The AMD Threadripper 2990WX 32-Core and 2950X 16-Core Review
by Dr. Ian Cutress on August 13, 2018 9:00 AM ESTPrecision Boost 2
Exact per-core turbo timings for the new processors will be determined by AMD’s voltage-frequency scaling functionality through Precision Boost 2. This feature, which we covered extensively in our Ryzen 7 2700X review, relies on available power and current to determine frequency, rather than a discrete look-up-table for voltage and frequency based on loading. Depending on the system default capabilities, the frequency and voltage will dynamically shift in order to use more of the power budget available at any point in the processor loading.
The idea is that the processor can use more of the power budget available to it than a fixed look up table that has to be consistent between all SKUs that are stamped with that number.
Precision Boost 2 also works in conjunction with XFR2 (eXtreme Frequency Range) which reacts to additional thermal headroom. If there is additional thermal budget, driven by a top-line cooler, then the processor is enabled to use more power up to the thermal limit and get additional frequency. AMD claims that a good cooler in a low ambient situation can compute >10% better in selected tests as a result of XFR2.
Ultimately this makes testing Threadripper 2 somewhat difficult. With a turbo table, performance is fixed between the different performance characteristics of each bit of silicon, making power the only differentiator. With PB2 and XF2, no two processors will perform the same. AMD has also hit a bit of a snag with these features, choosing to launch Threadripper 2 during the middle of a heatwave in Europe. Europe is famed for its lack of air conditioning everywhere, and when the ambient temperature is going above 30ºC, this will limit additional performance gains. It means that a review from a Nordic publication might see better results than one from the tropics, quite substantially.
Luckily for us we tested most of our benchmarks while in an air conditioned hotel thanks to Intel’s Data-Centric Innovation Summit which was the week before launch.
Precision Boost Overdrive
The new processors also support a feature called Precision Boost Overdrive, which looks at three key areas for power, thermal design current, and electrical design current. If any of these three areas has additional headroom, then the system will attempt to raise both the frequency and the voltage for increased performance. PBO is a mix of ‘standard’ overclocking, giving an all core boost, but gives a single core frequency uplift along with the support to still keep Precision Boost trying to raise frequency in middle-sized workloads, which is typically lost with a standard overclock. PBO also allows for idle power saving with a standard performance. PBO is enabled through Ryzen Master.
The three key areas are defined by AMD as follows:
- Package (CPU) Power, or PPT: Allowed socket power consumption permitted across the voltage rails supplying the socket
- Thermal Design Current, or TDC: The maximum current that can be delivered by the motherboard voltage regulator after warming to a steady-state temperature
- Electrical Design Current, or EDC: The maximum current that can be delivered by the motherboard voltage regulator in a peak/spike condition
By extending these limits, PBO gives rise for PB2 to have more headroom, letting PB2 push the system harder and further. PBO is quoted by AMD as supplying up to +16% performance beyond the standard.
AMD also clarifies that PBO is pushing the processor beyond the rated specifications and is an overclock: and thus any damage incurred will not be protected by warranty
StoreMI
Also available with the new Ryzen Threadripper 2 processors is StoreMI, AMD’s solution to caching by offering configurable tiered storage for users that want to mix DRAM, SSD, and HDD storage into a single unified platform. The software implementation dynamically adjusts data between up to 2GB of DRAM, up to 256 GB of SSD (NVMe or SATA), and a spinning hard drive to afford the best reading and writing experience when there isn’t enough fast storage.
AMD initially offered this software as a $20 add-on to the Ryzen APU platform, then it became free (up to a 256GB SSD) for the Ryzen 2000-series processors. That offer now extends to Threadripper. AMD’s best case scenario is citing a 90% improvement in loading times.
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3DVagabond - Wednesday, August 15, 2018 - link
When did you switch to this new benchmark suite?Lord of the Bored - Wednesday, August 15, 2018 - link
Still writing...mukiex - Friday, August 17, 2018 - link
Looks like it's no longer a problem! They deleted all those pages.GreenReaper - Saturday, August 18, 2018 - link
They're back again now.abufrejoval - Wednesday, August 15, 2018 - link
Separating CPU (and GPU) cores from their memory clearly doesn't seem sustainable going forward.That's why I find the custom chip did for the chinese console so interesting: If they did an HBM variant, perhaps another with 16 or even 32GB per SoC, they'd use the IF mostly for IPC/non-local memory access and the chance of using GPGPU compute for truly parallel algorithms would be much bigger as the latency of context switches between CPU and GPU code would be minimal with both using the same physical memory space.
They might still put ordinary RAM or NV-RAM somewhere to the side as secondary storage, so it looks a little like Knights Landing.
IF interconnects might be a little longer, really long when you scale beyond what you can fit on a single board and probably something where optical interconnects would be better (once you got them...)
I keep having visions of plenty of such 4x boards swimming immersed in a tank of this "mineral oil" stuff that evidently has little to do with oil but allows so much more density and could run around those chips 'naked'.
Alaa - Wednesday, August 15, 2018 - link
I do not think that testing only a single tool at a time is a good benchmark for such high core count architecture. These cores need concurrent workloads to showcase their real power.csell - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
Can somebody please tell me the difference between the ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme motherboard rev 2 used here and the old ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme motherboard. I can't find any information about the rev 2 somewhere else?UnNameless - Friday, August 17, 2018 - link
I also want to know that. I have the "rev 1" Asus rog zenith extreme and can't find any difference.spikespiegal - Friday, August 17, 2018 - link
Companies buy PC's to run applications and don't care about memory timing, CPU's, clock speed or any other MB architecture. They only care about the box on the desk to run applications and ROI, as they should. AMD has historically only made a dent in the low end desktop market because Intel has this funny habit of not letting chip prices depreciate much below $200. AMD does, so they occupy the discount desktop market because when you buy 10,000 general purpose workstations saving $120 per box is a big chunk of change.I'm looking at the benchmark tests and all I'm seeing is the AMD chips doing well in mindless rendering and other synthetic desktop tasks no one outside multimedia would care about. The i7 holds it's own in too many complex application tests, which proves that once again per core efficacy is all that matters and AMD can't alter the reality of this. Where is the VMware host / mixed guest application benchmark consisting of Exchange, SQL, RDS, file services, AD and other? You know, those things that run corporate commerce and favor high core efficacy? Nobody runs bare metal servers anymore, and nobody reputable builds their own servers.
Dragonrider - Friday, August 17, 2018 - link
Ian, are you going to test PBO performance with these processors (I know, it was probably not practical while you were on the road)? Some questions popped up in my mind. Can PBO be activated when the processor in partial mode (i.e. 1/2 mode or game mode in the case of the 2990)? Also What does the power consumption and performance look like in those partial modes for different application sets with and without PBO? I know that represents a lot of testing, but on the surface, the 2990 looks like it could be a really nice all-round processor if one were willing to do some mode switching. It seems like it should perform pretty close to the 2950 in game mode and 1/2 mode and you have already established that it is a rendering beast in full mode. Bottom line, I think the testing that has been published so far only scratches the surface of what this processor may be capable of.