AMD Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X Workstation Performance

[PAGETITLE=AMD Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X Workstation Performance][Top Ad] If you're interested in Linux performance, you may want to take a look at our experiences with Zen 2 here. Leading up to this point, the wait for Zen 2 seemed long, but in reality, we've been treated to quite a bit of CPU goodness over the past couple of years. Just over two years ago, AMD released its first Ryzen iteration, following it up with the second-gen in the spring. Alongside the desktop chips have been Threadripper and EPYC releases, as well - two more series that will see new models later this year. Ryzen debuted with a 14nm design in 2017, and a year later, we saw the 12nm Ryzen second-gen. It's pretty quick, then, that AMD has already made the move to 7nm, a spot that it's going to occupy for some time. Going forward, the goal will be to optimize for the current node, and deliver future chips as 7nm+. With its launch this week, AMD is bringing five SKUs to market, including the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X, a chip that directly competes with Intel's Core i9-9900K at the $499 price-point. AMD is taking care of those who don't want to shell out so much with four other models ranging between $199~$399. In a few months, a 16-core R9 3950X will be released at $749. We've covered Zen 2 quite a bit this year so far, having learned lots about it during Computex and E3. The key takeaways are that these new chips enjoy a process shrink to 7nm, which comes in addition to a major architecture reworking. We've entered the chiplet generation for AMD, which sees a dedicated I/O chip sit in between the CCX core modules on the same package. It's a design that could help rid out some annoying threading issues seen with AMD's high-end Threadrippers. Here's the full current lineup to help put available options into better perspective: AMD's Current-gen Ryzen Processor Lineup Cores Clock (Turbo) L2+L3 Memory TDP Price Threadripper WX-series 2990WX 32 (64T) 3.0 GHz (4.2) 16+64MB Quad 250W $1799 2970WX 24 (48T) 3.0 GHz (4.2) 12+64MB Quad 250W $1299 Threadripper X-series 2950X 16 (32T) 3.5 GHz (4.4) 8+32MB Quad 180W $899 2920X 12 (24T) 3.5 GHz (4.3) 6+32MB Quad 180W $649 Ryzen 9 R9 3950X 16 (32T) 3.5 GHz (4.7) 72MB Dual 105W $749 R9 3900X 12 (24T) 3.8 GHz (4.6) 70MB Dual 105W $499 Ryzen 7 R7 3800X 8 (16T) 3.9 GHz (4.5) 36MB Dual 95W $399 R7 3700X 8 (16T) 3.6 GHz (4.4) 36MB Dual 65W $329 R7 2700X 8 (16T) 3.7 GHz (4.3) 4+16MB Dual 105W $329 R7 2700 8 (16T) 3.2 GHz (4.1) 4+16MB Dual 65W $299 Ryzen 5 R5 3600X 6 (12T) 3.8 GHz (4.4) 35MB Dual 95W $249 R5 3600 6 (12T) 3.6 GHz (4.2) 35MB Dual 65W $199 R5 2600X 6 (12T) 3.6 GHz (4.2) 3+16MB Dual 95W $219 R5 2600 6 (12T) 3.4 GHz (3.9) 3+16MB Dual 65W $189 Ryzen w/ Radeon Vega Graphics R5 3400G 4 (8T) 3.7 GHz (4.2) 0.5+4MB Dual 65W $149 R3 3200G 4 (4T) 3.6 GHz (4.0) 0.5+4MB Dual 65W $99 Since we've been drowning in testing and generating content recently, we're going to speed through this intro a bit in order to tackle the fifty performance charts we have to talk about. But, there are some important things to note before we proceed into those. First and foremost, AMD is delivering a new chipset with Zen 2, with both it and the CPUs delivering PCIe 4.0 bandwidth. For those who want to take advantage of the fastest storage on the planet, it's coming, and it's going to use PCIe 4.0. We have a 2TB Aorus NVMe in the lab that is spec'd at 5GB/s read, and plan to test it out in the near-future, once we settle on a good testing methodology. For one reason or another, the X570 chipset uses a lot of power, as evidenced by the fact that most motherboards using it are equipped with fans to keep temperatures under control. This design annoys us a bit, because an extra fan means that there is potential for something to go wrong down-the-road. Because the chipset draws so much power, we'd recommend sticking to X470 if you're not interested in PCIe 4.0 or certain CPU features. This is the first review in a while where we actually decided to not do power testing, since we've been skeptical of our ability to delivery truly accurate results (it's hard when you just eye a Kill-A-Watt, and the GPU power APIs don't always agree with real use.) Our friend Joel Hruska from ExtremeTech explored this X570 power use a lot more. Because we recommended X470, Zen 2 of course supports backwards compatibility. AMD really had to jump through some hoops to continue that path, but it's a choice that will be hugely appreciated by many - especially those who don't need to take advantage of the beefier X570 option. The first CPU we installed into our X570 board was the last-gen 2700X, and after flashing the EFI with the FlashBack feature on the Aorus' board, we were up and running very quickly. And with all that, we're overdue on delivering our results as is, so let's quickly tackle methodologies and test systems, or get right into the results! [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Test Methodology & Systems][Top Ad] Benchmarking a CPU may sound like a simple enough task, but in order to deliver accurate, repeatable results, and not to mention results that don't favor one vendor over another, strict guidelines need to be adhered to. That in turn makes for rigorous, time-consuming testing, but we