AMD Threadripper Pro 5965WX Review: Many-Core Zen 3 Monster
AMD Threadripper Pro 5965WX: CPU, System And Browser Benchmarks
When configuring our test systems for this article, we first made sure all firmwares were up to date, then we entered each system's respective BIOS / UEFI and set each board to its "Optimized" or "High performance" defaults. We then saved the settings, re-entered the BIOS and set the memory frequency to the maximum officially supported speed for the given platform (without overclocking) with optimal XMP timings for the respective memory kits installed. The SSDs were then formatted, and Windows 11 Pro was installed and fully updated.
SiSoft SANDRA's Memory and Cache benchmarks measure memory bandwidth during read, write and copy operations, in addition to memory latency, cache bandwidth and latency.
Threadripper Pro 3975WX Memory Bandwidth & Cache Tests
Threadripper Pro 5965WX Memory Bandwidth & Cache Tests
In this memory bandwidth benchmark, a Ryzen 9 5950X, with a dual-channel memory configuration, will pull roughly 36-40GB/s. As you can see, the Threadripper Pro processors, with 8-memory channels riding along at DDR4-3200, offer north of 110GB/s. The Threadripper Pro 5965WX tops out just a hair over 124GB/s to be more precise, which was about 12GB/s higher than the previous-gen 3975WX. Memory latency was just a hair higher on the new chip, but the L2 cache response is a bit quicker on the 5965WX.
Despite the Threadripper Pro 3975WX's 8-core / 16-thread advantage over the newer Threadripper Pro 5965WX, the Zen 3-based 5965WX offered nearly the same multi-threaded performance. Single-threaded performance with the 5965WX, however, was significantly better and in-line with other Zen 3-based processors.
Due to its relatively strong DCC and Productivity scores, the Threadripper Pro 5965WX managed a second place finish in our PCMark tests. This is particular noteworthy when you see how the Zen 2-based Threadripper and Threadripper Pro 3000-series processors finished here. Because only a few segments in PCMark 10 will utilize many cores, and the benchmark is heavily influenced by storage and memory performance, the Threadripper Pro 5965WX's more advanced architecture propels it significantly ahead of its predecessors.
Crossmark really likes Intel's Alder Lake architecture, as evidenced by the Intel 12th Gen Core processors' first and second place finishes here. AMD's Threadripper Pro 5965WX, however, slots in just behind them, ahead of all of the other processors we tested.
When the Windows installation was complete, we installed all of the drivers necessary for our components, disabled Auto-Updating and Windows Defender, and installed all of our benchmarking software. When that process was done, we performed a disk clean-up, cleared any temp and prefetch data, and optimized all of the SSDs using Windows' built-in utility. Finally, we enabled Windows Focus Assist to minimize any potential interruptions and let the systems reach an idle state before invoking a test.
Please note, that the Threadripper Pro's 8-channel memory requirement for optimal performance, necessitated the use of eight, matching memory sticks, which resulted in a total capacity of 64GB (We, unfortunately, did not have eight matching 4GB sticks on hand). Performance in the benchmarks we ran, with the configurations we used, however, does not scale beyond 16-32GB. We re-tested the standard Threadripper with the same 8-stick / 64GB configuration and saw a slight decrease in performance in some tests, however. As such, we stuck with our 32GB configuration there instead.
Our Test Systems: Revamped For Windows 11
SANDRA Memory Bandwidth, Latency & Cache Latency
Threadripper Pro 3975WX Memory Bandwidth & Cache Tests
Threadripper Pro 5965WX Memory Bandwidth & Cache Tests
In this memory bandwidth benchmark, a Ryzen 9 5950X, with a dual-channel memory configuration, will pull roughly 36-40GB/s. As you can see, the Threadripper Pro processors, with 8-memory channels riding along at DDR4-3200, offer north of 110GB/s. The Threadripper Pro 5965WX tops out just a hair over 124GB/s to be more precise, which was about 12GB/s higher than the previous-gen 3975WX. Memory latency was just a hair higher on the new chip, but the L2 cache response is a bit quicker on the 5965WX.
Geekbench v5.4.1 CPU Compute Benchmark
In the GeekBench tests, we're stressing only the CPU cores in a system (not the graphics card and GPU), with both single and multi-threaded workloads. The tests are comprised of encryption processing, image compression, HTML5 parsing, physics calculations and other general purpose compute processing workloads.
