AMD gave us a great opportunity to get our hands on a copy of the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X processor, as well as its little brother, the Ryzen Threadripper 7970X! Many thanks to them. As a reminder, the new generation of AMD Ryzen Threadrippers was unveiled on October 19, 2023. AMD took the opportunity to announce the arrival of Threadripper PRO models and also the availability of three (non-PRO) processors that are also aimed at the mass market. The two CPUs we received in the lab are part of this series. We’ll therefore be able to offer you the performance of the 64-core Threadripper 7980X and the 32-core Threadripper 7970X.
And if we needed to tease this article: “130K at Cinebench R23 and 4 x 32 GB clocked at 7800 MT/s CL34, how does that sound?”
And to make life easier for us, AMD France made other components available to us so that we could test them in the best possible conditions. We also received an ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi motherboard, a G.SKill ZETA R5 NEO EXPO 128 GB 6400 MT/s kit and a NZXT Kraken 360 mm cooling system.
[nextpage title=”Ryzen Threadripper 7980X and 7970X:”]
Let’s start with the presentation of the two stars of the day, the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X and 7970X. These are the boxed versions we’ve received, and feature a dress code in the spirit of AMD, with orange and grey accents. For the PRO versions, the color code will be gray and silver. None of these processors comes with a bundled cooling solution . This is quite logical, since it will be necessary to opt for AIO-type cooling, as recommended by AMD, to keep them nice and cool.
Threadripper 7000X non PRO :
The Ryzen Threadripper range currently comprises three processors with 24, 32 and 64 cores. The Threadripper PRO processors will have 12 CCDs, while the non PROs will have a maximum of 8. As we said in the introduction, we’re going to find the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X, 7970X and 7960X.
The top-of-the-range model, the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X, features 64 cores and 128 threads, a 320 MB cache and a TDP of 350 watts. The maximum boost frequency can reach 5.1 GHz. Our other sample, the Ryzen Treadripper 7970X, features 32 cores and 64 threads. It has a 160 MB cache and a TDP of 350 watts. Boost frequency is up to 5.3 GHz.
In the box, on the rear of the processor, well protected in a foam block, we find the orange tool needed to unlock the sTR5 socket on Ryzen Threadripper-compatible motherboards. The other element is a support for Asetek waterblocks/pumps, such as the AIO NZXT Kraken 360 mm liquid cooling kit.
The Ryzen Threadripper processor is housed in an orange plastic holder. As we’ll see when installing the processor in the socket of the ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi, this is a very important piece of kit.
Two new chipsets: the WRX90 and TRX50
AMD has also announced the arrival of two new chipsets: the WRX90 and TRX50. The former is clearly aimed at professionals, while the TRX50 will accommodate non-professional Threadrippers, but not only! The sTR5 socket on TRX50 motherboards can also accommodate PRO CPUs.
The ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi motherboard we’ve received is built around the TRX50 chipset, and we’re going to introduce it to you right now!
[nextpage title=”ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi:”]
As we said in the introduction, we’ve just received a copy of the ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi motherboard. Currently, it’s the only board in the ASUS catalog built around this chipset.
The bundle:
A quick look at the bundle for this ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi to see if it benefits from “special accessories”. As this is a motherboard intended for professional use, the bundle should be small and different from what we’re used to finding on consumer boards.
Finally, we find a fairly classic bundle reduced to its simplest form, with SATA cables, Q-connector and quick installation guide.
W790 architecture and chipset:
This ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi is built around the AMD TRX50 chipset. It features a new socket with the reference sTR5. As you’ll see, the socket size is larger than what we’re used to seeing, especially with the current AM5 socket on consumer motherboards.
What’s immediately striking are the imposing radiators at the top of the motherboard. In fact, this is a common feature of the various motherboards announced by the brands for this TRX50 chipset. It therefore seems necessary to be able to dissipate the heat from the power supply stages efficiently. On the rear of the motherboard, there’s nothing special – no additional heatsinks.
