
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X Review - jsheard
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-threadripper-1950x-and-1920x-review
======
pella
More test:

* [http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-ryzen-threadripper-...](http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-ryzen-threadripper-1920x-review,1.html)

* [https://www.techspot.com/review/1465-amd-ryzen-threadripper-...](https://www.techspot.com/review/1465-amd-ryzen-threadripper-1950x-1920x/)

* [http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8303/amd-ryzen-threadripper...](http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8303/amd-ryzen-threadripper-1950x-1920x-cpu-review/index.html)

* [https://hothardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-threadripper-proce...](https://hothardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-threadripper-processor-review)

* [https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/08/amd-threadripper-r...](https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/08/amd-threadripper-review-1950x-1920x/)

* [http://www.pcworld.com/article/3214635/components-processors...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/3214635/components-processors/ryzen-threadripper-review-we-test-amds-monster-cpu.html)

* [https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2017/08/10/amd-ry...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2017/08/10/amd-ryzen-threadripper-1950x-and-1920x-processor-review-is-this-intels-worst-nightmare/#7904f7ed3b85)

Other Links:

* [https://videocardz.com/71804/amd-ryzen-threadripper-review-r...](https://videocardz.com/71804/amd-ryzen-threadripper-review-roundup)

~~~
redtuesday
To add to that:

[http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-
review...](http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-
reviews/75827-amd-ryzen-threadripper-1920x-1950x-review.html)

[https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/08/10/amd_ryzen_threadr...](https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/08/10/amd_ryzen_threadripper_1950x_1920x_cpu_review)

[http://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3015-amd-
threadripper-1...](http://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3015-amd-
threadripper-1950x-1920x-review)

[http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950x-thr...](http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950x-threadripper-1920x-processor-review_196879)

[http://www.techradar.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950...](http://www.techradar.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950x)

[http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/108628-amd-ryzen-
threadrip...](http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/108628-amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950x-1920x/)

[https://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_threadripper...](https://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_threadripper_1950x_review.html)

google translate of computerbase.de:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=h...](https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerbase.de%2F2017-08%2Famd-
ryzen-threadripper-test-1950x-1920x%2F)

google translate of pgh.de:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcgameshardware.de%2FRyzen-
Threadripper-1920X-CPU-266541%2FTests%2FBenchmark-Review-NDA-
Preis-1235430%2F&edit-text=)

google translate of tomshardware.de:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomshardware.de%2Fthreadripper-
gaming-workstation-leistungsaufnahme-
temperaturen%2Ctestberichte-242381.html&edit-text=)

google translate of hardwareluxx.de:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hardwareluxx.de%2Findex.php%2Fartikel%2Fhardware%2Fprozessoren%2F43901-threadripper-
amds-ryzen-threadripper-1950x-und-1920x-im-test.html&edit-text=)

------
LeonM
I was looking to build myself a new (Dual) Xeon workstation, but looking at
these specs and performance, I am going to consider threadripper instead.

With this many threads, ECC support and 64 PCIe lanes this CPU looks perfect
for my intended workload. It's also gonna be slightly cheaper than a dual
xeon.

Exciting times!

~~~
loeg
Only slightly cheaper than a 2P Xeon system?

~~~
hyperbovine
Comparable Broadwell-EP or new Purley chips cost _thousands_ more. They have
better features and more cache but price wise these platforms are in different
universes.

~~~
loeg
That's what I was getting at :-).

------
heycam
Unfortunately for me, the fact that rr can't run on Ryzen CPUs is a
dealbreaker. :(

[https://github.com/mozilla/rr/issues/2034](https://github.com/mozilla/rr/issues/2034)

~~~
aleden
I am wondering why this isn't getting more attention.

> It appears that the Ryzen PMU just isn't quite accurate enough :-(. rr >
> might work OK for some kinds of usage but I wouldn't recommend it. > > I'll
> land the patches I have with a warning for Ryzen users that things > won't
> be reliable.

Can someone with a technical understanding describe what's going on here? Is
this a flat-out bug- or does the x86 architecture spec allow for this?

------
Boothroid
Barring a major technical problem being uncovered (hopefully the segfault
thing won't be an issue) or nefarious action by Intel I cannot see how this
thing can fail. So much power at the price point. As soon as the price drops a
bit I'll be replacing my FX-8350 setup with one of these. Go competition! Go
AMD!

