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This evaluation first appeared in concern 353 of PC Pro.
Workstation know-how is the top of desktop PC energy, and this month we’re testing a pc that showcases among the newest high-performance parts. Not solely is the Scan 3XS GWP TR Ada our first have a look at AMD’s newest Ryzen Threadripper, again after a hiatus, but in addition Nvidia’s Ada technology graphics, and it boasts a bevy of PCI-E 5 NVMe storage as nicely.
First, that processor. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7980X is prime of the resurgent vary, providing 64 cores operating at a base 3.2GHz however with a lift as much as 5.1GHz. Scan has chosen Corsair H150i Elite Capellix RGB liquid cooling to eke probably the most out of this processor. The 360mm model has been put in on the entrance of the chassis, with three 120mm followers offering loads of warmth dissipation.
With the Ryzen Threadripper supporting quad-channel reminiscence, Scan naturally populates all 4 DIMM sockets of the Asus Professional WS TRX50 Sage WiFi motherboard. These are 32GB 4,800MHz Samsung ECC Registered DDR5 modules, for a complete of 128GB. You would want to switch all of them for those who wished extra reminiscence as much as the motherboard’s 1TB most, however 128GB ought to be sufficient for the lifetime of this method.
No expense spared
One other top-level part is the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada graphics, which makes use of Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace structure, a 4nm design that takes skilled GPU efficiency to the following stage and is used within the extremely potent GeForce RTX 4090 shopper graphics card. The RTX 6000 Ada packs 18,176 CUDA cores, a substantial improve on the ten,752 cores of the A6000 it replaces. Each playing cards have 48GB of GDDR6 reminiscence, however the Ada’s reminiscence is quicker (2,500MHz versus 2,000MHz) so bandwidth has elevated from 768GB/sec to 960GB/sec. The GPU clock can be as much as 2,505MHz on increase, in comparison with 1,800MHz, so it is a severely quick 3D graphics accelerator.
Scan has spared no expense on the subject of storage, both. The boot drive is a single 2TB Corsair MP700 NVMe M.2 system. This takes benefit of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 collection’ assist for PCI-E 5. Working CrystalDiskMark 8, it delivered 11,492MB/sec studying and 11,773MB/sec writing, that are phenomenal ranges of throughput. As if this wasn’t sufficient, there’s an 8TB array consisting of 4 extra of the identical drive in a RAID0 configuration, put in in a Hyper M.2 X16 growth card that sits in one of many motherboard’s x16 PCI-E 5 slots. This array delivered mind-blowing 34,186MB/sec studying and 42,176MB/sec writing. That’s not a misprint – you’re getting 30 to 40GB/sec throughput. It will make editing even 8K video comparatively painless, for instance.
Contact of favor
This plethora of potent parts has been housed in a sizeable Fractal Design North chassis. The slats down the entrance make this look extra like a trendy freestanding radiator than a PC, and it’s filled with options. There are two mounts for two.5in drives, and two extra for 3.5in or 2.5in models. None are used as all of Scan’s storage is NVMe-based. The power supply is a 1,000W Corsair RM1000X 80 Plus Gold unit, which ought to be nicely inside its consolation zone regardless of the power-hungry core parts. Even underneath full load, this isn’t a loud laptop.
The Asus motherboard gives each 10GbE and a couple of.5GbE LAN on the backplane, plus a built-in Wi-Fi 7 2×2 radio that may function at as much as 2.8Gbits/sec. There are three PCI-E 5 slots, however the two x16 ones are taken by the graphics and RAID storage array adapter, whereas the third operates in x8 mode. There’s additionally an x16 PCI-E 4 slot with a second that operates in x4 mode. The board accommodates three M.2 storage slots, with two working at PCI-E 5 x4 pace (one taken by the boot drive), plus a 3rd with PCI-E 4 x4 efficiency. The motherboard additionally has {hardware} and software program assist for Asus IPMI distant administration growth playing cards. Nevertheless, there are solely two 20Gbits/sec USB-C ports – one on the backplane and one on the highest of the chassis on the entrance. The remaining are Kind-A ports of lesser speeds.
Blasted with pace
We have been anticipating prime efficiency from the brand new Threadripper, however we weren’t fairly prepared for simply how briskly this method is. An general rating within the PC Professional benchmarks of 954 is manner forward of something we’ve examined earlier than. Most of that is supplied by the unimaginable 1,224 within the multitasking check, which is not any shock with 64 cores accessible. However the video results of 892 is phenomenal as nicely. Solely the picture enhancing rating of 267 has been crushed earlier than. This can be a principally single-threaded check, and there are CPUs with quicker increase core frequencies.
