Threadripper & Ryzen builds

[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.

[dfcorona]

I wanted to get you guys feedback on this.  One of my 7980x systems had it's AIO Fail. It was running a Silverstone IceGem 360, I set it to overclocked and a temperature limit of 80c. It ran super fast and like clockwork. one day during rendering an animation the entire system shut down. I found the system off and looked into it. I think it shut itself down for safety issues to temp. Running Corona bench I could see temps would quickly climb to 95c telling me the AIO is now dead. So I replaced it with a Silverstone XE360-TR5. The XE360-TR5 cooling is incredible, but almost feels like too good like there is an issue with the system or something. I also notice the system will not boost higher even though the temps are only reaching 66.8c. SO it's hard to believe the temps are only 66.8c and that the system will not boost and higher. what do you guys think? I'm just hoping I didn't damage the motherboard or cpu. I attached a screen shot below of temps and Corona bench.

I did already clear cmos and even upgraded the Bios.

[Nejc Kilar]

4.8ghz is considerably higher than the 3.5ghz stock boost so this seems like a pretty hefty overclock already - could be the AI overclocker doesn't want to go past certain threshold (W, amps etc)?

You could try setting PBO to level 1 which I believe will move you up the AMD's curve to the point of where you reach 90c.

[Nejc Kilar]

Oh and for everyone looking to buy a TR system Q2/Q3, IceGiant is back with an expensive but probably really good cooler (wait for reviews of course) - https://www.icegiantcooling.com/products/icegiant-titan-360-tr

[dfcorona]

I'm going to have to see, It was boosting all the way till it hit the higher temps with the other cooler. This XE360-TR5 is pretty damn nice. I was reading about the IceGiant ProSiphon Titan-TR 360 a couple of days ago, have to see real benchmarks with it. My system board sit horizontal and this won't work with it, but I hear they are developing on for horizontal motherboards.

[mase]

Oh and for everyone looking to buy a TR system Q2/Q3, IceGiant is back with an expensive but probably really good cooler (wait for reviews of course) - https://www.icegiantcooling.com/products/icegiant-titan-360-tr

I would like to see comparisons with traditional Noctua NH-U14S TR5-SP6 air cooler, which is probably 1/10th the price. Does it really make that much of a difference?

[Elias2019]

Friends is it relevant to ask questions regarding new builds here? or better to make a new thread?

If correct to ask here then the main issue is that I am stuck between choosing 7950x and 9950x for my new build..
It might be helpful to mention that 9950x is twice price as 7950x in my area, also 7950x ones could be only found in Tray stacks that I don't know how much I can trust, however they claim to have a good replacement warranty..

Can I know your opinion what's the best to do in such situation? Going for the 7950x or the 9950x? Is 10-15 percent performance increase of 9950x worth it? (I use interactive view a lot, so not just I use the CPU constantly but I need high speed too)

If we can pass this step, can you recommend the correct components for the build?
My concerns after choosing the CPU are:

- Good Motherboard with good VRM tolerating the high stress I give the CPU, supporting PCIe 5th gen (if it really helps faster workflow), 128 or 192 GB RAM support
- A final solution for the RAM: 2*2*48 / 2*2*32 GB 5200 corsair vengeance with AMD Expo?
- A decent but not expensive AIO and PSU
- Fractal Define Torrent for the case as always recommended or something else? (My living area is mostly hot)

Thanks in advance,

[Juraj]

Sure, relevant thread :- ).

But I think you answered your main question, 7950X is heavily discounted on market, and 9950X goes for slight premium right now. Real advantage is not 10-15perc, it's more like 5 in production environment.

- Don't get Torrent & AIO, it's really poor fit. Either get Torrent + Air Cooler (like NH-D16), AIO + any other case that fits 360+ mm radiator. Solid evergreen choice is Arctic Liquid Freezer, it's one of the cheapest but has the thickest radiator of all so very much the best performance as well.
- 4x 48GB (192GB ram) can be challenge to run solidly, I would check some Reddit builds for those get it running stable. 4x32GB is easier to get stable. Slightly higher-end motherboard helps in this regard, but the stability is bit of lottery based on each individual CPU chip (since the memory controller is responsible for this). But I would try 4x 48 if it's in your budget, you can always return it :- ). With 192GB, you might find the EXPO doesn't run stable, or doesn't boot at all, in that case run EXPO and manually lower frequency. It's not performance issue for production work, it can barely be felt in games. People online are hysteric when it comes to memory frequency.

- No motherboard recommendation. I were building Ryzen build right now, I would buy Micro-ATX board and some small case. (I would even build Mini-ITX with 2 DIMM slots only since 96GB can be plenty even for my work majority of times).

[Vuk]

The difference is as Juraj stated at best 5 maybe 7% better in production compared to the 7950x. But if you want the 192gb of ram I would go for the 9950x as I have some friends who did some builds recently on the newer X870e motherboards with the 7950x and had issues with running 192gb of ram.

I recently built 2x9950x workstations using G.Skill kits of 2x48gb ddr5 for a total of 192gb of ram for each machine. Expo doesn't work if you plan to populate all 4 motherboard slots. I have tried several Kingston and G. Skill kits before in configurations of 4x48 and EXPO doesn't work you can only run it stable with 2 dimms in the motherboard sadly.

On the other hand I don't care about EXPO as I only need the capacity (192gb) so the 3600Mhz stock is good enough for me.

Keep in mind that you will be paying a price premium for 4x48gb compared to 4x32gb and if you add the price premium of the 9950x you have in your country than you are probably gonna have a good GPU worth of money in your hands if you go the 7950x route. You can also save some money by buying a X670e motherboard (just a guess) but I would only do this if going to a 7950x.

If you are going for 128gb of ram make sure to get a KIT of 4x32gb not 2x kits of 2x32 as you will have more chance to get EXPO working in that case and probably more stable ram in your system. Sadly kits of 4x48gb are quiet rare and expensive at the moment.

As for the case I can suggest you a Fractal North standard version or XL. One of the best looking cases with ok quality and good airflow. The normal size case fits an Arctic 360 and the XL fits a 420.
The Arctic aio's are best value here in my country and have great performance. Other suggestions from the same brand as I only buy Fractal for the last 5 years would be the Meshify in all it's configurations as it also has solid airflow.

Torrent case is made to be used with an air-cooler. If you want to put an AIO you would need to remove the 180mm fans in front rendering the case obsolete in a way as you are already paying a hefty price for those 2 big fans in front of the case. Check out Gamers Nexus for case reviews on youtube they have the most detailed reviews for cases online.

For the PSU I wouldn't got below 850w gold rated from any of the reputable brands (Seasonic, Be quiet, Corsair...)