~~~
renesd
Considering they didn't give samples to any of the linux press... ?

~~~
jsheard
AMD changed their mind and are now sending samples to Phoronix (albeit too
late for a launch day article).

[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ryzen-
Seg...](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ryzen-Segv-
Response)

> _We will also now be receiving Threadripper and Epyc hardware for testing to
> confirm their Linux state._

------
rbanffy
One thing I have with Intel is the virtual certainty the machine will work
flawlessly with Linux. Atom, Celeron, Pentium, Core, and Xeon E3 have built-in
GPUs that are very well supported.

Before jumping to AMD gear, I'd like to know if I'd have the same "just works"
experience. I'm well past the age I liked to waste time debugging setups.

~~~
old-gregg
Ryzens do not have an integrated GPU, at least not at the moment. The CPU
itself works out of the box, even slightly more exotic features like
virtualization is flawless under KVM.

If you want a Ryzen-based desktop with "just works experience" similar to
i7-based Intels, go with a Radeon RX460 or RX560 GPU. It will get picked up by
the open source AMDGPU driver in the latest popular desktop distros.

~~~
noir_lord
Seconded on the RX460, that's what I put in the work machine, worked straight
out the box on Fedora 26.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
The note about this being the first time consumers will see NUMA systems is
interesting. I hope reviewers are familiar with it when they're benchmarking.

------
moogly
Apparently, if you were interested in using these for a DAW, you might want to
wait for Tech Report's review[1]. They're late to the party[2] because AMD
didn't send them a review kit until TR publicly asked their readers for a CPU
to review[3]. Maybe because TR is one of very few publications using DAWBench?

[1]
[https://twitter.com/jkampman_tr/status/895645729972080640](https://twitter.com/jkampman_tr/status/895645729972080640)

[2] [http://techreport.com/news/32377/here-a-sneak-peek-at-our-
ry...](http://techreport.com/news/32377/here-a-sneak-peek-at-our-ryzen-
threadripper-
results?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techreport%2Fall+%28The+Tech+Report%29)

[3] [http://techreport.com/news/32343/updated-wanted-for-
review-a...](http://techreport.com/news/32343/updated-wanted-for-review-amd-
ryzen-threadripper-cpus)

Ryzen is also comparatively poor at DAW workloads.

------
sevensor
I haven't been paying tremendously close attention to this line of CPUs, but
I'm interested. I've seen indications that it's not particularly stable under
Linux. Is that true? Is there a microcode update?

~~~
jsheard
AMD have acknowledged there is an issue with their mainstream Ryzen CPUs that
can cause segfaults on Linux, but they claim it doesn't affect their
Threadripper or Epyc models.

[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ryzen-
Seg...](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ryzen-Segv-
Response)

~~~
redtuesday
It seems to be related to php. A user on reddit which has a Epyc 7551 CPU has
no segfaults without the php portion of the test:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/6rmq6q/epyc_7551_minin...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/6rmq6q/epyc_7551_mining_performance/dl7o8g5/)

~~~
Glyptodon
I don't use PHP and have a Ryzen linux machine that hard freezes every so
often (around once per week) with nothing in logs. Have pretty much given up
on debugging it.

~~~
onli
You should contact AMDs support and let them figure it out with you. From what
I hear they treat that issue seriously by now, and if your processor turns out
to be faulty they should offer you a RMA.

Though hard freezes not during compilation should be a completely different
issue, and it will be an effort to pinpoint the processor as responsible.

~~~
Glyptodon
Yeah, we pretty sure it's not a RAM, PSU, or SATA disk problem (because we had
multiples of different kinds to swap around), and we also know that the
problem gets much much worse when using an M2 NVMe PCIE SSD (as in hard
freezes occur way more frequently, regardless of M2 model). (And it's also
possible that the M2 issue is a different problem entirely.) But it could
still easily be some kind of motherboard issue. And with it only happening
around every 9 days on average... We could contact AMD, but how the heck do we
ever narrow down what's going on if we can't trigger replication more
frequently? And that's time that my actual job isn't getting done... (I'm
personally inclined to think Mobo is at fault.)

------
old-gregg
Does anyone have a theory for why Ryzens are beaten so badly by Intel in the
Chromium compile benchmark?

~~~
low_battery
I think on GCC or Clang Threadripper should be much better (see link on my
other reply)

And also Arstechnica reported much better numbers, I think Anantech either had
a bad config or there is a bug in the compiler they used.

[https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/08/amd-
threadripper-r...](https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/08/amd-threadripper-
review-1950x-1920x/)

~~~
gsnedders
The arstechnica numbers surprise me, given the sheer difference between the
Ryzen 7 1800X and the Threadripper 1920X compared with the 1920X and the
1950X; either you've reached more or less peak parallelism by 16 cores, or the
larger L3 cache and quad-channel memory makes the difference. Or something's
changed in the benchmark setup (be it the compiler or whatever) since the
1800X was done.

