AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX Processor Review

Peter Donnell / 6 years ago

Overclocking

Settings

I found that manually overclocking this CPU netted some pretty mixed results. However, I had the most success with the Ryzen Master Utility its self. With Precision Boost 2 the CPU will push harder than the standard AMD recommendations, so long as you have a good cooler. We’re on air cooling, so while I could get 4.1 GHz at 1.4v, the temperatures were telling me I needed a liquid cooler. However, I got similar performance out of PB2, which gave the chipset more control over the voltages and core speeds to keep things in order. The end result was greatly improved performance.

Performance

3DMark: 17068 > 19444
WPrime: 4.673/31.876 > 5.91/27.201
CineBench R15: 164/5076 > 166/5901
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 145.49 > 177

The 3DMark score still wasn’t that competitive overall, but it did boost by well over 2000 points, which is very significant! The WPrime 32M score actually went from bad to worse, and I honestly don’t know why. I think it may be an initialisation issue with WPrime. However, when it gets up to speed with 2014 time, it set our first ever sub 30 seconds time of 27.201; around 13 seconds ahead of Intel.

The Cinebench score is terrifyingly high too, just shy of 6000 points, and miles ahead of the i9-7980XE which scored 4329. I have seen this score go over 6000 on benches with liquid cooling. However, we’re on the air cooler today, so I’m still very impressed.

What About Gaming?

Gaming performance kicked up a gear or two also, with Tomb Raider boosting from 145 FPS to a more impressive 177. Basically, if you don’t overclock this CPU, you’re wasting your money, as it has a lot more performance to offer.

The power consumption is pretty high, but given the core count, that was to be expected. The thermal performance was great though, even while overclocked, although you’ll want as big a cooler as you can afford anyway to keep things in order.