize the chip for the specified workloads. For instance, the gaming mode will enable Local memory access mode and turn the compatibility mode to legacy. This will help reduce memory and core-to-core latency and overcome the thread count limitation in some of the legacy games which can endure bugs and issues with modern multi-core CPUs.

The creator mode, on the other hand, turns the memory access to the distributed mode and disables the legacy mode. This maximizes threads and total memory bandwidth for an unrestrained amount of CPU performance and will be the default profile for Threadripper processors.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2000 Series Packaging:

When AMD released their first generation Ryzen Threadripper processors, we got to see two new things. First was obviously the processor itself which was a disruptive product for the market, the second thing was the gorgeous packaging that the chip was shipped inside. It was a good relief from the box styled packages that CPUs had previously shipped in, but it looks like AMD is going all out with their 2nd generation Ryzen Threadripper processors.

Just like the 32 core behemoth which the new Threadripper flagship is going to be, the packaging of the processor is also going to be a grand scheme of things. It’s bigger, it looks epic and like the last package, it comes with a transparent window which reveals the CPU on the front. It seems to be made of a strong alloy material and has either a plastic or glass cover on the front which is engraved with the Ryzen Threadripper label and logo.

The chip can be seen through the mirror and just like the mainstream processors, each Ryzen TR CPU will have the naming printed in clear black on the IHS which looks amazing. This time, AMD has gone with a more polygonal look, which looks impressive.

The back of the box has the same layout with the orange tint showing where the processor is placed. Given the room inside the box, we can tell that aside from the processor, it will ship with manuals and tools that are necessary for installing the Ryzen Threadripper processor on TR4 motherboards.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper looks really amazing when looking from the eye of an enthusiast. It's the most powerful platform for HEDT users that we have seen to date and a worthy competitor to Intel's HEDT Core-X lineup.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Series CPU Presentation:

For this review, I had access to the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX flagship processor. AMD did not provide us with any equipment or processors for this review. The motherboards were sent by ASRock and we will be using their lineup until we get access to an X399 refresh sample in the future. My review is entirely based purely on facts and precision.

The full test setup configuration can be seen in the provided list below:

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX Test Bench:

Processors	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X Intel Core i9-7980XE Intel Core i9-7920X Intel Core i9-7900X Intel Core i7-7820X Intel Core i7-8700K AMD Ryzen 2700
Motherboards	ASRock X399 Professional Gaming ASRock X399 Taichi ASUS PRIME X299 Deluxe AORUS Z370 Gaming 7 ASUS ROG Crosshair VII HERO
Memory	Teamgroup Xcalibur RGB Series 32 GB (4 x 8GB) CL16 3200 MHz
Video Cards	ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti STRIX OC
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200i PSU
Cooling Solutions	Corsair H115i Pro AIO Liquid DeepCool Castle 280 RGB AIO Liquid DeepCool Fryzen Threadripper Air
Solid State Drive	Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB)
BIOS Used	ASRock X399 Professional Gaming v3.20 ASRock X399 Taichi v3.20
OS	Windows 10 64-bit

I would like to thank Teamgroup for providing me their latest Xcalibur RGB DDR4 memory kits, ASUS for providing the GTX 1080 TI STRIX OC and Deepcool for providing their latest Castle 280 RGB AIO liquid and Fryzen air coolers for this test.

For overclocking, the maximum clock speeds I was able to achieve on the ASRock FATAL1TY X399 Professional Gaming was 4.1 GHz across all cores with a voltage supply of 1.345V. The X399 Taichi managed 4.0 GHz across all cores with a supply of 1.32V. Anything above that is way too stressful for the VRMs but even having 4.0 GHz across all 32 cores is a feat in itself.