------
vbezhenar
Well, for multi core workloads AMD is a clear winner. Other features are nice
too: ECC memory; no thermopaste nonsense. I'm really waiting for future Intel
offerings, they must do something extraordinary to gain lead.

~~~
paulmd
> Well, for multi core workloads AMD is a clear winner.

Actually not really. It's actually slower in x265 encoding than a 7900X, and
it doesn't really pull away much in x264 or Blender rendering either (10-25%
over a 7900X). Also, it appears to perform pretty badly at some compilation
workloads too, like a 1950X barely beats a 6900K at Chromium compiling using
MSVS.

At most you can say that you really need to look at the specific task. Of
course there may still be some tuning, but right now it's certainly not the
slam-dunk that everyone assumed it would be.

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-
threadripp...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950x-and-1920x-review/10)

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-
threadripp...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950x-and-1920x-review/8)

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-
threadripp...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950x-and-1920x-review/11)

[https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/asus_x399_...](https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/asus_x399_rog_zenith_extreme_and_ryzen_1950x_threadripper_review/7)

[https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/asus_x399_...](https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/asus_x399_rog_zenith_extreme_and_ryzen_1950x_threadripper_review/10)

Not a particularly great showing overall for a processor with 60% more cores.
Despite AMD's attempted pushback it appears Intel's smack-talk was correct and
Infinity Fabric is not a magic panacea for NUMA performance problems.

It also pulls an absolutely absurd amount of power to do it, literally more
than a 7900X. The onboard package-power measurement appears to be drastically
undershooting the power as measured at the wall. Even factoring out PSU
efficiency losses, measuring inside the case _something_ is eating at least
130W that isn't showing up as package power.

[https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/asus_x399_...](https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/asus_x399_rog_zenith_extreme_and_ryzen_1950x_threadripper_review/3)

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-
threadripp...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/11697/the-amd-ryzen-
threadripper-1950x-and-1920x-review/19)

------
valarauca1
As somebody who uses a lot of NVMe storage it is nice to see expanded PCIe
lane options. I can really a put one more drive into my current Intel box.

NVMe SSD drives feel like the only _large_ performance change this decade.

------
rocky1138
Having to reboot to enable Game Mode really sucks. Usually I game after I
finish working or maybe in between while I'm waiting for a download. I don't
want to have to re-open all my programs and set up my desktop yet again after
I'm done gaming.

I wonder if this will be fixed with software later on or we'll have to wait
for the next model of Threadripper.

~~~
cptskippy
Any chance of just hibernating the system and then resuming it?

~~~
Filligree
No way. It changes the number of CPU cores exposed to the kernel.

~~~
cptskippy
Hmm... I'm sure this is manageable. Windows Server supports Hot Add/Remove CPU
and RAM. If it can do it hot, why not cold? Windows UPnP service is
continuously polling hardware and reconfiguring the system.

I have a feeling Microsoft might have a solution in the works for this.

------
dijit
I hope they do not suffer the same issues the already released Ryzen 7 and
Ryzen 5 series CPUs are having.

I'm also cautiously optimistic for EPYC the server grade CPU that AMD is
releasing soon, although in this world of "per-core" licensing costs there is
a strong need for less cores and more single-thread performance in the server.

~~~
gcp
AMD specifically claims they do not suffer from the gcc segfault thing. So I
guess it depends on what you mean by "issues?"

~~~
loeg
AMD claims it, but until I understand the issue better I'm a little skeptical.
We'll see as these parts make their way into the hands of consumers who will
run these tests.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
> Given that Threadripper is a consumer focused product – and interestingly,
> not really a workstation focused product

Huh. Will AMD workstations be built around similar Epyc products, then? But
those would have worse power consumption, right? (4 dies versus 2)

~~~
foepys
Epyc as lower clock speeds and slightly lower TDP.

The fastest 16-core Epyc has 2.4/2.9 GHz (base/boost) while TR has 3.4/4.0
(4.2 GHz with XFR, also 16 cores).

------
krsdcbl
This could actually be huge news for desktop based rendering, video editing,
cgi of any kind.

Beeing able to render on 64 threads for just the price of 2 high end graphics
cards seriously makes me consider stick with cpu rendering for my next
workstation - even at a lower frequency per core the time savings could be
substanial.

------
samcat116
How long until we can get chips with this many cores while still maintaining
the clock speed needed for good single threaded performance?

