Hear 64 Cores Roar! First Tests: AMD's Monster Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX

pcmag.com:

AMD’s elite Ryzen Threadripper processors and their huge dies, derived from the company's Epyc server chips, have distinguished themselves as the ultimate multi-core monsters. They are ideally suited for pro-grade content-creation and rendering—not the kind your occasional YouTuber needs, but for the likes of Pixar and well-funded movie studios. They're also great for crunching titanic data sets and spinning up modeling applications at full tilt.

Threadripper first hit the market years back as a marginally consumer component, with standalone motherboards and chips available for DIY-ers. The more recent Threadripper Pro, meanwhile, is the version for desktop workstations, equipped with AMD’s Ryzen Pro remote-management and security features. It aims straight for Intel’s Xeon W-class and even dual Xeon workstations.

Threadripper Pro is now in its second generation, dubbed the 5000 series, debuting here in mid-2022 in a small selection of prebuilt workstation PCs from OEMs such as Dell and Lenovo. (The first go-around for Threadripper Pro was the 3000 series; the original non-Pro Threadrippers, meanwhile, have run through three generations, in 1000, 2000, and 3000 series of their own.)

The new-for-2022 Threadripper Pro chips range from "modest" 16-core to sky-high-end 64-core chips. We got our mitts on the flagship 64-core, 128-thread Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX in a Lenovo ThinkStation workstation prebuild, and we could not wait to get our first tests out there. Buckle up!

First, a bit of background. The Ryzen Threadripper Pro(Opens in a new window) is AMD’s most elite desktop processor, aimed exclusively at workstations. Unlike the non-Pro consumer Threadripper, the Threadripper Pro is a system-manufacturer