If you would like a real demonstration of how unimaginable this method is, nonetheless, look no additional than the Maxon Cinebench R23 multithreaded results of 107,189. Placing this in perspective, the quickest 64-core Threadripper Professional 5995WX workstation we’ve examined – the Armari Magnetar MC64TP – solely managed 76,330. The one-threaded results of 1,728 reveals the development, too, because the Magnetar managed 1,492, though CPUs with decrease cores and better frequencies such because the Ryzen 7000 collection or current Intel Core chips do higher on this check.
Additional underlining these skills, the Blender Gooseberry render took solely 94.6 seconds utilizing the CPU, the primary time we’ve seen a processor full this body processing process in lower than two minutes. On GPU (utilizing CUDA) it took 69.2 seconds, a lot much less time than another skilled card we’ve examined. The LuxMark 3.1 rating of 26,426 is equally excessive, exhibiting simply how a lot GPU compute energy the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada has on supply.
Tour de drive
This GPU energy interprets into unimaginable 3D modelling capabilities. The standout end in SPECviewperf 2020 is an astonishing 1,235 with the snx-04 viewport, nearly twice the quickest scores we’ve seen earlier than. The catia-06 results of 208 can be spectacular, as is 604 in solidworks-07, exhibiting that CAD and product design capabilities are unparalleled, though the creo-03 rating of 76 is surprisingly mediocre. For 3D animation, 295 in 3dsmax-07 and 807 in maya-06 inform their very own story.
The Scan 3XS GWP TR Ada is a tour de drive. Its 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper blows every part that went earlier than out of the water with multithreaded duties, and it’s no slouch with single threads, both. The Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada graphics additionally dominate for viewport acceleration or GPU rendering, and storage throughput is unparalleled. After all, this workstation is pricey, however you actually get what you pay for: the very best workstation efficiency in the marketplace.
For just a few years, it appeared just like the common AMD Ryzen Threadripper was historical past. After the Professional model arrived, there was no non-Professional 5000 collection. However now the vanilla Threadripper is again with the 7000 technology. It’s primarily based on the identical Zen 4 core because the Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper Professional 7000 collection CPUs, manufactured utilizing variants of TSMC’s 5nm fabrication course of, however sits between the 2 in options and value.
The place the Ryzen 7000 collection tops out at 16 cores, the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 collection gives 24-, 32- and 64-core iterations. The Professional goes from 12 to 96 cores. Additional differentiation comes with reminiscence configuration. All three 7000 collection ranges assist DDR5 reminiscence at as much as 5,200MHz, however the place the essential Ryzen has a dual-channel controller, the Threadripper’s controller is quad-channel and the Professional’s is eight-channel.
All three ranges now supply PCI Categorical 5, however the variety of lanes accessible is one other level of distinction. The essential Ryzen has 28 PCI-E 5 lanes, however the Threadripper has 48, plus 24 PCI-E 4 lanes, and the Professional has 128 PCI-E 5 lanes. The larger variety of lanes will imply that quicker storage units similar to NVMe M.2 drives will be hooked up, quicker networking units can be utilized, and extra graphics playing cards will be put in.
Since we final had non-Professional Threadrippers, AMD’s Zen core know-how has moved on apace. Each the earlier 3000 collection and new 7000 collection prime out at 64 cores, however the 3000 model (3990X) had a base clock of two.9GHz with 4.3GHz increase, whereas the 7980X as discovered on this month’s Scan system has a base clock of three.2GHz with 5.1GHz increase. It will supply considerably higher efficiency with software program that favors fewer, quicker cores and with purposes that may use as many cores as attainable. With AMD’s Precision Increase 2, you’ll get as many cores as your cooling and motherboard energy supply can deal with to run at most frequency, though some might be flagged as probably the most succesful after producer testing. Placing this additional in perspective, the 32-core AMD Threadripper 2990WX solely had a base clock of 3GHz and a lift of 4.2GHz, so the 7980X is a large leap ahead.
As such, this Zen 4-based Threadripper represents one other vital replace for AMD. Intel has been posing a problem to the Ryzen 7000 collection with its thirteenth technology Raptor Lake chips, however its Sapphire Rapids Xeon workstation processors have solely arrived lately and max out at 56 cores and a 4.8GHz increase frequency. The Threadripper undercuts it in value whereas the Threadripper Professional now goes as much as 96 cores.
With the return of the non-Professional Ryzen Threadripper, there’s a extra inexpensive route as soon as once more if you need greater than 16 cores in your workstation for the very best multithreaded efficiency.