~~~
morrbo
I mean, it's a tradeoff. It will always be a tradeoff, so the answer you're
going to get is "never". There will always be less cores vs higher base clock
(i'd imagine).

However, the clock speeds of ryzen/tr/epyc/whatever are more than enough for a
"good" workload. In fact you could argue that unless you're doing something
which requires only one single core (and honestly, I can't envisage a workload
like this in a professional environment, but i'm surely wrong) the speed is
fantastic and not really noticeable.

It's incredibly easy these days, at least in .NET, to parallelize workloads
locally, so using something like this would outshine any 4ghz base 8 core any
day of the week. But to actually answer your question as to when can we see
4ghz+ base clocks on 16/32 core processors...the next 5 years? I guess...

~~~
noir_lord
Yep and the bottleneck moves around as well, Intellij used to take an age to
do a full index rebuild on large multi-language projects, on the Ryzen 1700 I
have it pegs all the cores at 100% for a few seconds and is done, the
bottleneck now seems to be back on the disk access.

I pigz'd a 5GB archive in <20s and the bottleneck there was the SSD again,
(Samsung evo 850 but it was a lot of small files and ~60,000 PDF's (don't
ask...)).

The Ryzen 1700 paired with a good SSD is a dream for development workloads.

------
drudru11
No question about it - this is cool technology. I will be building an ECC
based Threadripper this fall.

------
post_break
My next plex server for sure.

~~~
samcat116
I don’t really see the point of using this for a Plex server. Unless you’re
doing massive amounts of transcoding 24/7

~~~
sp332
My Ryzen system can do 2-pass 1080p24 x264 encoding on "slower" preset in
real-time. That is, both passes finish in the time it would take to play the
movie. It would only make sense for streaming if you had >10 users at a time,
and at that point it would probably save a lot of work if you just did the
transcoding ahead of time and kept the right format on disk!

~~~
Dylan16807
Do you actually gain anything from two-pass encoding for streaming? It helps
with file sizes but not with momentary bandwidth requirements, as far as I
know.

~~~
Filligree
A little bit. Configured for constant bit-rates, x264 can still do a bit of
jiggling on the assumption that there's a buffer, which helps with quality in
general. Two-pass gives it information to do that better.

But constant-quality modes are far superior when you're not bandwidth-
constrained.

~~~
Dylan16807
Single-pass will also juggle within a seconds-long buffer. Does two-pass help
on that micro level, in addition to the way it can allocate bits across an
entire file?

~~~
sp332
x264 has a ton of settings for that kind of thing. This page has a good
summary:
[https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MeGUI/x264_Settings#qpstep](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MeGUI/x264_Settings#qpstep)

------
roel_v
So have there been any announcements about whether there will be dual-CPU
Threadripper mobo's in the future? Does the CPU even support it?

~~~
jsheard
I don't think they plan to support dual Threadripper, because single Epyc does
more or less the same thing without the inter-socket latency or expense of a
dual-socket motherboard.

It's effectively two Threadrippers on a single package (2x cores, 2x memory
channels, 2x PCIe lanes) for only slightly more than double the price ($999
for 16C TR, $2100 for 32C Epyc).

~~~
roel_v
Cheapest 32 core Epyc is ~USD3200, with 2GHz base clock. I'd much rather have
2 x Threadripper for USD2K with base clock of 3.4. I don't think there are any
Epyc features that are relevant for compute loads - like the security stuff or
guaranteed x years of support.

Either way it'll be an upgrade from my 4 core Xeon :)

~~~
jsheard
The $3400 model you saw is the dual-socket capable version, the single-socket
version (EPYC 7551P) is only $2100. Point taken about the clock speeds though.

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/11551/amds-future-in-
servers-n...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/11551/amds-future-in-servers-
new-7000-series-cpus-launched-and-epyc-analysis)

~~~
roel_v
Oh I see, I didn't realize that difference. Well if they can build 2CPU Epyc
CPUs for 150% of the price, I'll stay hoping they'll do the same for
Threadrippers :) Although at that point you're right, the price would be the
same as a single Epyc (1k * 1.5 * 2).

------
tiffanyh
Is Threadripper the first CPU that can support 2+ NVME (m.2) cards due to all
of the PCI lanes it has?

~~~
tiffanyh
I'm going to answer my on question.

From TFA:

"With Threadripper, you can run two graphics cards at X16 PCIe speeds, two at
X8, and still have enough lanes left over for three X4 NVMe SSDs connected
directly to the CPU."