The TRX50 chipset naturally supports PCIe 5.0, offering higher storage performance than the previous generation, as well as DDR5 support. Speaking of DDR5, the TRX50 chipset supports a maximum of 4 memory slots, compared with 8 for the WRX90. ASUS does not yet specify memory support on its website, but you should know that it’s not DDR5 kits as we’re used to, but DDR5 RDIMM(Registered DIMM).
The various heat sinks :
The dimensions of the board are 305 mm x 280 mm, which corresponds to the CEB format. If you acquire this motherboard, don’t forget to check that your case is compatible with this format, at the risk of having to leave it on its box.
The dominant color on the PCB is black, which contrasts with the two metallic gray radiators. ASUS has chosen to keep the color neutral. The design is rather unusual in that the memory slots are above and below the socket, whereas if you remember the ROG Zenith II Extreme TRX40, the memory slots were on the left and right of the processor.
Let’s start with the radiators, of which there are four, yes, that’s right! First of all, the two imposing radiators on either side of the socket, covering the power supply stages. The third, which joins this duo via a heatpipe, is also responsible for cooling some of the components in the power supply stage. We’ll have a better idea of the PCB construction once we’ve taken them apart.
Oh, but what a surprise, in fact, the two metal plates conceal two 40 mm fans responsible for keeping the power supply stages cool. At first glance, we might have thought the board was entirely passive, but that’s not the case at all. Personally, we think the board looks better without the metal covers.
Last but not least, the fourth one covers the chipset – more on this later in the article. The height is low, to allow easy installation of the graphics cards.
The socket and PCIe :
The space around the socket is quite limited, which is quite logical given its size and the various heat sinks that surround it. This ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi can accommodate a maximum of four DDR5 memory modules. Unfortunately, we have no information on the specifications of these slots. What we can say is that the kit we received for testing is a 128 GB, 6400 MT/s G.SKill ZETA R5 EXPO.
There are no less than five PCIe slots: three are 5.0 16x and two are 4.0 16x. To power all this, the board has two 24-pin and four 8-pin connectors. This means you can connect up to two power supplies if required. AMD recommends a minimum power supply of 1600 watts for the Threadripper 7980X.
Some power connectors have a cover, so you don’t confuse them with the ones that need to be powered if you’re only using one power supply!
Three M.2 SSD slots:
The first M.2 SSD slot is located beneath the two PCIe 5.0 x4 ports. The other two, more difficult to locate, are actually under the radiator covering the chipset. The two M.2 5.0 x4 SSDs are 2242/2260/2280-compatible, while the third, 4.0 x4, can accommodate the 2280 format.
All M.2 SSD slots benefit from thermal pads, and all feature the quick-clamping system already present on a large part of the mainstream motherboard range.
Clocker tools :
Let’s start with the elements inserted on the PCB, which can prove to be interesting tools for overclockers. There are quite a few on this model, which is perhaps surprising on this type of motherboard. This confirms Asus’ desire to offer a professional board with overclockingtools.
- The power button: powers up the motherboard.
- FlexKEY (reset): restarts the motherboard in the event of failure. The button can now be assigned to another task, such asSafe Boot or disabling the backlight.
- Safe Boot: allows the board to be rebooted even if the parameters selected in the bios do not allow boot. This avoids having to perform a CMOS Clear to reboot and thus lose your encoded parameters.
- ReTry Button: when testing in cold conditions, sometimes the OS freezes and a reset can’t restart the motherboard: the only solution is to hold down the START button for 6 or 7 seconds. The ReTry button restarts immediately.
- LN2 jumper: enables LN2 profiles in the BIOS.
- Q-LED: 4 LEDs (CPU – DRAM – VGA – BOOT) to diagnose errors when the board is booted . The one that stays lit corresponds to the problem.
