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AMD Ryzen 9 7900X / Ryzen 9 7950X Benchmarks Show Impressive Linux Performance

159 points| nicolaslem | 3 years ago |phoronix.com

118 comments

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[+] cesarb|3 years ago|reply
I recall that back in the 90s, besides higher clock speeds, one of the greatest reasons for excitement about a new CPU was instruction set extensions (MMX, 3DNow, etc), which could give outsized performance gains when software was updated to work with them. This latest release from AMD has similar cause for excitement: AVX-512 is more than just larger vectors, it also doubles the number of registers, adds per-lane mask registers, and other enhancements; unlike with Intel processors, there should be no worry of slowing down the clock for the whole processor when using these instructions with larger vectors, and unlike with Intel, we can reasonably expect that every AMD processor from now on will always have these instructions enabled.
[+] Scene_Cast2|3 years ago|reply
I'm personally curious about AVX512 support in pyTorch and numpy. Numpy depends on BLAS libraries for performance, and I don't know how much dev resources are behind openBLAS (i.e. how soon I can expect performance increases), especially given that AMD is a much smaller company and doesn't spend as much as Intel on software.
[+] devwastaken|3 years ago|reply
Cache sizes are also significant in these gens. The 5800x3D outperforms the 12900KS in many games. They just stuck a bunch of cache onto the 5800.
[+] fomine3|3 years ago|reply
> unlike with Intel processors, there should be no worry of slowing down the clock for the whole processor when using these instructions with larger vectors

because they don't implement "true" 512bit registers for AVX-512. This is basically to support instruction set rather than SIMD performance boost.

[+] Salgat|3 years ago|reply
Meanwhile Intel is disabling AVX on their CPUs that use efficiency cores.
[+] alkonaut|3 years ago|reply
It’s annoying when hardware sites compare new CPUs to a big list of older or less capable ones, but precisely all of them are basically so new that if you have one of them you probably aren’t upgrading now. If you have Ryzen 2/3/4 or 9/10th gen Intel you have to guess what kind of performance leap you’d get with this.
[+] Arrath|3 years ago|reply
Yeah I'm in this boat with a 9th gen Intel but I can approximate based off the 10th gens listed in the reviews.
[+] AshamedCaptain|3 years ago|reply
I really wish that someone would review CPUs at similar power levels, rather than TDP when there is a big difference between the two models.

Also, there is no idle power comparison, something that may also differ significantly and affect Linux.

[+] devwastaken|3 years ago|reply
What would be the purpose? If you want to purposefully limit power you're forcing the chip to underperform. You can just get the lower cost chip that does run at that power. For example the 5600x being 76W versus the higher chips.
[+] fomine3|3 years ago|reply
This is my request for CPU review. It's good way to know core efficiency. TDP or turbo watts is now artificially set very high by manufacturer but not efficient. Maybe reviewers are too busy to take many benchmarks before embargo.
[+] nwmcsween|3 years ago|reply
I just want a CPU freq to power chart, so I know how Intel/AMD are pushing TDP and at what freq things start getting exponential. It would be interesting to see what is considered "normal".
[+] arianvanp|3 years ago|reply
But a 7950x is just a 7900x (They have identical silicon) that is just "lucky" enough to survive more power draw. If you make the TDP the same you just end up with the same CPU
[+] dschuetz|3 years ago|reply
Does the 7000 series have Pluton? Can't find specifics anywhere.
[+] anonym29|3 years ago|reply
Zen 4 (Raphael) desktop CPUs will have it. Right now, Zen 3 (Chagall) and Zen 4 Threadripper (Storm Peak) don't currently have plans for integrating it, but that may be subject to change. I cannot provide proof, but I sure as hell am never buying Zen 4 or later AMD Desktop CPUs ever again for a system that will be connected to the internet.
[+] nicolaslem|3 years ago|reply
I don't know but for what it's worth my main machine is a 6000 series laptop (with Pluton) running Linux and I did not have any compatibility issues. Sure, it sucks to have some Microsoft designed hardware in my CPU but at least it not causing issues (for now).
[+] Tepix|3 years ago|reply
Can't wait for the 65W, 45W and 35W Ryzen 7000 CPUs/APUs. These 100+W CPUs are a step backwards.
[+] didgetmaster|3 years ago|reply
Does anyone know how to apply to be a 'reviewer' for pre-released CPUs from AMD or Intel? I am building a new kind of data management platform that is highly threaded so it can do DB queries or other data manipulation functions in parallel. I will benchmark it against other common systems like Postgres (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVICKCkWMZE) but I only do that when I upgrade my own personal desktop or laptop. I would love to get my hands on loaner hardware to run benchmarks and publish them.
[+] pella|3 years ago|reply
You should add your benchmark to the https://openbenchmarking.org/

