Threadripper 2990WX memory advice

[Guy Marshall]

Hi all, I will be doing intensive calculations involving black holes, and my poor FX-8350 is taking over 5 weeks at 100% load to finish each one and it is getting pretty ridiculous.

 

I am going to use hopefully a 2990wx (or one of the new TR if they offer anything good!) and probably the MSI creation.

 

As for RAM I do not have any left over budget for RAM but I do have 4x4GB 2133 ECC from somebody else's PC they have donated to me that I will use until I can save up to get some.

 

Do you guys recommend 8x16 or 4x32 or anything else for Java? I don't understand what quad channel means entirely!

 

Thank you

[Guest]

The 2990WX is a very caveat heavy CPU for most use cases. Have you verified that it will actually be faster than a less compromises 2950X for your use case?

I know that has nothing to do with your question, but I'll let someone who know more about memory answer that.

[Windows7ge]

You would be better off running 4 sticks than 8. I can't say if this workload will benefit from that much memory bandwidth but if you need 128GB either way 4x32GB would be better for system performance. Do make sure the system supports 32GB DIMMs though. I haven't verified if X399 motherboards or TR CPU's do.

[GoldenLag]

16 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

4x32

this, tho if you are aiming for high capacity, aiming for some good dimms are recommended. getting some crucial B-die is usually quite cheap. 

17 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

I will be doing intensive calculations involving black holes, and my poor FX-8350 is taking over 5 weeks at 100% load to finish each one and it is getting pretty ridiculous.

if you need propper ECC or more IO, the Epyc path is allways open. 

 

24 cores for about 1400$ + motherboard. also how much Ram do you need?

 

and can the simulation actually run on all of those cores. 

[Guy Marshall]

21 minutes ago, Den-Fi said:

The 2990WX is a very caveat heavy CPU for most use cases. Have you verified that it will actually be faster than a less compromises 2950X for your use case?

I know that has nothing to do with your question, but I'll let someone who know more about memory answer that.

Okay thank you, it just needs many many cores and EPYC is far too much money and so is the 9980XE, so I went to the 2990.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

Okay thank you, it just needs many many cores and EPYC is far too much money and so is the 9980XE, so I went to the 2990.

I would see if you can find some benchmarks of what you're doing on the 2990WX vs. the 2950X.

You've got new TR3 coming and sub $1000 10980XE, so if you've got a couple months worth of patience, holding out might be realllllllllllly nice for you.

[Guy Marshall]

12 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

You would be better off running 4 sticks than 8. I can't say if this workload will benefit from that much memory bandwidth but if you need 128GB either way 4x32GB would be better for system performance. Do make sure the system supports 32GB DIMMs though. I haven't verified if X399 motherboards or TR CPU's do.

Okay thank you! 64GB might be enough in a stretch but I just want to be safe if I use davinci resolve more than I do.

[Guy Marshall]

Just now, Den-Fi said:

I would see if you can find some benchmarks of what you're doing on the 2990WX vs. the 2950X.

You've got new TR3 coming and sub $1000 10980XE, so if you've got a couple months worth of patience, holding out might be realllllllllllly nice for you.

I am saving up enough money so I will either get TR3 or get TR2 with the price cut

[Princess Luna]

6 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

Okay thank you, it just needs many many cores and EPYC is far too much money and so is the 9980XE, so I went to the 2990.

Cascade Lake-X will bring the i9 10980XE for 'just' 979$ which has a lot better single core performance than the 2990WX also gonna play far better on Windows even if Enterprise/Server versions.

 

You gotta understand like @Den-Fi stated the 2990WX only works well for VERY specific 100% multi-threaded tasks, it's very niche and you haven't really specific your workload a whole lot other than "Java" and even then for this application the Core i9 might be the best alternative should you be able to wait another month for it's release.

[GoldenLag]

7 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

Okay thank you, it just needs many many cores and EPYC is far too much money and so is the 9980XE, so I went to the 2990.

you probably dont want the 2990wx then. 

 

cascade lake X is around the corner with 1k$ 18 core and Threadripper 3 is right around the corner. 2990wx really doesnt play nicely with windows most of the time in tasks. 

[Guy Marshall]

11 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

this, tho if you are aiming for high capacity, aiming for some good dimms are recommended. getting some crucial B-die is usually quite cheap. 

if you need propper ECC or more IO, the Epyc path is allways open. 

 

24 cores for about 1400$ + motherboard. also how much Ram do you need?

 

and can the simulation actually run on all of those cores. 

Ok I will take B dies into account! ECC is not necessary as it is the only DDR4 I have around. I looked at EPYC and the cost was getting very high and the single core performance drop is significant.

 

It uses as many cores as you have as it has a thread option before running it. I'm guessing speeds above 3600 MHz will hit diminishing returns and stability issues but that is just a guess. 

[Guy Marshall]

Just now, GoldenLag said:

you probably dont want the 2990wx then. 

 

cascade lake X is around the corner with 1k$ 18 core and Threadripper 3 is right around the corner. 2990wx really doesnt play nicely with windows most of the time in tasks. 