- Q-Code: displays a code corresponding to the component responsible for the boot error. This is now displayed on the OLED screen, and the list of codes can be found in the manual.
- CMOS CLR: clears BIOS settings to return to default.
- ProbeIT: allows you to measure voltages with a multimeter directly on the PCB.
- Slow Mode: allows you to boot with a coefficient of 16x, and once in the OS to reset the coefficient chosen in the bios. Mainly for max screens.
- RSVD: when activated under cold conditions (-120°C), prevents cold boot bugs.
PCB:
Our ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi is based on an 18×2 (vcore) 3 (vdd11) 4 (vddio) 4-phase (vsoc ) power supply. This is the motherboard with the largest power supply stages we’ve ever had! The part in charge of the CPU is made up of 36 phases, but actually uses a new organization called “Teamed”. ASUS explains this choice by the possibility of offering an essential boost when the power supply has to cope with a heavy load.
The mosfets, Infineon PMC41430, in the power stages generate the most heat, as they are responsible for voltage conversion and delivery to the CPU from the 12-volt EPS connector. The board features two Digi ASP2205 controllers on the rear of the PCB for the vcore phases. These are the same controllers used on the ROG Crosshair X670E Gene. It will therefore be necessary to keep them cool by means of the imposing heat sinks fitted to this ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi.
Connectors :
The rear panel features the following elements. First of all, the Clear CMOS and the button for flashing the BIOS from a USB key. These are indispensable tools, and are present on virtually all ASUS models.
In terms of USB ports, this ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi has two USB 2.0, six USB 3.2 Gen 2 type A and one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 type C. There are also two Ethernet ports, one Intel 10Gb and one 2.5Gb. Finally, there are audio outputs and support for Wi-FI 7.
[nextpage title=”Other components:”]
In order to test these new Ryzen Threadripper processors to the full, AMD France provided us with a number of other components. Of course, the ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi motherboard we’ve just presented to you, but also a G.SKill ZETA R5 NEO EXPO kit with 128 GB at 6400 MT/s and a NZXT Kraken 360 mm cooling system.
G.SKill ZETA R5 NEO EXPO from 128 GB to 6400 MT/s CL32 :
This top-of-the-range kit from G.SKill has a capacity of 128 GB. As you can see from the photos, this kit consists of 4 memory modules, each with 32 GB. As usual, GSKill takes great care with the packaging, and thanks to pre-cut foam pieces, your kit will arrive at your door in perfect tranquillity.
Our kit is clocked at 6400 MT/s with timings of 32-39-39-102, requiring a voltage of 1.40 volts to operate. As you can see, we’re on a black finish with a light silver trim on the top.
We don’t yet know the price of this kit, as it’s not yet listed on the brand’s website, although a dedicated page has just appeared.
The NZXT Kraken 360 mm:
The cooling system supplied to us is the NZXT Kraken featuring a 360 mm radiator. The pump is equipped with an integrated 1.54″ square LCD screen for displaying real-time system information or custom images. The three F120P fans are static pressure models. The tubes are made of rubber, reinforced by a nylon braided sleeve to prevent leakage.
We’ll see whether we use this cooling system or our EK-Quantum Velocity sTR4 waterblock in Nickel/Plexi finish, combined with Alphacool’s Eiszeit 2000chiller.
[nextpage title=”Setting up the test configuration: “]
Here’s a list of the various components that equip our test platform. For the publication of these tests, I used the latest BIOS received directly from AMD, version 0506. The motherboard is not a mainstream model, and BIOS updates are a little less frequent than on the motherboards we’re used to reviewing. Nevertheless, ASUS has provided us with several BIOS for testing this motherboard.
