96-Core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7995WX Impresses

With AMD’s latest launch of their Zen 4 architecture-based Threadripper 7000 sequence CPUs, the corporate and its OEM companions have unleashed a brand new wave of high-end PCs and workstations based mostly on the considerable-core-count processors. Although not an enormous market in and of itself, the workstation market is by most respects the head of the PC market, with methods using the most important and quickest {hardware} obtainable, and sometimes an entire lot of it. Because of this, the workstation market continues to be an important one to PC OEMs and chip distributors who need to transfer large silicon for large costs – but it surely’s additionally a enjoyable one for shoppers to observe, if just for a glimpse of what all of this PC {hardware} is able to in its strongest configurations.

As Threadripper Professional 7000 workstations at the moment are transport, we’re lastly getting our first have a look at AMD’s premiere workstation silicon. Not like AMD’s vanilla Threadripper 7000 processors, which we reviewed last month, for his or her top-end Professional silicon AMD is letting their OEM companions take the lead in showcasing their newest wares. With just about all workstation-grade CPUs bought to OEMs, self-built workstations aren’t actually a factor. On the similar time, good workstation {hardware} it in a category of its personal, not simply with chips however almost about the whole bundle – and all of which AMD’s OEM companions are keen to point out off. Which for as we speak’s assessment, means we get to do one thing we do not get to do fairly often at AnandTech, and try a correct, high-end workstation.

At a excessive stage, the workstation market exists to deal with workloads and system help wants that conventional desktop PCs simply cannot meet. Whereas a workstation would possibly normally resemble the look of the quintessential desktop PC on the surface, the inside workings and element configurations are designed to supply extra of all the things: extra multi-threaded efficiency, extra GPUs, extra RAM, extra I/O, and a lot extra. These methods are historically designed for and geared toward professionals seeking to run in depth knowledge processing, CAD instruments, video modifying, and rendering workloads – all duties with vital dataset sizes, and which might profit from the additional {hardware}.

For our first have a look at the Threadripper Professional 7000 sequence {hardware}, as we speak we’re looking at a fully-fledged workstation from HP’s Z6 vary, the HP Z6 G5 A. One of many powerhouse distributors within the workstation house with their Z-series methods, HP has put collectively a brand new lineup of methods based mostly round AMD’s new workstation processors, together with the high-end mannequin we’re reviewing as we speak that is based mostly on AMD’s flagship Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7995WX processor. With 96 Zen 4 cores of processing energy, the 7995WX is meant to sort out probably the most advanced of workloads. Coupled with AMD’s newest silicon, HP’s workstation is able to supporting as much as three high-end NVIDIA RTX 6000 (Ada Lovelace) workstation graphics playing cards, and could be configured with as much as 1 TB of DDR5-5600 RDIMM reminiscence, making the HP Z6 G5 A a profoundly highly effective single-socketed workstation PC.

HP Z6 G5 A: Workstation with Threadripper Professional 7995WX

Drawing from the identical technological developments of AMD’s Zen 4 core structure inside their EPYC Genoa sequence, AMD has segmented its newest Threadripper choices into two distinct courses: the workstation-grade Professional sequence and the high-end desktop (HEDT) non-Professional sequence. This segmentation is extra about product differentiation greater than a direct reflection of every model’s capabilities.

The Professional variants are designed with enhanced options, together with elevated core counts (As much as 96C/192T), expanded I/O choices, and better reminiscence bandwidth (8-channel vs. 4-channel). In the meantime, the non-Professional Threadripper 7000 sequence, together with the Ryzen Threadripper 7980X (64C/128T) and 7970X (32C/64T), which we’ve reviewed, supply a scaled-down different, persevering with a development seen beforehand within the Threadripper 3000 sequence. Notably, the Threadripper 7000 Professional, although branded as a workstation resolution, stands out because the extra sturdy choice total, starting from entry-level 12C/24T as much as the 96C/192T behemoth.

The complete Threadripper Professional 7000 line makes use of the identical Zen 4 core structure as in AMD’s EPYC 9004 sequence and the Ryzen 7000, designed for desktop methods. These incorporate a number of Zen 4 CCDs (7995WX has 12 x CCDs) and a sturdy server-grade IOD, as seen in AMD’s Genoa EPYC chips. AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7000 sequence makes use of the brand new 4844-pin LGA sTR5 socket. AMD differentiates issues on the motherboard stage, providing WRX90 for the Threadripper 7000 Professional and TRX50 for the non-Professional variants. Nonetheless, the Professional chips could be positioned into TRX50 and WRX90 motherboards, albeit restricted to 4-channel within the desktop-focused TRX50 boards. The Threadripper non-Professional 7000 chips can be utilized with TRX50 solely and are not cross-compatible with WRX90.

CPUz screenshot of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7995WX processor

AMD’s high-end IOD has been reutilized (or borrowed) from the EPYC lineup and constructed utilizing TSMC’s N6 node, which is one other vital profit to the platform. This IOD facilitates connections throughout the 12 CCDs on the 7995WX and, in comparison with the Ryzen Threadripper 5000 Professional’s IOD, provides an improved die-to-die chiplet interface with decrease energy consumption. AMD has enhanced the throughput capability of this interface, reaching as much as 36 Gbps with a 20:1 clock ratio and supporting a FCLK of as much as 1.8 GHz.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Professional sequence carefully mirrors the EPYC 9004 lineup when it comes to options and capabilities, extending as much as 96 Zen 4 CPU cores on the Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7995WX, akin to the perfect choices within the Genoa sequence. Concerning connectivity, all Professional fashions embrace 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes, supplemented by further PCIe 3.0 lanes. The first distinction between the Threadripper 7000 Professional and its EPYC 9004 counterpart lies in reminiscence help: the Professional sequence helps 8 lanes of DDR5 reminiscence, in comparison with the 12 supported by EPYC chips.

AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Professional WX sequence underpins AMD’s effort to combine the identical stage of scale and energy seen of their EPYC 1P socketed chips instantly into the realm of high-performance workstations. These processors symbolize not solely an improve from the Zen 3-based Ryzen Threadripper 5000 Professional WX-series by means of using Zen 4 cores as a substitute of Zen 3, however this generational shift brings enhancements in IPC efficiency, vitality effectivity, and elevated core clock speeds.

192 Threads in Job Supervisor on a single socket!

Different notable enhancements within the Threadripper Professional 7000 sequence embrace the rise in PCIe lanes and L3 cache, with the highest mannequin, the 7995WX, boasting 384 MB of unified L3 cache (32 MB per CCD), representing a 50% improve over the earlier era. Nonetheless, these enhancements include a trade-off when it comes to TDP, with the 7000 WX sequence chips working at a better 350 Watt TDP in comparison with the 280 Watt TDP of the 5000 WX sequence.

The Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7000 WX-series positions itself as a formidable competitor to Intel’s newest workstation platforms, together with the Xeon W9-3400 sequence based mostly on the Sapphire Rapids structure. AMD’s Threadripper 7000 Professional WX sequence emphasizes its benefits in core depend and cache measurement, boasting as much as 1.7 occasions extra cores and considerably extra L3 cache in comparison with Intel’s Xeon W9-3495X. It additionally introduces help for the AVX-512 instruction set with Zen 4 cores, enhancing efficiency in particular workloads and enhancing INT8 inferencing capabilities. The AVX-512 implementation is exclusive, because it distributes 512-bit directions throughout two 256-bit vector paths over two cycles.

HP Z6 G5 A Workstation: Configuration and Specs

The HP Z6 G5 A workstation as reviewed

Launched along with AMD’s Threadripper Professional 7000 sequence, the Z6 G5 A is HP’s newest era workstation design. The corporate provides each AMD and Intel workstations underneath the overarching Z6 G5 model, with AMD methods denoted by the A suffix.

For AMD-aspirational patrons, the HP Z6 G5 A is on the market in a mess of configurations and specs. The complete lineup is predicated across the Threadripper Professional 7000 platform, with HP providing all the things from the entry-level 7945X with 12C/24T, as much as the flagship 7995WX with 96C/192T. And on the GPU aspect of issues, the corporate provides nearly each workstation-grade video card obtainable from each NVIDIA and AMD, together with the RTX 6000 and Radeon Pro W7900.

With Threadripper Professional 7000 supporting as much as 8 channels of reminiscence, the platform’s complete reminiscence capability is important. In HP’s case, the Z6 G5 A can help as much as 1TB of reminiscence (8x 128GB RIMMs), with our particular pattern coming with a completely populated set of 16 GB DDR5-5200 RDIMMs, for a complete of 128 GB of reminiscence. Using comparatively low-capacity DIMMs permits for all 8 reminiscence channels to be populated, making certain that the system nonetheless has entry to its full reminiscence bandwidth.

Touching extra on graphics, HP provides a myriad of choices, together with NVIDIA’s RTX 6000 all the way down to the RTX 4000, with the extra entry-level T1000 and T400 additionally supported. Customers can go for a full AMD system, with help for AMD’s newest Radeon Professional W7900 48 GB graphics card. Altogether there’s house and I/O for 3 dual-slot video playing cards, which implies that the system could be geared up with as much as a trio of RTX 6000 playing cards. Nonetheless issues are extra restricted with AMD playing cards as a result of W7900’s measurement: solely a single occasion of the triple-wide card can match within the Z6 G5 A.

As anticipated from a premium workstation, HP contains help for as much as 4 PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 drives, starting from 512 GB to 4 TB choices; HP makes use of their Z Turbo Drive M.2 NVMe SSDs. Within the case of our pattern, HP has included a pair of 1TB Turbo Drives for a complete of 2TB of non-RAID capability.

Customers also can get a entrance mountable and front-accessible 4-port NVMe dock, which helps as much as 4 further drives, with HP providing an enormous 88 TB of storage mixed between SATA and PCIe drives. By way of SATA, HP contains 4 SATA ports, that are able to supporting as much as 12 TB of 7200rpm HDD per slot.

Specializing in I/O, the system we obtained shipped contains 1 x USB 3.2 G2x2 Kind-C and two USB 3.2 G1 Kind-A ports on the entrance panel, with an extra six USB 3.2 G1 Kind-A ports on the rear panel. As our pattern system contains an NVIDIA RTX A4000 graphics card, this has 4 DisplayPort 1.4 video outputs obtainable to make use of on the rear. Working system help is strong for the Z6 G5 A, with Home windows 11 Professional and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS obtainable pre-installed, with the workstation coming as Linux and Purple Hat prepared.

Screenshot of the HP Z6 G5 A workstation block diagram in HP’s Efficiency Advisor software program

For our assessment, we’ll be evaluating the flagship Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7995WX by means of HP’s Z6 G5 A to the Ryzen Threadripper (non-Professional) 7980X (64C/128T) and the 7970X (32C/64T), to see how the Professional chip compares to its down-level counterparts. As properly, we have additionally included Intel’s flagship Xeon W9-3495X 56C/112T Sapphire Rapids for workstation processor, for which is a direct competitor from Intel within the workstation house. 

We’ll concentrate on rendering workloads and a cut-down total method to benchmarks, as we’re targeted on the beefy and complicated workloads wherein methods and processors with increased core counts that may profit customers within the workstation house.