Ooh I heard of cascade x but its only 18 cores for about 30% less money. For this task a 2970wx or 2990wx will be ideal. But I will wait and see what TR3 offers!

[Windows7ge]

7 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

Okay thank you! 64GB might be enough in a stretch but I just want to be safe if I use davinci resolve more than I do.

Yeah, I think you'd have to go EYPC and a SP3 motherboard & use RDIMM 32GB modules.

 

3 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

I looked at EPYC and the cost was getting very high and the single core performance drop is significant.

Yeah the single core performance wouldn't be great but it'd give you support for 32GB DIMMs. Although EPYC supports 8 channel memory. Here you would want to use all 8 slots. As for the price the EPYC 16 core options are on par with a 1950X. Motherboard options include prices that compete with a X399 motherboard. Then you just have RAM and RDIMM ECC/UDIMM ECC prices aren't far above desktop memory.

 

So I'm not sure where you were looking for the prices to be much worse than what you'll be investing for TR.

[GoldenLag]

10 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

Ooh I heard of cascade x but its only 18 cores for about 30% less money. For this task a 2970wx or 2990wx will be ideal. But I will wait and see what TR3 offers!

you could also just grab a 24 core Epyc 7002 series for 1450$. it will work nicely with windows in singel numa node mode. if you have to get anything atm, id grab that over the 2990wx. 

[Guy Marshall]

1 minute ago, GoldenLag said:

you could also just grab a 24 core Epyc 7002 series for 1450$. it will work nicely with windows in singel numa node mode. if you have to get anything atm, id grab that over the 2990wx. 

I have heard from level1techs that the issue is due to windows alone, so if that is the case I might just use linux. For that same cost I can get a 2990wx with 8 more cores and higher clock speeds + pbo etc so not sure at the moment! Will wait for the TR3 launch and by then I will have saved up enough to decide

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, Guy Marshall said:

For that same cost I can get a 2990wx with 8 more cores and higher clock speeds + pbo etc so not sure at the moment!

i dont know where you are getting you 2990wx, because its 1700$ atm.........

[Guy Marshall]

7 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Yeah, I think you'd have to go EYPC and a SP3 motherboard & use RDIMM 32GB modules.

 

Yeah the single core performance wouldn't be great but it'd give you support for 32GB DIMMs. Although EPYC supports 8 channel memory. Here you would want to use all 8 slots. As for the price the EPYC 16 core options are on par with a 1950X. Motherboard options include prices that compete with a X399 motherboard. Then you just have RAM and RDIMM ECC/UDIMM ECC prices aren't far above desktop memory.

 

So I'm not sure where you were looking for the prices to be much worse than what you'll be investing for TR.

Those are some good interesting points, what I meant was I can get a 32 core higher clocked CPU for less money than the 24 core!

[Guy Marshall]

Just now, GoldenLag said:

i dont know where you are getting you 2990wx, because its 1700$ atm.........

It is £1400 everywhere unless it is scan and then it is £1800! Prices are crazy for everything tbh like the 3900x.

[GoldenLag]

5 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

It is £1400 everywhere unless it is scan and then it is £1800! Prices are crazy for everything tbh like the 3900x.

well if we are looking at the UK. 

 

the 24 core is 1250£

 

tho the right choise is just to avoid the 2990wx and not have to deal with windows freaking out

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, Guy Marshall said:

Those are some good interesting points, what I meant was I can get a 32 core higher clocked CPU for less money than the 24 core!

Yep, if you need this machine to double for applications that are very single threaded EPYC wouldn't be the way to go but it may be something to think about for the future. You can find a 32C/64T EPYC CPU for <$1,200 while a TR299WX would be ~$1800. That'd be $600 to put towards a motherboard or RAM.

[Guy Marshall]

1 minute ago, GoldenLag said:

well if we are looking at the UK. 

 

the 24 core is 1250£

 

tho the right choise is just to avoid the 2990wx and not have to deal with windows freaking out

Good point I will probably end up using linux to avoid windows updates restarting the machine half way through a month long calculation lol

[Windows7ge]

2 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

tho the right choise is just to avoid the 2990wx and not have to deal with windows freaking out

I was told Windows was to (or did already) receive an update to patch this issue. I remember Wendel made a video discussing this Windows bug quite a while back.

[Guy Marshall]

2 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Yep, if you need this machine to double for applications that are very single threaded EPYC wouldn't be the way to go but it may be something to think about for the future. You can find a 32C/64T EPYC CPU for <$1,200 while a TR299WX would be ~$1800. That'd be $600 to put towards a motherboard or RAM.

The 2990wx is £1400 here but thanks for the advice anyways! I will probably wait until TR3 comes out and check all the prices then.

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

I was told Windows was to (or did already) receive an update to patch this issue. I remember Wendel made a video discussing this Windows bug quite a while back.

it received a CCX aware update, not sure it touched on the sqedualler which affect the 2990wx. 

[Guy Marshall]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

I was told Windows was to (or did already) receive an update to patch this issue. I remember Wendel made a video discussing this Windows bug quite a while back.

That is excellent news!