- Motherboard: ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi
- Processor: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X and 7970X
- Memory: 128 GB Zeta R5 NEO DDR5-6400 CL32
- Graphics card: MSI GT710
- Cooling system: waterblock EK-Quantum Velocity sTR4 chiller Alphacool Eiszeit 2000
- SSD: Western Digital SN850 NVMe SSD M.2
- Power supply: be quiet! Dark Power PRO 12 1500w
- Operating system: Windows 11 64-bit
Installing AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors:
As you may have noticed from the motherboard presentation, the sTR5 socket on our ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi is very different from what we’re used to seeing on consumer motherboards. It does, however, resemble socket sTR4, and the installation procedure is identical. The first step is to open the socket using the tool provided with the Ryzen Threadripper processor. Just look at the order in which the socket is loosened , i.e. 3-2-1. Each nut is numbered.
Once the three screws have been loosened, simply lift the retaining frame. Next, a second frame is raised, into which a protective plastic cover is slid. Underneath this is a second cover, designed to prevent damage to the socket pins.
Our Ryzen Threadripper processor is inserted into an orange plastic frame as soon as it comes out of the box. As you can see, we’re going to place our processor in place of the protective plastic frame. If the frame is properly installed, when you place it on the socket, it will stay in place.
Once the socket is in place, tighten the three nuts in reverse order, i.e. 1-2-3. Now our Ryzen Threadripper 7980X is in place, we just need to brush it with Noctua NH1 thermal paste and fit our EK-Quantum Velocity sTR4 waterblock.
[nextpage title=”The BIOS of our ASUS motherboard: “]
As far as the BIOS is concerned, at first glance we might be a little confused, because if we’re used to ASUS BIOS but from the ROG series, here we feel like we’re going back twenty years in terms of design. But don’t panic: after a quick glance, it’s easy to find your way around, even if some options are specific to Ryzen Threadripper models.
Before getting started, we’d like to remind you that it’s essential to regularly update your BIOS, even on this type of motherboard. What’s more, the ASUS team regularly offers BIOS patches, so it would be a shame not to take advantage of them. You can also save your BIOS or profiles on a USB key. This will enable you to reload them after a BIOS update, should you decide to keep certain profiles, notably those dedicated to CPU or memory overclocking.
Despite the cruder design, you’ll find all the options you need, including those for overclocking the processor and memory kit. Don’t forget to activate the memory profile in the BIOS, as this is not done automatically.
There’s also the “AI Tweaker” tab, which lets you choose the level of Load-Line Calibration, which we’ll talk about in the overclocking section.
Our Ryzen Threadripper 7980X has an SP value in the BIOS with a score of 110. The various voltages are all present to push the processor and memory kit.
ASUS offers the possibility of using the “AMD Overclocking” option, although we personally prefer to use our settings manually. The BIOS also includes a tool for updating your BIOS. Remember that it’s often essential to flash the latest version of a BIOS, as it contains numerous patches and often improves performance. Let’s move on to testing this extraordinary configuration.
[nextpage title=”Test results:”]
This is the part that will interest us most, allowing us to evaluate the performance of this ultra-high-end configuration from AMD. As a reminder, our copy of the Ryzen Treadripper 7980X is equipped with 64 cores/128 threads, and the Treadripper 7970X with 32 cores/64 threads. We’ve gone back to our usual tests and added the performance of this processor at stock, i.e. without any overclocking.
Before getting started, it’s worth noting that the card takes an extremely long time to start up for the first time! For a moment, we even thought we’d made a bad assembly, but we just had to be patient. The same applies to CMOS clear. The loading time can take from 4 to 5 minutes. Once the BIOS parameters have been set, entry into the OS takes just ten seconds.
Reached frequencies and core activity?
The idea is to see if the frequencies announced by AMD are indeed reached, but also and above all if, during a multithreaded task, all the cores are in action. We can see that in a Cinebench R23 benchmark, the 64 cores of our 7980X are at 100% capacity.
As far as temperatures are concerned, they’re pretty good for a processor with so many cores. It remains to be seen whether we’ll be able to manage them when overclocking.
