Threadripper Pro is now in its second generation, dubbed the 5000 series, debuting here in mid-2022 in a small selection of prebuilt workstation PCs from OEMs such as Dell and Lenovo. (The first go-around for Threadripper Pro was the 3000 series; the original non-Pro Threadrippers, meanwhile, have run through three generations, in 1000, 2000, and 3000 series of their own.) Beyond the cores, there are some other significant differences between the two processor families. Compared to the Intel Xeon W-2400, the Intel Xeon W-3400 has more memory capacity (4 TB vs 2 TB), more PCIe lanes (112 vs 64) (so it can support more add-in GPUs), more Intel Smart Cache (L3), and a higher max base power (350W vs 225W). Believe it or not, this machine is entirely air-cooled. The easily serviceable interior is an impressive sight. In ray trace rendering, the 64-core Threadripper Pro 5995X still has a considerable lead over the 56-core Xeon w9-3495X. And while Intel may possibly win out at certain price points, simply because it has so many different models across its Xeon W-2400 and W-3400 families, we certainly don’t expect viz specialists to move to ‘Sapphire Rapids’ en masse. Plus, as you move down the range, it will face more competition from 13th Gen Intel Core.

Intel has launched its long awaited ‘Sapphire Rapids’ workstation processors, but do they have enough to surpass AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Pro? Greg Corke puts these high-end CPUs through their paces The Threadripper Pro debuted in 2020 as a Lenovo exclusive in the company's ThinkStation P620 desktop workstation, which we reviewed at the link. We tested that machine with the 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3955WX. Though it was blisteringly fast for multi-threaded scenarios, we wished that first-generation Threadripper Pro had been based on AMD’s “Zen 3” architecture, which was brand new at the time. All of this is exciting, but one can’t help but keep one eye on the future. AMD is expected to launch its next generation ‘Zen 4’ Threadripper Pro CPUs later this year. And, if rumours of 96-cores and 12-channel memory (DDR5) become a reality, then any lead Intel might have could be short lived. We had been actively testing for alternatives, the Core i9-12900K was amazing at scrubbing through timelines for general editing, but as soon as we wanted to stabilize more than a dozen clips at once, the system became unusable and would often crash. Meaning we had to stabilize clips in batches, saving after each batch was complete before starting the next batch. It wasted a lot of time and the encoding process was also slower.Time for a few gaming benchmarks, just because you might also want to game on your workstation, rather than use an entirely separate system for that. The 5995WX is impressive in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, delivering slightly more performance than the 5950X and we have seen this in the past. The 3990X was faster than the 3950X, for example. We put both of these chips through a test suite of professional-class applications, like SPECworkstation and SPECviewperf, along with our standard application test suite. And yes, we put the chips through our gaming test suite to see how they fare. As we mentioned before, Steve and Tim's video editing workstations are currently using the Threadripper 3970X and 3990X and while both have been game changing, allowing us to stabilize dozens upon dozens of b-roll clips at once while also providing impressive encoding performance, the recent upgrade to a Panasonic GH6 mirrorless camera has caused a few editing related headaches. In many ways, AMD ended up cannibalizing its own HEDT products by blurring the lines between HEDT and the mainstream with 16-core Ryzen chips on mainstream motherboards, leaving little reason for most to spend more for extra cores on HEDT.

