AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX & 2920X Workstation Performance

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 Aorus’ X399 GAMING 7) and AM4 (ASUS’ CROSSHAIR VII HERO), along with Intel’s LGA2011-v3 (ASUS’ ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING), and LGA1151 (EVGA Z370 FTW and ASUS’ ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING).

To prevent unexpected performance results, the “Multi-Core Enhancement” optimizations (effectively overclocking all cores to max turbo, instead of just two cores) offered by ASUS on its respective motherboards is disabled. There is, however, an exception. For Ryzen 2 testing, we have to use the DOCP profile on the motherboard to take proper advantage of the memory kit (it doesn’t appear to overclock anything).

All platforms were run with DDR4-3200 speeds, and 14-14-14 timings. Accomplishing that kind of thing used to be extremely difficult, but fortunately it’s a lot easier today, and helps us keep things as close to apples-to-apples as possible.

Here’s the full breakdown of the test rigs:

Techgage’s CPU Testing Platforms

	AMD TR4 Test Platform #1
Processor	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX (3.0GHz, 32C/64T) AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX (3.0 GHz, 24C/48T) AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2920X (3.5 GHz, 12C/24T)
Motherboard	MSI MEG X399 Creation 2990WX tested with BIOS 1.0EN43 (Jul 27, 2018) 2970WX and 2920X test with BIOS 1.20 (Nov 14, 2018)
Memory	G.SKILL TridentZ (F4-3200C14-8GTZ) 8GB x 4 Operates at DDR4-3200 14-14-14 (1.35V)
Graphics	NVIDIA TITAN Xp (12GB; GeForce 398.82)
Storage	Host OS: WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB (SATA 6Gbps)
Power Supply	Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid (1300W)
Chassis	Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh
Cooling	Cooler Master Wraithripper Tower Cooler
Et cetera	Windows 10 Pro (Build 17134), Ubuntu 18.04 (4.15 kernel)

	AMD TR4 Test Platform #2
Processor	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X (3.5GHz, 16C/32T) AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X (3.4GHz, 16C/32T)
Motherboard	GIGABYTE X399 Aorus Gaming 7 CPU tested with BIOS F10 (July 10, 2018)
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 398.82)
Storage	Host OS: WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB (SATA 6Gbps)
Power Supply	Enermax RevoBron 80+ Bronze (600W)
Chassis	Enermax Equilence
Cooling	Enermax Liqtech TR4 AIO (240mm)
Et cetera	Windows 10 Pro (Build 17134), Ubuntu 18.04 (4.15 kernel)

It’s a matter of circumstance that these chips were tested across two different PCs. Whenever a suite overhaul arrives, we’ll probably whittle it down to just one machine. Wraithripper makes it easy to swap CPUs, and it’s more than capable of handling even the 32-core behemoth. Nonetheless, neither of these motherboards tried to apply an overclock when the DDR4-3200 speeds were set.

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	AMD AM4 Test Platform
Processors	AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (3.7GHz, 8C/16T)
Motherboard	ASUS Crosshair VII HERO Wi-Fi CPU tested with BIOS 0804 (July 9, 2018)
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 398.82)
Storage	Host OS: 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 (Build 17134), Ubuntu 18.04 (4.15 kernel)

Nothing special had to be done on the CROSSHAIR VII HERO to get up and running quickly. As covered above, we had to run with the DOCP Standard profile to get the memory to run at optimum settings. Again, in testing, we couldn’t see how that improves performance outside of applying the proper memory settings, so we believe the setting requires further input for an actual boost to performance (eg: overclocking).

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	Intel LGA2011-3 Test Platform
Processors	Intel Core i9-7980XE (2.6GHz, 18C/36T) Intel Core i9-7960X (2.8GHz, 16C/32T) Intel Core i9-7900X (3.3GHz, 10C/20T)
Motherboard	ASUS ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING CPU tested with BIOS 1004 (Nov 14, 2017)
Memory	G.SKILL TridentZ (F4-3200C14-8GTZ) 8GB x 4 Operates at DDR4-3200 14-14-14 (1.35V)
Graphics	NVIDIA TITAN Xp (12GB; GeForce 398.82)
Storage	Host OS: 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 (Build 17134), Ubuntu 18.04 (4.15 kernel)

This ASUS motherboard tries to trick us into accepting core boost optimizations after selecting the XMP profile. That’s disregarded, to keep things as apples-to-apples as possible.

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	Intel LGA1151 Test Platform #1
Processors	Intel Core i7-8700K (3.7GHz, 6C/12T)
Motherboard	EVGA Z370 FTW CPU tested with BIOS 1.08 (March 20, 2018)
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 398.82)
Storage	Host OS: 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 (Build 17134), Ubuntu 18.04 (4.15 kernel)

	Intel LGA1151 Test Platform #2
Processors	Intel Core i9-9900K (3.6GHz, 8C/16T)
Motherboard	ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-E Gaming CPU tested with BIOS 0602 (October 19 , 2018)
Memory	G.SKILL TridentZ (F4-3200C14-8GTZ) 8GB x 4 Operates at DDR4-3200 14-14-14 (1.35V)
Graphics	NVIDIA TITAN Xp (12GB; GeForce 398.82)
Storage	Host OS: 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 (Build 17134), Ubuntu 18.04 (4.19.4 kernel)

On the EVGA board, there’s nothing strange to report, because there’s no boosts built-in after setting the DRAM to 3200. The ASUS motherboard did offer to apply core optimizations for the 9900K, which we rejected.

Testing Considerations

For the bulk of our testing, we use Windows 10 build 17134 with full updates as the base. Our basic guidelines are:

• 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.
• Desktop resolution is run at 2560×1440.
• 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!)

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Encoding Tests

Adobe Premiere Pro
LameXP
MAGIX Vegas

(You can click each name to go straight to that result.)

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Rendering Tests

Adobe Dimension
Arnold (Maya 2018) (Also relevant to: 3ds Max, C4D, Houdini, Katana, Softimage)
Blender
Cinebench
Cinema 4D
Corona (3ds Max 2019) (Also relevant to: C4D)
KeyShot
POV-Ray
Radeon ProRender (Maya 2018) (Also relevant to: 3ds Max, Blender, C4D, SolidWorks)
V-Ray Next (3ds Max 2019) (Also relevant to: C4D, Houdini, Maya, Rhino, SketchUp)
V-Ray Benchmark
SiSoftware Sandra 2018

(You can click each name to go straight to that result.)

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If you think there’s some information lacking on this page, or you simply want clarification on anything in particular, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.