Cinebench multi-core in R20, R23 and R24 :
Let’s start with a CPU benchmark staple, the Cinebench series. We’ve opted for Cinebench R20, R23 and the latest, R24. Scores will be given in single-core and multi-core. By this we mean that the benchmark tests performance on a single processor core and then on all available cores.
To do this, we’re going to use Benchmate, which has just been updated to version 11.3.0 and can be downloaded here. The advantage of Benchmate is that it already contains a whole series of benchmarks, and what’s more, it’s recognized and certified when you want to encode your results on the Hwbot site.
Well, as you might have guessed, it hits high and performs very hard. With our Threadripper 7970X, the multi score is 25646 points and 37653 points with the Threadripper 7980X. By comparison, the 56-core Xeon W9-3495X scored 26826 points. So we’re well ahead of the pack, with the 7970X doing almost as well as Intel’s Xeon.
As regards Cinebench R23, the Threadripper 7970X scores 65710 points and the Threadripper 7980X 98427 points. In comparison, the 56-core Xeon W9-3495X scored 71115 points. If we make a rule of four to look at the number of points per core, the advantage goes to AMD!
Finally, we put the two Ryzen Threadrippers of the day through their paces on the latest Cinebench benchmark, the R24. Our 7970X scores 3710 points and the incredible 7980X a total score of 5862 points. We have no comparative scores with the Xeon, as the benchmark had not yet been released.
Geekbench multi core 3.4.4 and 6 :
This is a benchmark available in several revisions. Version 5 has been increasingly used in recent months, and is often used for CPU performance leaks. It provides two scores: one single-core and one multi-core. The version used for testing is 3.4.4 and 6, as we were unable to run Geekbench 5. Please note that to take full advantage of these three benchmarks, a license is required to run the 64-bit benchmark.
Let’s start with the Geekbench 3 score of our Threadripper 7970X, which scores 8902 points in single and 188923 in multi. For Geekbench 6, it’s 3068 in single and 25135 points in multi.
The Geekbench 3 score for the Threadripper 7980X is 8411 points single (6587 for the W9-3495X) and 288461 multi (206282 for the W9-3495X). On Geekbench 6, it’s 3023 in single mode (2238 for the W9-3495X) and 26272 in multi mode (16258 for the W9-3495X). In other words, AMD is crushing the competition on this type of processor.
Y-Cruncher benchmark :
A new benchmark we’ve just added, as it’s increasingly used by brands to showcase processor performance. To use it, simply download the latest version of CPU-Z, currently 2.0.2. Then go to the “Bench” tab to check single-thread and multi-thread performance. The benchmark version we used is 17.01.64. We also took the opportunity to test Y-cruncher.
We haven’t actually done any application testing, since unfortunately we don’t have any points of comparison. What’s more, some benchmarks require licenses that we don’t have. We plan to update our CPU test protocol at the beginning of 2024, and we’ll be adding a few more tests then.
[nextpage title=”Overclocking the Threadripper 7980X:”]
We couldn’t do without trying to overclock this platform and see what else we can get out of the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X! In this first series of tests, we’ll be using the watercooling system installed on our benchtop, but this week we plan to install the Alphacool Eiszeit 2000 chiller, to bring the water temperature down to around 10/15°C. And the good news is that, in a second phase, we’ll be offering this Threadripper a move to LN2, since the socket makes it easy enough to fit our bucket.
When overclocking such a processor, it’s essential to activate the ” overclocking ” mode of our be quiet! Dark Power PRO 12 1500 watt power supply. The principle is that it will switch to monorail. If you don’t, your PC will simply shut down when a benchmark is launched, because the processor is pumping too much.
Overclocking the Ryzen Threadripper 7970X:
We’ll start with the overclocking of the Threadripper 7970X, which has a BIOS SP of 105, compared with the 7980X’s SP of 110. We pushed the frequency to 5.4 GHz, with a BIOS voltage of 1.30 v and a loadline calibration at level 6.
