Cost Being Equal - Threadripper 1950X or Ryzen 7 3700X?

Atif

Gawd
Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Messages
637
Hello Everyone!



Some quick context, I posted a thread over in the motherboards forum regarding the content creation rig I'm building for my sibling and the feasibility of running 64GB of RAM (dual rank, 4 sticks) at speeds in excess of 2933 on the AM4 platform. What I gathered is I'll have to wait for the X570 boards to hit the market to really run that sort of configuration on AM4.



With that said, one of the suggestions was to explore the TR4 platform because it'll easily support 64GB of RAM (though speeds in excess of 2933 might be hit or miss) and excel at the Adobe video and photo editing applications it'll almost exclusively be used for.



So the entire build list for this new machine is set/in hand, except for the CPU and motherboard. Given some of the open box deals available in my area, I think the price of admission to the TR4 platform will be about the same as a brand new X570 motherboard. Along those lines, Micro Center has the Threadripper 1950X available for $399, which isn't that far off from the $329 MSRP for the Ryzen 7 3700X. So, with that all said and keeping in mind absolutely no gaming will be happening on this machine, is the Threadripper 1950X (today) or the Ryzen 7 3700X (next month) the better choice for this build?



Rest of the build list:



Videocard - MSI AERO ITX GeForce GTX 1070


RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws V F4-3000C14Q-64GVK (4 x 16GB double sided Samsung B Die kit)



Primary SSD - ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro PCIe NVMe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 1TB SSD (ASX8200PNP-1TT-C)



Power Supply - Corsair RM1000i 1000W



Operating System - Microsoft Windows 10 Professional



Thank you for any insights you can share!
 
1950X hands down, in my opinion. 16 cores, quad channel memory, a capable platform with PCIe out the yin yang. Especially for a workstation not being used for gaming. I got a 1950X in December and I'm thrilled with it. 2950X wasn't worth the price difference, and the Ryzen 3950X doesn't seem like a compelling leap forward from the 1950X either. Get it. It's a steal now for what it offers.
 
I vote 1950X for the benefits of the x399 platform.

Another thing to consider is the cooling for TR4. If you are reusing something for this build, keep in mind the baseplate of most heatsinks or waterblocks aren't large enough to cover the socket or don't have mounts, so you may need to factor that into your costs.
 
Thank you folks for the insight!!! compgeek89 your CPU and motherboard are exactly what we were looking at. Is your G.SKILL kit based on Samsung B Die? What kind of RAM speed and timings are you getting on your setup?

Abit667 first off, thanks for the blast from the past with the reference to Abit LOL. Second, I did factor that in and yes, it makes the overall cost a little higher than if we were to just go with the Wraith cooler that will be packaged with the 3700X, but I think the Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 will be well worth the added cost if we go the TR route.
 
I'd say 1950x or a used 2950x. There are benefits that make it a die hard workstation monster you cant get in a desktop platform.
 
Thank you folks for the insight!!! compgeek89 your CPU and motherboard are exactly what we were looking at. Is your G.SKILL kit based on Samsung B Die? What kind of RAM speed and timings are you getting on your setup?

Abit667 first off, thanks for the blast from the past with the reference to Abit LOL. Second, I did factor that in and yes, it makes the overall cost a little higher than if we were to just go with the Wraith cooler that will be packaged with the 3700X, but I think the Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 will be well worth the added cost if we go the TR route.
I'm only getting 2933MHz at C16. It's not B die, though.
 
Why are we comparing a 8 core 16 thread 3700x processor against a 16 core 32 thread 1950x processor?

Compare the 1950x against a 3850x and I bet momentum swings hard.

PCI-E 4.0

20-30% IPC improvement at the same clock and nearly a ghz higher boost clock as well.

Much faster and more comprehensive RAM support

And I’ll bet micro center will sell the 3850x for around $600. So only $200 more.
 
Why are we comparing a 8 core 16 thread 3700x processor against a 16 core 32 thread 1950x processor?

Price- and while I agree that the 3700X will run the game in stuff that needs single-core performance, there's enough of a difference here to make the 1950X worth it for this workload, today.