As expected, the Intel Core i9-12900K, Intel Core i9-13900K and AMD Ryzen 7950X had a clear lead. With fewer cores, higher turbo frequencies, and (apart from the Core i9-12900K) better IPC, Intel and AMD’s high-end workstation processors simply can’t keep up. But these days, CAD is often just one of many tools used by architects, engineers and designers, some of which do benefit from having more cores or higher memory bandwidth. So, it’s important to understand how ‘Sapphire Rapids’ performs in CAD. Ray trace rendering is highly scalable. Roughly speaking, double the number of CPU cores to half the render time (if frequencies are maintained). Though expansion is excellent in this tower, it’s not quite on par with that of larger, dual-CPU workstation towers. The ThinkStation P720 (17.6 by 6.9 by 19.1 inches) outdoes the ThinkStation P620 with 12 DIMM slots and six 3.5-inch or 10 2.5-inch drives. That said, with up to 64 cores, the ThinkStation P620 usually outpaces dual-CPU towers in processing power. The P720, for instance, tops out at 40 cores via two 20-core Intel Xeon chips. The Xeon W-2400 Series is classified as a ‘mainstream’ workstation processor with eight models ranging from 6 to 24 cores and 4-channel DDR5 4800 memory.We tested all three workstations with a range of real-world applications used in AEC and product development. We also compared performance figures from Intel’s and AMD’s ‘consumer’ processors, including 12th Gen Intel Core (Core i9-12900K), 13th Gen Intel Core (Core i9-13900K), and ‘Zen 4’ AMD Ryzen 7000 Series (AMD Ryzen 7950X), although we did not have a data for all our benchmarks. The new processors are comprised entirely of ‘Golden Cove’ cores — they do not have the hybrid Performance Core (P-Core) / Efficiency Core (E-core) architecture pioneered by 12th Gen and 13th Gen Intel Core processors. Finally, it’s important to note that all our tests were done with the ‘ultimate performance’ Windows power plan and power draw may be different with future BIOS updates. Computers are my lifelong obsession. I wrote my first laptop review in 2005 for NotebookReview.com, continued with a consistent PC-reviewing gig at Computer Shopper in 2014, and moved to PCMag in 2018. Here, I test and review the latest high-performance laptops and desktops, and sometimes a key core PC component or two. I also review enterprise computing solutions for StorageReview. The lower-end CPUs in the family, such as the Intel Xeon w5-3425, could offer similar potential benefits for engineering simulation, plus support for even more GPUs. You can see the full specs in the tables above.

The Threadripper 3000 series had no issues with 4K60 footage from the older GH5, but when we upgraded to the GH6 we wanted to start working with 5.7K60, and this proved troublesome. Of course, we could use proxies but they are a pain for editing, taking a lot more time, and overall just a more cumbersome method than we prefer. If your product develops a fault outside of the manufacturer warranty or PB Tech warranty period, we offer a full repair service and are an authorised repair agent for leading brands such as Samsung, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo and more. On that note, it's difficult to give something like the 5995WX a value rating, if it can do for you what it can do for us then it's invaluable and will pay for itself. It's a workstation product, designed for professionals and with no retail competition for Intel, it's your best option. We're happy AMD is giving customers the chance to build their own workstation PCs and not forcing them to buy mediocre OEM systems, so that in itself is a win. We look forward to putting the Threadripper Pro 5995WX through its paces over the coming months and years, and we hope we can take a look at the 5975WX soon as we feel that model is better suited to our use case. Shopping Shortcuts: For this review we used the be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360mm AIO with the be quiet! STRX4 mounting kit. Like most AIO's the Silent Loop 2 isn't purpose built for the massive Threadripper CPUs, instead it was designed with LGA1200/1700 and AM4 processors in mind. So it doesn't exactly cover the entire heatspreader of a Threadripper processor, but it gets most of it.

Threadripper Pro: AMD’s Strongest Ryzen Desktop Chips

The Hitman 3 results are a bit more typical, where the 5995WX was slightly slower than the 5950X, a mere 3% decline in performance which meant it was still 18% faster than the older 3990X. Intel differentiates its Xeon W-2400 and Xeon W-3400 processor families in two main ways: by number of cores and by memory channels. The biggest potential benefit for ‘Sapphire Rapids’ comes from engineering simulation, specifically CFD. Our tests show that ‘Sapphire Rapids’ can deliver a massive performance boost, largely thanks to its superior memory bandwidth. While solvers and datasets vary, serious users of tools from Ansys, Altair and others should certainly explore what the Xeon W-3400 and 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors can do for them. Extremely complex simulations can take hours, even days to run. Cutting this time in half could deliver monumental benefits to a project.