AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X 16c 32t Processor Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

All prices are correct as of 19/08/2017

Currently, the AMD Threadripper 1950X is £989.99, not bad given the performance and price per core. Especially so compared to the Intel i9-7900X which is around the same price at £935.38. Dependant on what you’re using it for, the Threadripper is better value than what Intel are offering right now. All I can hope for now is for these two titans to lock into a pricing war.

Overview

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X 16-Core and 32-Thread CPU is an absolute monster in more ways than one. It runs pretty damn hot, and it uses up a lot of power, just like it’s Intel-based rival the Core i9-7900X. It’s also one of the biggest CPUs you’ll ever see, and it has a massive motherboard socket to match. However, it also delivers some incredible performance the likes we’ve never seen.

Render All The Things!

Without a doubt, this is the absolute king when it comes to rendering tasks. If you’re running rendering software like Maya, Renderman, Blender, gaming development suites such as CryEngine, Unigine, and many others, it’s well suited to the task. What’s also important is game streaming services like Twitch. If you need to be able to not only game in 4K, but also convert all your overlays and streams, re-render them back to 4K and stream it without the CPU lagging behind, that massive core count is going to have your back.

We’re not all gamers, are we? There’s many out there looking to build high-end workstations for their workplace. Threadripper is an off-the-shelve component anyone can buy, not some bulky rack mount solution. You can easily build a cost effective and powerful workstation for heavy workloads in scientific applications, to CAD.

Extreme Gaming or GTFO

Right, let’s get one thing out of the way first, this is not a gaming CPU for 1080P gaming. If you’re planning on doing so, you’re a little bit nuts, I have to admit. AMD themselves said it’s not going to fare well in these tests, and they’re right, it didn’t. However, when it comes to 4K resolutions, while not the fastest CPU, it’s still competitive and will give desirable results. Of course, I don’t think anything is really using the whole CPU to its full potential, at least not yet.

For some gamers, not having a couple of FPS extra isn’t a big deal, especially if the CPU can still render a video stream in the background without making other compromises. It’s tough to say how many, but there’s a market for a CPU like this, it’s likely just not your typical PC gamer.

Hell on Earth

It’s a toasty CPU, and it needs a lot of power too. If you want to get a serious overclock on this, you’re going to need on the best air coolers on the market, or some pretty serious water cooling hardware. A simple 120/240mm AIO is not going to be enough in my opinion. You’ll need the TR4 bracket, and also want to look into an AIO or custom block that provides full CPU coverage, as many will not. If you’re running stock, then sure, most anything will do. Of course, getting the best performance means making a bigger investment in cooling and it’s something we’re going to be exploring more in the coming week.

Next Level?

I don’t think our CPU review benchmark suite is best suited to these monster CPUs that are hitting the market. 64-PCIe lanes? 16-Cores? 32-Threads? I bet we could have a lot of fun maxing that out soon enough. Either way, those looking for expanded PCIe lanes can reap the rewards now, allowing full 16x PCIe to 4 x GPUs, or adding loads of NVMe M.2 PCIe drives. Go nuts, it’s going to be expensive, but it’s going to be extremely fast too!

Pros

• Blazes through workstation tasks with ease
• Incredible multi-tasking potential
• Competitive 4K gaming performance
• Easy to overclock (albeit hard to keep cool)
• 64-PCIe lanes
• Quad-channel memory support

Cons

• Poor gaming performance at lower resolutions
• Requires a very powerful CPU cooler

Neutral

• Some games and software still don’t know what to do with all those cores

“It’s not without its problems, but to see AMD not only competing but winning in workstation benchmarks is something we haven’t seen for many years. Threadripper has a lot to offer to content creators and those who want to utilise up to 64-PCIe lanes. It’s not for everyone, but those looking for extreme performance now have a viable alternative to what Intel is offering. Well done AMD!”