Despite the Threadripper Pro 3975WX's 8-core / 16-thread advantage over the newer Threadripper Pro 5965WX, the Zen 3-based 5965WX offered nearly the same multi-threaded performance. Single-threaded performance with the 5965WX, however, was significantly better and in-line with other Zen 3-based processors.
UL PCMark 10 Benchmarks
Next, up we have some full-system testing with PCMark. We're reporting all test results from the PCMark 10 benchmark suite, including the Essentials, Productivity, Digital Content Creation and and total PCMark score. The Essentials test covers workloads like web browsing, video conferencing and app start-up times, while Productivity tests everyday office apps from spreadsheets to word processing. Finally, the Digital Content Creation test evaluates performance of a machine with respect to photo and video editing, as well as rendering and visualization.
Due to its relatively strong DCC and Productivity scores, the Threadripper Pro 5965WX managed a second place finish in our PCMark tests. This is particular noteworthy when you see how the Zen 2-based Threadripper and Threadripper Pro 3000-series processors finished here. Because only a few segments in PCMark 10 will utilize many cores, and the benchmark is heavily influenced by storage and memory performance, the Threadripper Pro 5965WX's more advanced architecture propels it significantly ahead of its predecessors.
Bapco Crossmark Testing
Crossmark is a new cross-platform benchmark from Bapco that's available for Windows, Android, iOS and MacOS. Like PCMark, Crossmark measures overall system performance and using real-world applications. It characterizes system responsiveness as well, based on the results of its Creativity and Productivity benchmarks.
Crossmark really likes Intel's Alder Lake architecture, as evidenced by the Intel 12th Gen Core processors' first and second place finishes here. AMD's Threadripper Pro 5965WX, however, slots in just behind them, ahead of all of the other processors we tested.
Browser & Web App Benchmarks: Jetstream 2 And Speedometer 2
Next up, we have some numbers from the Speedometer 2.0 and Jetstream 2 tests available at browserbench.org. The Speedometer Benchmark Suite uses a wide array of latency and throughput benchmarks to evaluate web application performance and Jetstream evaluates Javascript and WebAssembly performance; both tests take all of their individual results and tabulate them into a final score.
These benchmarks measures performance of an array of browser-based technologies used on modern, rich web applications. Scores in these benchmark are an indicator of the performance users would see when browsing the web and running advanced web apps. All of the systems were tested using the latest version of Microsoft's Edge browser, with default browser settings, on a clean, fully-updated install of Windows 11.
Surprisingly, the Threadripper Pro 5965WX also put up some top scores in Jetstream and Speedometer. Alder Lake still takes the pole position, but Zen 3 is no slouch. Of course, all of the processors we tested here are plenty fast for these browser-based workloads. It is nice to see the many-core Threadripper Pro 5965WX hanging with higher-clocked mainstream parts though.
These benchmarks measures performance of an array of browser-based technologies used on modern, rich web applications. Scores in these benchmark are an indicator of the performance users would see when browsing the web and running advanced web apps. All of the systems were tested using the latest version of Microsoft's Edge browser, with default browser settings, on a clean, fully-updated install of Windows 11.
7-Zip Data Decompression Tests
The 7-Zip benchmark measures compression and decompression performance using the LZMA method, which leverages the Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm to perform lossless data compression. The benchmark produces a final rating in GIPS (giga instructions per second).
Once again we see the Threadripper Pro 5965WX nearly catching the 3975WX, despite it's 8-core deficit in the 7-Zip decompression benchmark. But again single-thread performance is much better with the Threadripper Pro 5965WX versus its previous-gen counterpart. Versus the fastest mainstream desktop processors here, the Threadripper Pro 5965WX is simply in another class altogether -- it more than double the performance of the Core i9-12900K here.
Once again we see the Threadripper Pro 5965WX nearly catching the 3975WX, despite it's 8-core deficit in the 7-Zip decompression benchmark. But again single-thread performance is much better with the Threadripper Pro 5965WX versus its previous-gen counterpart. Versus the fastest mainstream desktop processors here, the Threadripper Pro 5965WX is simply in another class altogether -- it more than double the performance of the Core i9-12900K here.
