CPU I - PiFast, Cinebench, HandBrake, Blender
AMD has made solid progress from one Threadripper generation to the next. The 7nm process enables higher frequencies, and both 3rd Gen chips are a just a hair off AMD's fastest Ryzen to date, the 3950X.
Intel, however, retains the lead in this light-load benchmark.
Interesting. AMD's 2990WX used to hold the HEDT record in Cinebench. The 24C48T 3960X blows past it while the 32C64T - which is ostensibly the same as the 2990WX - is a whopping 45 per cent faster.
How is that possible when the same number of cores and threads are used? The explanation is that, in this benchmark, 3970X averages 3.90GHz across its cores, compared to 3.34GHz for the 2990WX. Add to that the natural performance progression from having a better IPC in Zen 2 vs. Zen+.
Such monumental performance needs to be put into context. The 8C16T Core i9-9900KS is no slouch, but the 3970X is over 3x as fast. AMD's champion HEDT processor is also 93 per cent faster than Intel's Core i9-10980XE.
There's baby HEDT, and there's grown-up HEDT. The 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadrippers fall firmly into the latter camp.
The numbers speak for themselves. Intel used to hold the HEDT crown. AMD now has a massive lead in multi-core programs. So much so, that it would take something like a server Xeon Platinum 9242 (48C96T, >$15K) to challenge the 3970X in these workloads.
