Workstation

[Juraj]

It's hard to know for exactly without someone testing the particular configuration (Kitguru often does this well).

I would say your feeling is correct, overclocked 8-core with 105W TDP (base) shouldn't be less taxing on power cascade than stock 12-core with TDP 105W (base, actual 145W).

I likes this test, it's with ultra-cheap 3-phase board (doubled to 6 CPU mosfets and 2 memory ones). Even with PBO overclock, the VRM didn't get hotter than 80C but on other hand it had the benefit of low-profile CPU fan blowing air right through the VRM heatsink.
So it looks like even the 3900X isn't that taxing on VRM as long as it's cooled properly. Without the cooling it would probably reach 100 on overclock..but would still be stable in stock setting.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1872-ryzen-9-on-older-motherboards/

[NOOKTA]

Hello there,

is hardware specs for Cinema4D and 3dsmax comparable regarding viewport performance and feedback? I‘m in need of some help on what CPU to buy for a snappy viewport in Cinema4D. If they are not comparable, I will start a new thread. If they are I could post a few CPUs I thought would serve my needs.

Cheers,

Ara

[Nejc Kilar]

@NOOKTA

In my opinion with C4D you do need to pay a bit more attention to single threaded speed and overall IPC. Personally, I probably wouldn't go lower than 3.6ghz on a single thread and a decent all-core boost of 2.5ghz for when you've got the IR running. That said, I think any Threadripper / new Ryzen (or some of the top ones Zen+ series) and an i9 or something along the lines of a 2696v3 is great.

3ds Max in my opinion can chew threw more without taking such a big hit on a single thread on the CPU and I do think there is quite a bit of a difference visible in performance especially when dealing with deformers and cloners in C4D. Still, it is not drastic imho - C4D still has a few limitation in terms of object counts that you'll run into no matter the CPU.

[NOOKTA]

Hey man,

thanks for your reply. We were actually thinking about the Ryzen 9 3900X or to wait for the 3950X and check the benchmarks. The 3900X runs at higher GHz, don't know if that makes much of an impact, but there are 4 less cores. This workstation is aimed to be fast at viewport, dealing with cloners and instances, setting up the scene, checking materials and lighting etc. Any other CPU we should take into consideration? Not into Overclocking that much, since we will aircool it. And for our rendering concerns we have a Threadripper 2990WX ;)

Cheers,

Ara

[Juraj]

Not into Overclocking that much

No is one going to be overclocking the new Ryzens, they are binned as good as they get, you won't get faster single-core turbo by overclock, you can only make it worse by overclocking the all-core boost higher (or keep it static higher) and making the single-core performance worse. Nothing to do with Air cooling or anything else.
SilliconLottery will be selling binned versions, but that just gives you higher all-core clock at detriment of single.

This is first time no one should have dilemma about this, it's simply off the table. The CPU will work the way you buy it. Board with good VRM and massive Air tower obviously helps.

3950X will be superior in both all-core and single-core boost clocks outside of the more cores.

Overclocking will be pretty much dead thing from next year on. Cooling will be all about silence.

[Nejc Kilar]

Honestly, with any of the newest CPUs from AMD I think the bottleneck will mostly be C4D itself. The difference between 3900x and 3950x in terms of viewport speed is uber negligable. I'd just go with the most powerful you can afford, 3950x or 2990wx. Both are mighty fine choices :)

As for Intel, just make sure you aren't looking at low power Xeons or one of the lower / middle tier ones because they usually come with some really low base and boost clocks. If its an i9 it shouldn't be a problem athough you are ideally only looking at rendering performance in that price range - Everything else has a minor impact with these CPUs nowadays.

I thought you were shopping some lower clocked parts like lower tiered Xeons or maybe even 1st gen entry Threadripper parts :)

So again, any Ryzen 9 or i9 or Threadripper from this or previous gen should be just fine with small differences :) If you are doing a lot of sim work +
 rendering then I'd probably look at 3950x exclusively imho.

edit: For what its worth I totally agree with what Juraj said about OCing :)