Threadripper 3970X vs Ryzen 5950x

#1

Hi colleagues!
Recently Ryzen 5950x has arrived, and I’m curious if anyone got a hold of it to properly test it.
I understand they are in different price ranges, but 5950x seems like a capable top mainstream processor.
I would like your opinion on those things:
-Comparing both processors as dedicated processors for calculations (rendering etc)
-All-round processor for different tasks, which is better
-price to speed ratio, as it’s presumably not linear
-which processor makes more sense in 5 years, as looks like cores race has begun, and in several years we might see 24-core mainsteream processors.
So what are your thoughts?

#2

I don’t own the latest processor but I found this guide to be helpful:

I picked my CPU based on clock speed instead of cores. Even though it makes it technically slower at render time, it’s far more faster when doing actual 3D modeling and navigating the viewport. Because some processes only use one CPU core while ignoring all the rest.

Of course, for the complete inverse (i.e just rendering out images) then you get as much cores possible and ignore the clock speed.

#3

5950x really offers a ‘best of both worlds’ with very high single core performance & lots of cores.
If you were just after a dedicated rendering CPU, the older 3970x with twice the cores would offer significantly better performance.
The Ryzen have a max RAM of 128GB, Threadripper support at least 256GB. They also offer more PCI-e lanes.
For most 3D artists, the 5950x will give better overall performance at a much lower cost. Threadripper is great for more specific niches.

#4

Thank you very much for your replies!
Judging on the benchmark provided, 5950x is 1/3 slower than 3970x in rendering (61% of 3970x speed).
But, 5950x is 1/2 cheaper, or half the price, considering the price of motherboard and cooling (I guess 5950x is more forgiving in terms of cooling). At least in our country 3970x costs 2200$, plus motherboards for it start from 500$. Also it requires more serious cooling. Whreas 5950x starts from 900$ (provided it’s brand-new and in shortage), and I reckon you can obtain a decent motherboard for 200$.
Clock speed at idle and boost is almost equal in both processors stated.
About the amount or memory, one who knows for a fact he needs 256 GB does know what he needs. For the rest, I think for somee time being 128 is more than enough. A friend of mine in archviz stayed at 32 gigs after the recent upgrade, as he doesn’t see much point even in 64 GB.

I’m not sure why 5950x is considered better at single-cored tasks. Maybe it’s because Threadrippers have not all cores turboboosted to 4,7.

Be 3970x twice as fast as 5950x, it would be a more difficult choice, as one would get the linear increase per dollar.

#5

It’s because the Ryzen is 1 generation newer, so it is faster at the same clockspeed, a nice bit faster in fact.
The Threadrippers are based on the previous generation, like the 3950x, for example (this is the CPU I have & it’s superb, the 5950x is even faster !).
Next year, there will be new Threadrippers, based on the 5950x generation. At that point, you will probably see the 32-core Threadripper model will be approximately 2X as fast as the 5950x in fully-threaded tasks such as CPU rendering. They will be expensive though & so will their motherboards.
This is the normal pattern for AMD (and Intel) - the mainstream CPUs release first, then the high-end ones a bit later. What’s great is that AMD are offering mainstream CPUs with so many cores & so much performance, that they push into the high-end area.