Tomorrow might be a different story, though.
 
Well... if "old" Threadripper is in the mix, I'd say wait for the next gen Threadripper. So... it's really up to you. Not like you're going to just pick up a 3700x today anyhow. But if you get a good deal on the "old" Threadripper... why not?
 
Why are we comparing a 8 core 16 thread 3700x processor against a 16 core 32 thread 1950x processor?

Compare the 1950x against a 3850x and I bet momentum swings hard.

PCI-E 4.0

20-30% IPC improvement at the same clock and nearly a ghz higher boost clock as well.

Much faster and more comprehensive RAM support

And I’ll bet micro center will sell the 3850x for around $600. So only $200 more.
Not sure how relevant this is. First off, this stuff isn't available yet, second PCIe 4 isn't usable yet, third... It's still $200 more, fourth, even the 3850 isnt 16 cores
 
Well... if "old" Threadripper is in the mix, I'd say wait for the next gen Threadripper. So... it's really up to you. Not like you're going to just pick up a 3700x today anyhow. But if you get a good deal on the "old" Threadripper... why not?
Who knows when that'll be out.
 
Considering they got the Zen2 to 4933 ram on air, it's a no brainer to go for the superior memory controller there. Plus the IPC and clock speed will benefit in most day to day tasks. If you need more cores, upgrade to the 12 or 16 core later.

Premiere sucks at using cores and sucks at AMD (I use it often), so faster cores will be a much better idea.

X570 lower end boards are not too pricey.
X470 could be a limit for ram speed though?

Later on you can always move on to a TR Zen2 based setup if needed... not like Zen2 will suddenly loose value this year with Intel having basically nothing new or exciting for at least a year or more in future.
 
Considering they got the Zen2 to 4933 ram on air, it's a no brainer to go for the superior memory controller there. Plus the IPC and clock speed will benefit in most day to day tasks. If you need more cores, upgrade to the 12 or 16 core later.

With quad-channel RAM, memory bandwidth isn't going to be an issue.

Paying more for fewer cores isn't going to help with video editing.
 
You can run modern TR4 systems at DDR4 3000MHz and higher. I've run DDR4 3400MHz on mine. Currently, I'm running 64GB of DDR4 3000MHz CL16 modules at full speed. You get more memory bandwidth, more PCIe lanes with TR4 and the option to go to more cores than X570 is likely ever going to support. PCIe 4.0 isn't going to make a difference for a very long time. Given the price of X570, costs might be a toss up between the two. No doubt the Ryzen 3000 series CPU's will be better for gaming, but your mostly GPU bound there unless 1080P gaming is your thing. At that point though, you can really use just about anything to get a good experience out of it.
 
With quad-channel RAM, memory bandwidth isn't going to be an issue.

Paying more for fewer cores isn't going to help with video editing.
Latency will be better with faster ram speeds. Only advantage of TR4 currently is addressing larger pool at high speed as Dan mentioned.
As I said and you probably have no experience with judging by your response, Premiere sucks at core utilization and AMD specifically. It sucks dogshit and is quite frustrating. That said on my 2600x it's fast enough, although I wouldn't want to edit 4k...
So again, faster cores will do more work than more slower cores that it doesn't use.
 
Unless you do something that is single core limited, the 1950x wil be much faster. I went 1920x at $299, it wasn't worth waiting 3 months and paying more for higher single core speeds if I waited for the 3900x, and tr4 will get an update to 48-64 cores with 100mhz higher single core speeds than am4 anyway, at least if the first 2 generations are anything to go by.
 
Unless you do something that is single core limited, the 1950x wil be much faster. I went 1920x at $299, it wasn't worth waiting 3 months and paying more for higher single core speeds if I waited for the 3900x, and tr4 will get an update to 48-64 cores with 100mhz higher single core speeds than am4 anyway, at least if the first 2 generations are anything to go by.
Yea, if you're gonna do it now, the 1950 is the obvious choice. If you wait, I'd wait for TR3. Ryzen 3000 is just a compromise on many levels compared to TR.
 
