
AMD Threadripper 3990X Scores Another Win: We Test New SPECWorkstation 3 Update - ItsTotallyOn
https://www.tomshardware.com/features/amd_threadripper_3990x-spec-workstation_3-performance-update
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JustAPerson
Perhaps the craziest part of these graphs is the 3970X, this generation's
second best, versus the 2990WX, last generations very best Threadripper
processor. Both have 32 cores/64 threads, but the 3970X has 2x the
multithreaded performance, literally 100% faster under many workloads. Its
base clock is 25% faster but there's still an enormous microarchitectural
improvement. Part of this is moving away from the asymmetric NUMA topology of
2990WX. What a feat.

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velox_io
Wow, that is some bias.

Sure, these are great CPUs (I have a 3950x myself), but there is something
needs to be mentioned: AMD has artificially restricted the memory limit. They
have a max configuration of 256GB. I get that they want to segment these from
Epyc, but it already only has four memory channels instead of eight (not a lot
with 64cores/ 128 threads). Nor is 256GB a lot for such a CPU (the Ryzen
3000's support 128GB on two channels), previous Threadrippers supported 2TB!

I think AMD went too far here with their artificial limit, so it is worth
mentioning.

(I'm not really a fan of TRX40, I think it is overpriced for what you get and
they don't even throw in 10gbe when they start at £400+)

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josteink
Talking about a CPU like this to _anyone_ three years ago and you would be
called a madman.

But now it’s actually here. Kudos to AMD for proving how Intel has held back
the industry for years and years.

Now though, what’s next? AMD has shocked (disrupted?) the CPU scene with a
completely unthinkable increase in computing power at several affordable
pricing levels. Everyone can upgrade their rigs to something immensely better,
no matter the budget.

So where does AMD go from here?

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snvzz
Current cpu chiplets are internally split in two groups, each group has its
own L3.

We know that Zen3 does away with that split. That's potentially double the L3
for single cpu, which helps some loads. Additionally, better process might
mean they can also make the L3 cache bigger.

AMD hasn't talked much about Zen3 because it's a ways off (H2, potentially
Q4), but from the information they've given out, we know that IPC increase is
over 15%.

This will widen the gap with Intel, and it's assumed that Intel's negligible
advantage in some videogames, to do with memory access latency, will be gone
by then.

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Rury
Looks like results of a GPU company being in bed with a CPU company. Wonder
how much this all stems from the AMD's acquisition in ATI in 2006, and what
they learned over their years together...

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listic
What's PBO here?

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wtallis
AMD's Precision Boost Overdrive:
[https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/pbo](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/pbo)

It's automatic overclocking, implemented by extending the normal power
management and turbo mechanisms to work with power draw limits the user can
set beyond the normal specs.

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classichasclass
How are they defining "workstation class"? You can get SMT-4 18-core and
22-core POWER9 workstations with 72 and 88 hardware threads respectively in a
single socket.

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pixl97
Maybe as in "You can actually get off the shelf software for the thing".
Power9 may be great for a very few things in particular, but for actual
workstation use in an everyday environment x64 wins hands down.

~~~
classichasclass
I've got Firefox, Krita, LibreOffice, a bunch of games ... most of it directly
out of the Fedora package repos.

There is certainly more and better optimized software for x86_64, but this
makes it sound like there's nothing, which is false.

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wtallis
It would help if you could cite any _workstation_ software, rather than just
generic desktop applications. Aside from developing software to run on POWER
servers, what workstation tasks is a TALOS II good for?

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rhn_mk1
What's your definition of "workstation software"? The parent answered using
the definition "off-the-shelf", as asked.

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wtallis
"Workstation" is a pretty vague term that has shifted over the years, but
anyone who's using it as a distinct category from mainstream desktop computers
will have at least _something_ in mind that a workstation would be better at
than a regular desktop computer. Web browsing, simple office apps and games
definitely don't put you in workstation territory. Krita can be used in a
workstation/professional context, but I don't think the choice of CPU is
relevant there—GPU, monitor and digitizer are what a professional user of
Krita is more likely to care about.

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rhn_mk1
With the shift from desktops to phones as personal computing devices, I've
seen the beginning of usage of "workstation" to call any box-type computing
device used for work.

