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Preview of AMD Ryzen Threadripper Shows Chip Handily Out-Pacing Intel Core i9 (hothardware.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the performance-review dept.

MojoKid writes: AMD is still days away from the formal launch of their Ryzen Threadripper family of 12 and 16-core processors but OEM system builder Dell and its Alienware gaming PC division had an inside track on first silicon in the channel. The Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition sports a 16-core Ryzen Threadripper 1950X processor that boosts to 4GHz with a base clock of 3.4GHz and an all-core boost at 3.6GHz. From a price standpoint, the 16-core Threadripper chip goes head-to-head with Intel's 10-core Core i9-7900X at a $999 MSRP. In early benchmark runs of the Alienware system, AMD's Ryzen Threadripper is showing as much as a 37% percent performance advantage over the Intel Core i9 Skylake-X chip, in highly threaded general compute workload benchmarks like Cinebench and Blender. In gaming, Threadripper is showing roughly performance parity with the Core i9 chip in some tests, but trailing by as much as 20% in lower resolution 1080p gaming, as is characteristic for many Ryzen CPUs currently, in certain games. Regardless, when you consider the general performance upside with Ryzen Threadripper versus Intel's current fastest desktop chip, along with its more aggressive per-core pricing (12-core Threadripper at $799), AMD's new flagship enthusiast/performance workstation desktop chips are lining up pretty well versus Intel's.

3 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Still a power hog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    uh... electricity is cheap dude.

  2. Pity you can't run BSD or Linux on it by Gumbercules!! · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Seems that if you max out the Ryzen on Linux or BSD, it can (under certain conditions) cause a reset:
    https://hothardware.com/news/freebsd-programmers-report-ryzen-smt-bug-that-hangs-or-resets-machines

  3. Re:AMD DECLARED WINNER! by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Generally speaking, AMD get ahead when Intel screw up. Which is what they've been doing for the last few years, getting lazy with only making minor tweaks to the same architecture.

    Once Intel sharpen their pencils and get to work, AMD have a hard time keeping up when Intel's R&D budget is larger than AMD's revenue.

    Then Intel screw up again and the cycle repeats.

    Or Intel screws up and slows down to avoid killing AMD. When AMD is in trouble, Intel is in trouble - you don't want the nice cushy arrangement with patents and market leadership to be upset because your competition dies out do you?

    AMD was in dire straits running out of money. They got a reprieve in the form of Sony and Microsoft, likely because Intel pawned them off to give AMD 10 years of guaranteed cash.

    Intel's letting Ryzen/Epyc/Threadripper play out on purpose - let AMD build up its cash reserves to the point where folding is no longer likely to give them government regulators and competition bureaus off Intel's back. Let AMD get some more marketshare so they appear good competition, and then keep them where they are.

    Killing AMD does no one any good - not us as users, not Intel (they'd lose those nice zero-dollar cross-patent licenses, and likely have to pay others like ARM for the same patents, plus who knows how many years of government oversight, maybe even forced to break up - you can have fab side, you can have the design side, but not both). AMD where they are is good for Intel. AMD looking good is also good for Intel - hopefully AMD puts all the money in the bank for the lean times.