For testing, aside from my Corsair H115i AIO liquid cooler, I also got my hands on the DeepCool Castle 280 RGB AIO liquid and DeepCool Fryzen air cooler. Both of these coolers are tailor-made for AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors. Both are very high-end products that retail for $129.99 US and $89.99 US respectively. You can check out the product unboxing, installation and RGB showcase below:

DeepCool Castle 280 RGB AIO Liquid Cooler Unboxing:

DEEPCOOL, the company that specializes in water-cooled and illuminated cases for the PC enthusiast has just introduced a brand new AIO liquid cooler- CASTLE 280RGB, suitable for Intel and AMD based systems. Its featured built-in double window panes and 16.7M true color lighting system provide a perfect display of aesthetic illumination. Its ultra-large, pure copper CPU block and its optimized E-shaped micro water channel designed to enlarge heat contact areas and effectively enhance heat circulation efficiency meet users' needs for high performance and aesthetics. via DeepCool

 

DeepCool Castle 280 RGB AIO Liquid Cooler Showcase:

DeepCool Castle 280 RGB AIO Liquid Cooler RGB Showcase:

DeepCool Fryzen (Threadripper Exclusive) Air Cooler Unboxing:

Fryzen is the award-winning cooler from Deepcool, specially designed for the AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ series processor, and supports the TR4/AM4 and mainstream AMD socket types. It features an ultra large copper base and a parallel arrangement of 6 boot-shaped heatpipes for extreme heat dissipation performance. The all-aluminum housing with inverse double-bladed fans offers twice the air pressure for twice the performance. A built-in 16.7M true color RGB lighting system provides variable lighting for a stunning personalized gaming rig. via DeepCool

Overall Dimension	124×81.5×164.6 mm
Heatsink Dimension	120X79X155 mm
Fan Dimension	120×120×25 mm
Net Weight	1187g
Rated Voltage	12VDC
Operating Voltage	10.8～13.2VDC
Starting Voltage	7VDC
Rated Current	0.19A
Power Input	2.28W
FAN Speed	500±150-1800±10%RPM
MAX.Air Flow	64CFM
Noise level	17.8~41.5dB(A)
LED Type	Addressable RGB LED
LED Rated Voltage	5VDC
LED Rated Current	1.03A
LED Rated Power	5.15W
LED Connector	3-pin(+5V-D-G)
LED Control	M/B with 5V ADD-RGB Header
Bearing Type	Hydro Bearing
EAN	6933412726449
P/N	DP-GS-MCH6N-FZN-A

DeepCool Fryzen (Threadripper Exclusive) Air Cooler Showcase:

DeepCool Fryzen (Threadripper Exclusive) Air Cooler RGB Showcase:

3DMark Time Spy CPU Performance

3DMark Firestrike is the widely popular video card benchmark test for Windows that is designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance. While the overall benchmark is great, the utility also provides a good indication of the CPU performance.

3DMark Firestrike CPU Performance

3DMark Firestrike is the widely popular video card benchmark test for Windows that is designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance. While the overall benchmark is great, the utility also provides a good indication of the CPU performance.

Blender

Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation.

Cinebench R15

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.

HandBrake

HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 is a complete PC benchmarking solution for Windows 10. It includes several tests that combine individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed for the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 10 offers complete Windows PC performance testing for home and business use.

POV-Ray

The POV-Ray package includes detailed instructions on using the ray-tracer and creating scenes. Many stunning scenes are included with POV-Ray so you can start creating images immediately when you get the package.

SuperPI

Super PI is used by many overclockers to test the performance and stability of their computers. In the overclocking community, the standard program provides a benchmark for enthusiasts to compare “world record” pi calculation times and demonstrate their overclocking abilities. The program can also be used to test the stability of a certain overclock speed.

WinRar

WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompresses RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from the Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.

X264 HD Encode Benchmark

This benchmark measures the encoding performance of the processor. It offers a standardized benchmark for the clip as well as the encoder used is uniform.

Ashes of The Singularity

Stardock's Ashes of the Singularity RTS title is a new take on the historical genre. The game incorporates several things that many pc gamers have been curious about and anxious to try for themselves such as Explicit Multi-Adapter Support and full Asynchronous Compute under DirectX 12 API. We tested the game at 1440P with 4x MSAA on Crazy Settings under DirectX 12.

Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 is the kind of game that doesn’t need any real introduction. The latest installment of the Battlefield series is as beautiful as anyone would expect and comes right out of the gate with full DX11 and DX12. EA and DICE did a fantastic job with their AAA WW1 shooter this time by implementing some key gaming technologies. We tested the game at 1440P using Ultra settings and DirectX 11 API.

DOOM

In 2016, Id finally released Doom. My testing wouldn’t be complete without including this title. It's a hell fest featuring fast-paced FPS action and tons of demons to kill. The latest title is based on both Vulkan and OpenGL APIs that take advantage of the latest multi-core and multi-GPU upgrades.

GTA V

GTA V is one handsomely optimized title for the PC audience. It's scalable across various PC configurations and delivers an impressive frame rate. Rockstar did an amazing job with the PC build of GTA V and it comes with a large array of settings that can be configured by PC gamers. We tested the title at 1440P with everything set to Ultra and 4x MSAA.

Mass Effect Andromeda

Being a huge fan of the Mass Effect series, I was highly anticipating the arrival of Andromeda to store shelves. Now that it’s here, I put the fastest gaming card to the test. Using Frostbite, the latest Mass Effect title looks incredibly gorgeous and the open world settings on the different planets immerses you a lot.

The Rise of the Tomb Raider

The latest Rise of the Tomb Raider title gets lots of graphical enhancements added by Crystal Dynamics and Nixxes, including hardware tessellation, increased anisotropic filtering, additional dynamic foliage, increased LOD, additional PureHair strands, sun soft shadows, and improved bokeh DOF. We tested the game at 1440P under DirectX 12 API.

Sid Meir's Civilization VI

Civilization VI is the pinnacle of the series. It's featured huge, sweeping changes, and nothing was left out. Everything has found a purpose, they all work together in tandem but also have a reason to stand alone. It uses a more fleshed out engine that now supports DirectX 12 capabilities. We tested the game with every setting maxed out (4x MSAA, 4096x4096 shadow textures) at 1440P in DirectX 12.

Watch Dogs 2

Watch Dogs 2 once again takes us on a hacking tour, but this time in the city of San Francisco. Using a very evolved version of the OPUS engine the developers should have a better grasp on things this go around than they did with Watch Dogs. The new engine incorporates several NVIDIA Gameworks technologies and is seen as one of the most graphics intensive titles to launch this year. We tested the game on a mix of Ultra and high settings at 1440P (Temporal Filtering Disabled).

When it comes to power consumption, there are a few things we should take note of. First of all, Intel has focused on efficiency for several years but as we have seen, they are starting to loose rapidly at this front. The Intel Core-X processors are based on the new 14nm processors and we know this that Intel generally has a better fabrication process compared to their rivals. AMD, on the other hand, is using a refined 12nm process from Global Foundries on their Zen+ based Ryzen,  and Ryzen Threadripper chips.

The Ryzen Threadripper chips are based on four dies rather than a single monolithic die. We have seen how that affects the temperatures but it is also crucial to see how power management is now handled on four separate dies. All four dies are connected through the infinity fabric interconnect and hence, it is used to thermally manage the load on different dies.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper WX processors feature a reference TDP of 250W and we pushed the voltage higher than stock when running the chips in overclock mode. The resultant power numbers at both stock and overclocked frequencies can be seen below:

For cooling, I used the Corsair H115i Pro AIO, Deepcool Castle 280 RGB AIO and the Deepcool Fryzen air cooler which are fully compatible with the Ryzen Threadripper processors and TR4 socket. These coolers come with a larger surface area that makes full contact with the huge IHS on the Threadripper chips. This huge contact allows for better heat transfer to help cool the processor effectively.

