Threadripper 5000 worth the wait?

[ymg]

Hi everyone,

 

I am wondering if someone can help me here, I currently have an Intel based system with i9 7980XE, the system is mainly used for development/gaming however it’s mostly development, I’m thinking of upgrading to AMD Threadripper 3970X with ROG Strix TRX40-XE.

 

My main concern is that Threadripper 5000 series might be released soon and not sure if it’s worth it to wait for Zen 3 or just go with Zen 2 i.e. Threadripper 3970X?

 

Budget (including currency): £4000

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: ML/Parallel Programming 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): The build will consist of only a new motherboard and a CPU everything else is being sourced from another HED system.

 

[ki8aras]

zen 2 should be enough of an upgrade from your current system, BUT if you're not in a hurry then if i was in your shoes i would hold out a bit longer

[Chris Pratt]

Out of curiosity, do you actually use all 36 threads you have simultaneously, currently? Or, do you need or use more than 128GB of RAM? A 5950X gets you almost there with 16c/32t, and with the greater core for core performance, it would still be one hell of an upgrade. That's available now, is actually more performant than Threadripper would be core for core (even a Zen 3 version... the only real benefit is being able to go to insane core counts), and would be a lot cheaper.

[ymg]

20 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Out of curiosity, do you actually use all 36 threads you have simultaneously, currently? Or, do you need or use more than 128GB of RAM? A 5950X gets you almost there with 16c/32t, and with the greater core for core performance, it would still be one hell of an upgrade. That's available now, is actually more performant than Threadripper would be core for core (even a Zen 3 version... the only real benefit is being able to go to insane core counts), and would be a lot cheaper.

I mainly use it for development of parallel systems and experiments and no I don’t have 256gb but was planning to upgrade to that if I’m going for Threadripper. Now that you mention 5950X, it seems like a viable option especially when considering it’s price. Thank you Chris.

[YoungBlade]

I can see why you want Zen 3. For the little bit of hobbyist development I do, the 5900X has blown me away. It builds Unity projects insanely fast, even with my lackluster DDR4-3200 RAM.

 

Another factor to consider for HEDT is the PCIe lanes. Do you need to have full bandwidth for multiple PCIe devices? Do you use more than 2 NVMe drives? Because while the 5950X would be a great upgrade in terms of performance, it only has 24 lanes.

 

If your current system is meeting your needs for now, and you need the extra PCIe lanes, I'd wait for the 5970X or whatever the 32 core model ends up being called. That chip is going to blast through workloads like nothing else.

[ymg]

18 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

I can see why you want Zen 3. For the little bit of hobbyist development I do, the 5900X has blown me away. It builds Unity projects insanely fast, even with my lackluster DDR4-3200 RAM.

 

Another factor to consider for HEDT is the PCIe lanes. Do you need to have full bandwidth for multiple PCIe devices? Do you use more than 2 NVMe drives? Because while the 5950X would be a great upgrade in terms of performance, it only has 24 lanes.

 

If your current system is meeting your needs for now, and you need the extra PCIe lanes, I'd wait for the 5970X or whatever the 32 core model ends up being called. That chip is going to blast through workloads like nothing else.

True the benefit of having the PCIe lanes is a plus but it’s definitely not a must as I only use single GPU + one NVMe drive which is so far sufficient for my use cases.

 

I might just wait until November just to see what new announcements come out and it’s a win win because either way I can get older hardware for cheap or get whatever comes out.

 

Ty YoungBlade

[Chris Pratt]

3 hours ago, ymg said:

I mainly use it for development of parallel systems and experiments and no I don’t have 256gb but was planning to upgrade to that if I’m going for Threadripper. Now that you mention 5950X, it seems like a viable option especially when considering it’s price. Thank you Chris.

The one thing I forgot to mention that you'll be losing is PCIe lanes. There's still plenty for most use cases with a 5950X, but if you need a metric ton of storage or a bunch of different add-in cards or something, it could be problematic.

 

Edit: Oh. Just saw someone else already brought that up. Nevermind then.