[https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/08/amd-
threadripper-r...](https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/08/amd-threadripper-
review-1950x-1920x/)

~~~
noir_lord
Good _god_.

So you can stick four high end cards in with 3 X4's...

That would be an absolute monster for GPU workloads.

~~~
paulmd
Threadripper is an enthusiast/workstation SKU. If you really want to go
nuclear, Epyc gets you 128 lanes. Boom.

(Also note that Threadripper is only _60_ lanes, the other 4 go to the PCH, so
the most you could do is x16x16x16x12. I'm unsure if Epyc gives you a real 128
or whether it's actually 120 or something.)

~~~
noir_lord
Next up, 512 lanes should be enough for anybody ;).

------
pcunite
Do any of the Ryzen or Threadripper skus have on-board graphics?

------
cuteaussie
I feel like there have been unrealistic expectations of Vega compared to the
expectations of how Ryzen was going to perform. Most people expected Ryzen to
do ok but still loose to Intel by a 2 generation gap and here we are at what
5-10% behind Skylake/Kaby lake refreshes. With Vega everyone wants it to beat
the gtx 1080ti but at best we might get something in between a 1080 and 1080ti
for less money which isn't a fail in my views. The waiting however has sucked
and has forced a lot of people to go team green who otherwise wouldn't of had
too.

~~~
elif
Yeah but with 64 pcie lanes and vulkan, that 1080i, and even 2 in SLI, is
starting to look a bit old fashion. I think amd is actually ahead of the
paradigm shift

~~~
aseipp
The 1080ti has absolutely no competition from AMD in terms of
performance/power and availability for most workloads; calling it "old
fashioned" is... out of touch. And Nvidia is already on the move with Volta,
which AMD will seemingly have zero answer for. They're running circles around
themselves at this point.

If anything, Ryzen's increased PCIe lanes are a reason to go _for_ nvidia. You
can get Threadripper and mobo at a much smaller cost than a Xeon rig, with
more lanes, but just load it with Pascal GPUs. And they'll have better
performance, power, and be easier to buy than any Vega card. This would do
quite well for a deep learning machine, for example.

The place Vega has advantages are in more niche areas, like open source Radeon
drivers, fully unlocked FP16 support (garbage market segmentation from
Nvidia), and the Instinct/SSG GPU lines they'll be offering will be unique.
And they're definitely cheaper, for sure. (But unless AMD can back it up with
software, it won't mean much, especially for markets like deep learning, which
NVidia is going full-force.)

------
TheStrongest
Intel will most likely have no advantage in usable performance on the The 12,
14, 16, and, 18 chips they use too much power and run way to hot so they will
need lower clocks. The Ryzen 1950X will most likely clock around 4 Ghz on air
on all cores, The 12, 14, 16, and, 18 core intel chips, will need a custom
loop, or really low clocks, intel like's to do fuckery and, the only way i can
see them making the The 12, 14, 16, and, 18 chips have good performance is too
turbo up 4 or 6 cores for gaming etc.

~~~
floatboth
> clock around 4 Ghz on air on all cores

That must be a _really_ high end air cooler. My R7 1700 runs 4GHz on a 280mm
AIO water cooler. Sure the 1950X dies are better binned so they need less
voltage on average, but with literally 2x the core count, that's gonna be
quite a lot of heat.

Yeah, Skylake-X is a power monster, all the memes about "Core i9 best for
burning your house down" are funny, but SIXTEEN Zen cores at 4GHz would not be
cool and quiet either :D

~~~
paulmd
> That must be a really high end air cooler. My R7 1700 runs 4GHz on a 280mm
> AIO water cooler.

As you note, Threadripper is the best 5% of R7 chips, some of them are going
as high as 4.2 GHz. But there appears to be a surprising amount of chip-to-
chip variation even still.

> Yeah, Skylake-X is a power monster, all the memes about "Core i9 best for
> burning your house down" are funny, but SIXTEEN Zen cores at 4GHz would not
> be cool and quiet either :D

You don't know the half of it. Check out these power numbers:

[https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/asus_x399_...](https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/asus_x399_rog_zenith_extreme_and_ryzen_1950x_threadripper_review/3)

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Instructor
TL;DR: clear winner in multithread productivity, intel better in single-thread
productivity, around Ryzen 1800X in gaming (in game mode, which tries to pin
threads to one die at a time and disables SMT), great TDP (stays under 180w at
full load), has some teething issues with the NUMA nature of two-dies, but is
overall a great processor.