Following are the results o 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper CPU in thermal benchmarking:

In general, the Ryzen Threadripper processors are based on the 12nm process from Glofo which offers slightly better temperatures and power efficiency numbers compared to Intel's 14nm based offerings. While Intel went with a solderless design, the Ryzen Threadripper chips come with liquid metal thermal paste on each of the four dies that are featured on the chip interposer.

This refined thermal interface offers much better heat transfer than Intel's TIM and the Indium based solder design means that all air gaps are removed and the chip itself is tightly packaged so that the IHS can fully unload the heat from the dies and pass it straight to the cooler itself.

Furthermore, the dies feature gold plating on the back to ensure proper thermal cycling which adds to the thermal qualities of this impressive chip. You can check out the full delidding of Ryzen Threadripper processors by renowned overclocker Der8auer over here.

It is worth noting that while I have been using the Corsair H115i Pro for a while, the DeepCool provided coolers proved to be well worth it for this review. Tailor-made for AMD Threadripper processors, the coolers performed really well given their price points and the following is the full conclusion of both air and liquid CPU coolers.

One year ago, AMD announced Ryzen Threadripper, a product that came out of nowhere. The product aimed the enthusiast market and segmented AMD CPUs into proper mainstream and HEDT brands like the competition. With their first HEDT release, AMD posed a serious threat to Intel's HEDT efforts. The Threadripper launch was more impressive than the mainstream Ryzen parts as it showed AMD's true prowess in the core count, thread count and efficiency department.

Now a year later, we were expecting AMD to release Threadrippers with Zen+ cores but we did not expect a 32 core/64 thread part until AMD announced it officially at this years Computex. Leaving the audience and tech community shocked as the announcement was made a mere day after the competition announced their 28 core/56 thread CPU, it was just the beginning of AMD's original plan, to rip and tear apart all HEDT processors that weren't Threadripper.

The Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX is a beast in all ways possible and its target market is a reflection of that. While the 2950X and the 2920X target the enthusiast gamers, the 2990WX and 2970WX are aimed at the ultra-premium niche, targeting developers, content creators and multi-thread heavy enthusiasts. You will be paying a hefty premium for this stunner of a chip, but if you just want that good gaming performance, I'd recommend staying away from the "WX" series. In our results, we found gaming performance to be good but the "X" series will perform in a similar fashion without the need of spending over a grand.

But if you are in the search for compute heavy processors and use apps that can really benefit from the extra cores and threads that WX series has to offer, look no further. Even Intel has to be really worried now that AMD is offering around twice as many cores as the 7980XE under $2000 US. If we were to do the math:

• Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX Per Core Value: $56.25 Per Core
• Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX Per Thread Value: $28.12 Per Thread
• Intel Core i9-7980XE Per Core Value: $111.11 Per Core
• Intel Core i9-7980XE Per Thread Value: $55.55 Per Thread

The value proportion is just stunning. 2990WX also comes with 80 MB of L3 cache, 64 PCIe lanes and support for quad-channel DDR4 memory. One thing worth noting is that the Threadripper 2000 series has drop-in support on all existing X399 motherboards. The 250W TDP being rather higher does make OC a difficult task on some boards which may opt you into buying a new X399 refresh series product but that said, all current motherboards can handle the chip at stock clocks very well. Both of our ASRock provided X399 boards performed exceptionally well and overclocked the chip past 4 GHz.

It is also good on AMD's part that they have extended and upgraded support within their Ryzen Master utility for better tweaking and configuration of the new SKUs. So aside from the higher TDP rating and hefty cooling requirement, the 2990WX comes out to be one of the most solid HEDT CPUs in several years.

So to sum it up, the core revolution is here and AMD is leading the charge with their monstrous 32 core and 64 thread behemoth, the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX. Simply put, it crushes and rips through the entire Core-X lineup with a disruptive price tag and performance further refined with 12nm Zen+ cores. This is a premium enthusiast grade and workstation ready chip for the performance hungry masses.

You can purchase the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX here!

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