Results improved, with our Cinebench R23 score rising from 65710 to 75520 points, a gain of 15%. Under Geekbench 3, the multithreaded score rises from 1889231 points to 211731 points, a gain of 12%.
Ryzen Threadripper 7980X overclocking :
This is the first to go. We’re going to modify the parameters within the BIOS. Although the Ryzen Master software is available, we’ll be using it when testing with the chiller. We therefore modified the BIOS settings for the multiplier coefficient, processor voltage and loadline calibration. This enabled us to reach a frequency of 5.3 GHz on all 64 cores!
The results are violent, as our score under Cinebench R23 rises from 98427 points to 130160 points, a gain of 32%. Under Geekbench 3, the multithreaded score rises from 288461 points to 355653 points, a gain of 23%. We can’t wait to see how far we can go under LN2, as the gains are monstrous on the 7980X compared with the 7970X!
The cold Alphacool Eiszeit 2000 chiller:
Finally, last night, we installed the chiller with the water temperature set at 15°C, and didn’t go any lower to avoid condensation. The idea is to try and gain a few more MHz with cooler water.
We were thus able to increase the frequency from 5400 MHz on the 64 cores to 1.275 volts. It’s difficult to go any higher, as the processor requires more voltage, so we’ll be using liquid nitrogen.
In the meantime, our Cinebench R23 score has risen to 133960 points!
Overclocking the G.SKill ZETA R5 NEO 6400 MT/s CL32 kit:
We took some time to see how the memory kit behaved when overclocked. We were able to push it to 7800 MT/s CL34 by increasing the voltage to 1.55 volts for the VDD/VDDQ and the SOC to 1.25 volts.
We’ll come back to memory overclocking in the weeks to come, but this 7800 MT/s frequency with four 32 GB memory modules is already incredible. We were unable to display all the timings as no software is yet compatible with this platform.
[nextpage title=”The last word:”]
When you’re an enthusiast, it’s a real pleasure to have the opportunity to review this type of component, which in the end, if you disregard their price, could very well end up in your configuration. We’d like to thank AMD for allowing us to get our hands on this top-of-the-range configuration. The other satisfaction is the maturity of the platform, since we haven’t encountered any major problems, and we’ve spent hours testing and overclocking without any worries.
Ryzen Threadripper 7980X and 7970X:
Here we’re faced with two excellent chips that have nothing to envy the competition. The Ryzen Threadripper 7970X with its 32 cores performed very well, and its performance in synthetic benchmarks was very close to that of the Xeon W9-3495X. But there’s no doubt that the Threadripper 7980X is our “favorite”! The performance it achieves is monstrous – let’s not be afraid of the word – and above all, its overclocking potential still allows gains of over 30%, with a liquid cooling solution that enables it to maintain excellent temperatures.
Of course, the price is high: at the time of writing, the 7980X is priced at $4999 and the 7970X at $2499. AMD has managed the design of this processor perfectly, and we can’t wait to go further into overclocking . On this type of HEDT platform, its direct competitor is Intel’s Xeon W9-3495X, priced at around 6,800 euros. Our tests have shown that AMD’s model has a clear advantage. We’ll be digging a little deeper in the weeks to come on professional benchmarks, while we obtain the necessary licenses and set up a protocol for this type of platform.
ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi motherboard:
We couldn’t do without giving you our impressions of the ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi motherboard. Despite its intended function, this motherboard has all the tools to make an excellent overclocking board! It incorporates most of the tools available on our APEX Encore, and the BIOS is also already very complete and powerful. Overclocking our two Threadrippers was child’s play, and above all, we managed to run the 128 GB of our G.SKill Zeta R5 NEO kit at 7800 MT/s! In short, this ASUS Pro WS TRX50-Sage Wi-Fi will be the ideal companion if you’re looking to acquire a Ryzen Threadripper.
See you in a few days, when we’ll be ordering liquid nitrogen for the cold results!