feel that the effort is worth it. This page exists so that we can be open about how we test, and give those who care about testing procedures an opportunity to review our methodology before flaming us in the comments. Here, you can see a breakdown of all of our test machines, specifics about the tests themselves, and other general information that might be useful. Let's start with a look at the test platforms, for AMD's TR4 (MSI's MEG X399 Creation) and AM4 (Aorus X570 MASTER), along with Intel's LGA2011-v3 (ASUS' ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING), and LGA1151 (ASUS' ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING). On Intel’s platforms with ASUS motherboards, we disabled the “MultiCore Enhancement” feature, which effectively overclocks the processor. On AMD’s platforms, the same kind of feature doesn’t exist on our chosen motherboards. The Aorus X570 MASTER has a “Core Performance Boost” option in its EFI, but performance drops well below expected levels when it’s turned off, so we believe it to represent AMD’s own Precision Boost, and thus left it enabled. On the mitigation front, nothing is explicitly done outside of having the most up-to-date EFI and chipset driver installed on every motherboard. Systems are effectively default, and whichever security mitigations are applied will be automatic ones applied by the motherboard firmware or driver vendor. All platforms were run with DDR4-3200 speeds, and 14-14-14 timings. Since Zen 2 can support high-end memory, we will explore that testing down-the-road and see what changes. Here's the full breakdown of the test rigs: Techgage's CPU Testing Platforms. AMD TR4 Test Platform Processor AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX (3.0GHz, 32C/64T) AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X (3.5 GHz, 16C/32T) Motherboard MSI MEG X399 Creation CPUs tested with BIOS 7B92v13 (April 11, 2019) Memory G.SKILL Flare X (F4-3200C14-8GFX) 8GB x 4 Operates at DDR4-3200 14-14-14 (1.35V) Graphics NVIDIA TITAN Xp (12GB; GeForce 430.86) Storage WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB (SATA 6Gbps) Power Supply Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid (1300W) Chassis Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh Cooling Enermax LIQTECH TR4 240mm Et cetera Windows 10 Pro (1903, Build 18362) AMD AM4 Test Platform Processors AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (3.8GHz, 12C/24T) AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (3.6GHz, 8C/16T) AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (3.7GHz, 8C/16T) Motherboard Aorus X570 MASTER CPU tested with BIOS F5c (June 27, 2019) Memory G.SKILL Flare X (F4-3200C14-8GFX) 8GB x 4 Operates at DDR4-3200 14-14-14 (1.35V) Graphics NVIDIA TITAN Xp (12GB; GeForce 430.86) Storage WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB (SATA 6Gbps) Power Supply EVGA Bronze 600B1 (600W) Chassis Fractal Design Define C Cooling Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 (1x120mm) Et cetera Windows 10 Pro (1903, Build 18362) Intel LGA2011-3 Test Platform Processors Intel Core i9-9980XE (3.0GHz, 18C/36T) Intel Core i9-7900X (3.3GHz, 10C/20T) Motherboard ASUS ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING CPU tested with BIOS 1704 (February 21, 2019) Memory G.SKILL Flare X (F4-3200C14-8GFX) 8GB x 4 Operates at DDR4-3200 14-14-14 (1.35V) Graphics NVIDIA TITAN Xp (12GB; GeForce 430.86) Storage WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB (SATA 6Gbps) Power Supply Corsair Professional Series Gold AX1200 (1200W) Chassis Corsair Carbide 600C Cooling NZXT Kraken X62 AIO (280mm) Et cetera Windows 10 Pro (1903, Build 18362) Intel LGA1151 Test Platform Processors Intel Core i9-9900K (3.60GHz, 8C/16T) Motherboard ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING CPU tested with BIOS 1005 (April 28, 2019) Memory G.SKILL Flare X (F4-3200C14-8GFX) 8GB x 4 Operates at DDR4-3200 14-14-14 (1.35V) Graphics NVIDIA TITAN Xp (12GB; GeForce 430.86) Storage WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB (SATA 6Gbps) Power Supply Corsair RM650X (1200W) Chassis NZXT S340 Elite Mid-tower Cooling Corsair Hydro H100i V2 AIO Liquid Cooler (240mm) Et cetera Windows 10 Pro (1903, Build 18362) Testing Considerations. For our testing, we use Windows 10 build 18362 (1903) with full updates as the base. Basic guidelines: Everything is disabled in "Customize settings" during OS install. 3D Vision and GeForce Experience are not installed with the graphics driver. Services are disabled: Search, Cortana, User Account Control, and Defender. Most preinstalled Windows Store bloatware is uninstalled. The "Ultimate Performance" power profile is used, and screen timeouts are disabled. All notifications are disabled. Testing doesn't begin until the PC is idle (keeps a steady minimum wattage). OSes are never transplanted from one machine to another. The "This PC" icon is added to the desktop (hey - it's important!) Encoding Tests. Adobe Premiere Pro Agisoft Metashape HandBrake LameXP MAGIX Vegas (You can click each name to go straight to that result.) Rendering Tests. Adobe Dimension Arnold (Maya 2019) (Also relevant to: 3ds Max, C4D, Houdini, Katana, Softimage) Blender Cinebench...

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X Workstation Performance

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Rob Williams