AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X & 7970X Review: Many-Core Desktop Supremacy
UL 3DMark CPU Physics Benchmark
3DMark's Physics test doesn't scale well on today's many-core processors and really loves the high-clocked P-cores in the Core i9-14900K. The Threadripper 7970X and 7980X show a big improvement over the previous-gen Threadripper 5000 series processors, but ultimately trail the Xeons and mainstream processors here.
High And Low Resolution Gaming & Graphics Benchmarks
We also ran some mid and high-resolution game and graphics tests on our test rigs with 3DMark, F1 2021, and Metro Exodus. We used 3DMark's default Time Spy preset, and the games were run in two different configurations -- either 1080p with Medium/High details, or 4K with High/Extreme details. The lower resolution tests are more CPU bound to somewhat isolate processor performance, while the higher resolution tests are more GPU bound.
As we move to some actual games, the Threadripper 7970X and 7980X are in the mix with all of the other processors in F1 2021, but trail significantly in Metro Exodus. Most games simply won't leverage all of the compute resources in a many-core processors, and games are often impacted negatively with the core-to-core latency and scheduling issues. It's for these reasons we don't recommend HEDT and workstation processors if gaming performance in your primary concern. That said, things look different in you run your games at high-resolutions with maximum eye candy...
When running those same games at higher-resolutions with increased image quality, to shift more of the bottleneck onto the GPU, the Threadripper 7970X and 7980X perform effectively in-line with all of the other chips. In a GPU bound situation, they're fast enough to saturate the GPU. So, while Threadripper aren't ideal for gaming, they are perfectly capable should you want to get your game on when your work is done.
Threadripper 7000 Total System Power Consumption
Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we also monitored how much power our test rigs were consuming with a power meter. Our goal was to give you an idea as to how much power each configuration used while idling at the Windows desktop and while under a heavy CPU workload across one and all cores. Keep in mind, this is total system power consumption being measured at the outlet and not the individual power being drawn by the CPUs alone.
As you'd expect, the Threadripper 7970X and 7980X consumed significantly more power than any of the mainstream platforms, but they're not completely out of line, especially considering the relatively high peak consumption of the Core i9-14900K. Versus Intel's current top-end Xeon w9-3945X 56-core processor, AMD's efficiency advantage is clear. The Threadripper 7980X virtually skunked the Xeon w9 in our benchmarks, but it consumes much less power under load.
AMD Threadripper 7980X PCMark Hardware Details
AMD Threadripper 7980X 3DMark Hardware Details
To provide some more insight into the Threadripper 7980X's frequencies, power and thermals, we have all of the details as reported throughout run of PCMark 10 and 3DMark Time Spy. With the exception of the multi-threaded content creation tests (at the far right) in PCMark, the load placed on the Threadripper 7980X is minimal. The CPU's frequency hovers between 3.5 - >5GHz, but averages about 4.5GHz for most of the run, and temperatures through the productivity and lightly threaded workloads remain in the 50-70°C range (with the 360mm AIO liquid cooler we used). With the heavily-threaded content creation workloads, the CPU's frequency dips to about 3.5GHz and temperatures peak at around 80°C. Under sustained, longer multi-threaded workloads, temperatures can creep higher though, as you'll see next.
