Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

[emilio20]

Hi guys,

Got my 7980X machine. it's really is a beast!

Just one thing I noticed is that it is less workable during IR compare to my old machine which is Ryzen 9 5950X. when I say less workable it is difficult to tweak materials, move object and update objects while on IR.
I understand that in IR it uses the whole CPU, but it is just different experience in 5950X. Anyone experience this?

Here's my specs :

CPU: 7980X
MOBO: Gigabyte TRX50 AERO D rev.1.0
RAM: Kingston 256GB 5600MT/s
GPU: ASUS RTX 4060 OC
PSU: ASUS Aura edition 1200W 80+ Gold

Hmm I don't really think there should be much of a difference. Do you think you could disable SMT and give it a try? Wonder if that would help.

Also, kudos on the beastly machine!!

Hey Nejc,

Sorry for the delayed response. I will try disabling SMT, although wouldn't that reduce the performance in terms of rendering time?

I am also having this issue, specially when rendering bigger scene. Whenever I am rendering in interactive and moving things like trees. My scene will suddenly be empty (I will only see the Corona environment) and then crash. Feels lang the machine can't keep up with 7980x's speed lol!

[emilio20]

Hi Nejc,

I disabled the SMT and I can tell right away it feels different during IR. But the benchmark result is reduced by 5-10%. Any other options for me to make it similar feels with disabled SMT without sacrificing the render speed?

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[Juraj]

Nothing is similar to disabling hyper-threading :- ) But, in September (or +/-) Microsoft is rolling out Win11 update (24H2) with new scheduler, the OS part dedicated to allocating threads correctly. It might help the situation a bit, since scheduler is the part making most issues with high-core machines.

But given the prevalence of this behavior there probably isn't anything more to do.

Maybe the issue is just 3dsMax or Corona and nothing can be done at user level.

[dfcorona]

Wanted to report on my two 7980x workstations, because of the AMD "Sinkclose" vulnerability I updated my systems from Bios 701 to Bios 702 on the Asus Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI. I also updated the latest chipset driver.  I noticed on a 3min render scene, doing these two updates now makes rendering take up to 10 seconds longer than before on both machines. Anyone else find slowdowns patching for latest threat?

[Nejc Kilar]

So this might not be news to some of you following this thread but I was today years old when I realized EXPO / DOCP makes the memory controller & co consume more power. That in itself might seem completely trivial but that extra consumption is added into the max TDP envelope of the CPU as a whole which means more power for the memory controller and IO die, less power for your cores.

Now it isn't a huge difference mind you but on my end I'm noticing about 5% faster rendering when I drop DOCP. The all core boost is at 3.4ghz (up from 3.3ghz - both boosts without SMT turned on mind you) and I'm also seeing about half the cores reaching peak rated frequency on my 5995wx which is 4.5ghz.

Interesting!

[ochoyce]

Hi there,

I'm very new to custom PC builds, but I'm trying to persuade my current architecture studio to invest in an AMD Threadripper build for 3ds Max and Corona. They are sceptical mainly because of the sheer cost jump - it's very quickly a £2k cost increase compared to an AMD Ryzen 7950X or 9950X build...

My question is what is a 'lean' or 'minimal' Threadripper build that will still be reasonably balanced and get the most out of 3ds Max and Corona as primary tasks? Below are two example builds I had a retailer suggest to me, what do you think of them?

1 x Fractal Define 7 Mid Tower Gaming Case - Black
1 x ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI AMD Motherboard
1 x AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7960X Processor
1 x Noctua NH-U14S TR5-SP6 CPU Cooler
1 x PNY NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation 20GB Pro Card
4 x Micron 32GB (1x 32GB) 4800MT/s DDR5 RAM
1 x 2TB Crucial P3 Plus M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD
1 x 1200W Be Quiet! Straight Power 12 Modular PSU
1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Price = £4500

1 x Fractal Define 7 Mid Tower Gaming Case - Black
1 x ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI AMD Motherboard
1 x AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X Processor
1 x Noctua NH-U14S TR5-SP6 CPU Cooler
1 x PNY NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation 20GB Pro Card
4 x Micron 32GB (1x 32GB) 4800MT/s DDR5 RAM
1 x 2TB Crucial P3 Plus M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD
1 x 1200W Be Quiet! Straight Power 12 Modular PSU
1 x Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Price = £5300.

Thanks in advance!

[Juraj]

It looks solid. The retailer doesn't specify the memory, but I hopefully that is RDIMM (Registered ECC memory), which Threadripper now requires, and makes like 50perc. of the build price increase.
Threadrippers have become more expensive themselves, but the RDIMM memory is big part of it.

I believe the 32-core 7970X to be the sweetspot. All the cost that RDIMM + Motherboard eats up makes the 7960 quite poor value. If you're already spending 5K, might as well get the 32-core.
It's also the best performing one for daily tasks outside of pure rendering performance.

It's still worth it if it's the main PC for both work & rendering. But if you have rendering farm, I am not so sure anymore.