I'm only getting 2933MHz at C16. It's not B die, though.

That 2950x can hit 3200 all day long. I didnt have higher speed to test it. Had all slots filled with 3200 at one point. Ran like a beast, strong and stable.
 
Lot of good points given...!

I, personally, would go with a X570 system with the Ryzen 9 3900X 12C/24T CPU...

Easier to get RAM running fast with tighter timings if it is two DIMMs versus four...

And Zen2 sets the RAM speed support to 3200MT/s baseline for X570 systems with two DIMMs, four DIMMs drops to 2933MT/s, it also allows 32GB DIMMs...

G.Skill is coming out with new RAM for Zen2, the Trident Z Neo series; I would go with the fastest 64GB kit of this...

There is also the benefit of PCIe 4.0 in regards to scary fast M.2 NVMe-based RAID AICs (Add In Cards), which can be a good thing for video production...

Radeon VII would be a good GPU choice for the 16GB frame buffer & compute horsepower (have your sis try DaVinci Resolve)...

But if you do decide to go current gen Threadripper, I would go for the ASRock Tai Chi X399M (the microATX motherboard)...
 
That 2950x can hit 3200 all day long. I didnt have higher speed to test it. Had all slots filled with 3200 at one point. Ran like a beast, strong and stable.
Yea, I do wish for the TR2 memory controller... But not a huge deal.
 
AND IT WON'T MATTER

Read the OP.
Focus on one part of the argument, why don't you.
I said latency will be better, that impacts all workloads slightly. The main thing is Premiere wont' use all the TR cores anyway, so you may as well get faster ones. If you are processign video with another app after in post, then yes TR will have core advantage.
 
So after reading some reviews of the new Ryzens, I am definitely excited at the prospect of picking up whatever new Threadripper they announce based on the new Zen core (in the future). Until then, I think we will sit tight with the 1950X and X399 Taichi we picked up a few weeks ago at steep clearance discounts.

Moreover, I think getting four sticks of dual sided dual rank RAM to 3133 in a quad channel config would be about as good as what we would've been able to eke out even on a new X570 board.

This was the final build:

https://leenabutt.com/halal-recipes/leens-mean-dream-machine

Thank you all again for your input and support!
 
A side note, NOT off-topic.

Ripjaws V aluminium 'heatspreaders' are EVIL !

They actually function as heat INSULATORS, and should be pulled off as soon as the memory sticks have been proven to work, so the loss of warrentee matters less.

Working on getting a thermal camera so [H]ard data is available on this topic.

Speaking of "on topic", old threadripper sounds like best choice for your scenerio to my ear.
 
We definitely look forward to picking up a Zen3000 based Threadripper in the future (assuming they're going to be announced at some point) and dropping it into the X399 motherboard we got. For now, my sister is in love with the new machine and that's really all I was looking for. Mind you, she's going from a Phenom II X6 to this, but still, plenty of performance even by today's cutting edge standard :)

https://leenabutt.com/halal-recipes/leens-mean-dream-machine
 
3950 is a more actualized hardware but 1950 has its advantages. X399+1950X will be cheaper than x570+3950X but 3950X will be around 5 to 30% faster depending on what you run. PCIe 4.0 vs several PCIe 3.0. 2 channel faster RAM vs 4 channel and you need bigger case (ATX or EATX for X399 when you can go with a cheaper B450M good quality mATX board (or even X470 mini-ITX board and case) and case and then both platforms even accept to run Windows 7 (on pre-X570 and pre Zen+ BIOSes on X399) with some tweaks. TR4 needs a special cooler while AM4 is ok with most of them even if 1950X will need an efficient one.
Nothing more to say, apart from Ryzen 3000 being brand new hardware and there are always some gliches on new hardware. Zen had it's bugs, but Zen+ was an updated Zen, so it was quite safe. So 1950X is also more safe now until around the end of the year.
But Threadripper 3 will be something huge and probably much more expensive and it is to be seen how compatible it stays with older X399 platforms. My bet is that the 64 core version will need something upgraded already for its TDP at around 400W.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Atif
like this
Back
Top