AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5965WX Performance On Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5965WX Performance On Linux

Earlier this year AMD announced the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX series but initially was limited to Lenovo workstations. Earlier this summer it was then announced the Threadripper PRO 5000 WX series would be heading to more system integrators and then the DIY market. Well, finally, these Zen 3 Threadripper chips are heading out to the DYI market and today the review embargo lifts. AMD recently sent over a Ryzen Threadripper PRO 565WX for my Linux testing at Phoronix and here is my initial review and performance benchmarks for this Zen 3 24-core / 48-thread HEDT chip.

https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-threadripper-5965wx

[bezirg]

Why zen 3 5950x has some terribly-slow outliers? I would expect it to be more close to 12900k than being beaten by a mere zen+ threadripper 2950x?

Is there some justification, like larger number of memory channels? Or is there some kernel / numa perf. regression creeping in?

[Michael]

Why zen 3 5950x has some terribly-slow outliers? I would expect it to be more close to 12900k than being beaten by a mere zen+ threadripper 2950x?

Is there some justification, like larger number of memory channels? Or is there some kernel / numa perf. regression creeping in?

12900K has DDR5

[ms178]

Let's wait and see what consumer Zen 4 and Raptor Lake will bring to the table soon. I consider the launch this late right before a new CPU generation to be a slap into the face of all enthusiasts buying into the platform with Zen 2, probably costing them a lot of good will in that segment. The bean counters at AMD need to listen, even though Threadripper might not bring much to their bottomn line, the prestige and mind share in that sector is also a valuable asset. Jim Anderson and the other enthusiasts who pushed for Threadripper and no longer work for AMD knew that. Hence Threadripper should be the frontrunner for new technologies, pushing the boundaries. That would translate into a Threadripper Pro with VCache this generation, as they are selling EPYCs with VCache already and the volume is not that high to be a strain for EPYC supply.

The margins of the Threadripper PRO SKUS are already absurdly high considering what 4 x 7nm chiplets on a high yield process cost for AMD nowadays, so no excuses there for not offering such a SKU.

In my eyes, there are a lot of missed opportunities here, largely caused by a lack of competition from Intel.

[vegabook]

Let's wait and see what consumer Zen 4 and Raptor Lake will bring to the table soon. I consider the launch this late right before a new CPU generation to be a slap into the face of all enthusiasts buying into the platform with Zen 2, probably costing them a lot of good will in that segment. The bean counters at AMD need to listen, even though Threadripper might not bring much to their bottomn line, the prestige and mind share in that sector is also a valuable asset. Jim Anderson and the other enthusiasts who pushed for Threadripper and no longer work for AMD knew that. Hence Threadripper should be the frontrunner for new technologies, pushing the boundaries. That would translate into a Threadripper Pro with VCache this generation, as they are selling EPYCs with VCache already and the volume is not that high to be a strain for EPYC supply.

The margins of the Threadripper PRO SKUS are already absurdly high considering what 4 x 7nm chiplets on a high yield process cost for AMD nowadays, so no excuses there for not offering such a SKU.

In my eyes, there are a lot of missed opportunities here, largely caused by a lack of competition from Intel.

Competition from Apple / ARM is now what matters and it ain't pretty for x86.

The motherboard alone here is over 1000 USD and who knows how much the chip itself will cost, plus GPU plus RAM plus disk plus a fat power supply etc. A comparable system from Apple in the form of the Mac Studio will almost certainly crush this on both price and performance each outright, let alone on performance / price, not to mention energy consumption. The only reason not to go the Apple route is if you're averse to MacOS, or if you need more than 128GB of RAM which admittedly is quite a big if.

Agree however that this is a missed opportunity for AMD, short-sighted narrowband beancounting and reminds me of the whole "no ROCm for consumers" debacle, forgetting about wider brand value.

[Linuxxx]

Why zen 3 5950x has some terribly-slow outliers? I would expect it to be more close to 12900k than being beaten by a mere zen+ threadripper 2950x?

Is there some justification, like larger number of memory channels? Or is there some kernel / numa perf. regression creeping in?

I had once wondered who in their right mind would buy such beasts of CPUs, only then to artificially cripple them with the "schedutil" governor:

Well, guess what, Michael does!

Seriously though, would be good to have a comparison of different CPU governors with these + a Steam Deck thrown in aswell for good measure...

[ms178]

Competition from Apple / ARM is now what matters and it ain't pretty for x86.

The motherboard alone here is over 1000 USD and who knows how much the chip itself will cost, plus GPU plus RAM plus disk plus a fat power supply etc. A comparable system from Apple in the form of the Mac Studio will almost certainly crush this on both price and performance each outright, let alone on performance / price, not to mention energy consumption. The only reason not to go the Apple route is if you're averse to MacOS, or if you need more than 128GB of RAM which admittedly is quite a big if.

Agree however that this is a missed opportunity for AMD, short-sighted narrowband beancounting and reminds me of the whole "no ROCm for consumers" debacle, forgetting about wider brand value.

I fully agree about the absurd pricing that reaches Apple territory for such a late showing at the brink of being technologically obsolete architecture. From a brand value perspective they are telling these power users that they just don't care enough about them, that's really bad after nurishing them with Threadripper in the first place. It's really a shame that such a better validated platform gets out of reach for most consumers, just as you said about AMD's GPUs and ROCm. While I have my doubts about ever seeing great price/performance for such an Apple product, I wonder what other ARM licensees might come up with, e.g. Ampere, Nvidia or Qualcomm thanks to their Nuvia aquisition. I think the software ecosystem is still not quite ready for such a ARM high-end desktop, but with SVE2 and other hardware features seen in the server space, that only might be a matter of time. I'd also love to see Linux/ARM getting more traction or Linux/RISC-V for that matter during the next 20 years, I gave up on POWER though ever catching up.

[david-nk]

Now that even the 7900X and 7950X is expected to have a 170W TDP, buying a Threadripper is an actual consideration for a developer machine.
You get a lot more power for a moderate increase in power draw.

[anarki2]

We'll have to revisit these benchmarks in 3 months or so because clearly, there's just way too much untapped potential. Some serious optimization (scaling) yet to be done.

[Mark Rose]

Couple of model number typos: 565WX, 59965WX, 596WX.

I wish I had some justification to buy such a machine.