And then there is a greater chance that phoronix will include it in its tests; or others will run it and publish the results.

[+] est|3 years ago|reply
Still waiting for the rumored 6700G with 12 RDNA2 CUs.
[+] hassanahmad|3 years ago|reply
95c and that power draw are a skip 7000 series for me. I think a used 5950x will be the sweet spot soon.
[+] bryanlarsen|3 years ago|reply
According to other reviews, the 7000 series destroys the competition (both Intel and 5000 series) at 65W.

Also, 7000 series is designed for 95C. It'll run forever at 95C, and will always run at 95C if it has the workload and power budget. IOW, giving it more cooling will cause it to run faster rather than making it cooler.

On other chips 95C might indicate it's on the edge of failure, but AMD asserts that 95C won't shorten the 7000's life.

[+] bearjaws|3 years ago|reply
Ryzen scales up exponentially in power draw as you try to hit peak frequency numbers.

You can run it at 95% speed and usually something like 70% voltage.

My 3900x can do around 4.5ghz at 1.4v or 4.3ghz at 1.05v all core. I imagine Zen 4 will be exactly the same. Don't have the power draw off the top of my head, but that is essentially 125w for 4.5ghz and 90w for 4.3ghz.

[+] Salgat|3 years ago|reply
Just because it lets you run that hot doesn't mean you're required to. Just use the eco mode and enjoy still having high performance at lower power.
[+] mhh__|3 years ago|reply
It's not going to get any better, you can thermal throttle it if needs be.
[+] nwmcsween|3 years ago|reply
Please give me a Frequency/Power chart so I can tell what if there is any wackiness WRT TDP.
[+] mhh__|3 years ago|reply
Not as much better than alder lake than I was expecting
[+] INTPenis|3 years ago|reply
I'm a life long Linux user, it's not even a thing for me it's just what I've used since my teens. But phoronix saying something has good benchmarks in Linux means absolutely squat to me. That site _always_ has good performance metrics on Linux.

I do some gaming and I can tell you their posts never reflect my reality.

[+] m463|3 years ago|reply
Isn't this so you as a linux user can decide if purchasing a specific cpu will make a difference?
[+] djha-skin|3 years ago|reply
Fun seeing performance reviews of new chips coming out. It's a sign to me that the market is recovering after the pandemic. Imagine someone promoting a chip during the pandemic, when you couldn't get them for love or money.

Still, I would have liked to see a graph or other pretty chart showing the results of the benchmark off better so that I could internalize them easier.

[+] dis-sys|3 years ago|reply
based on what I heard from insiders, two batches of reviews for AMD's new chips, those released now are the ones from sites traditionally happy to provide overwhelmingly positive reviews, those going to be released tomorrow are the ones which usually provide more balanced reviews.

good PR tricks - they just sign NDA agreements with different reviewers with slightly different embargo lift dates.

[+] pedrocr|3 years ago|reply
The Anandtech review is also out. I had them as pretty balanced at least in the past.
[+] saiya-jin|3 years ago|reply
Everybody is doing dirty PR tricks these days, cash flow is above morals for a long time. People overall don't mind so don't expect change for the better.

Anyway, enough ranting, nobody sane decides on these 0day benchmarks but waits at least few weeks for overall conclusions, quirks, not so common issues etc. And even better is to wait few months for more stable motherboards and drivers, better availability of compatible RAM etc.

[+] Teifion|3 years ago|reply
Can you suggest some of these less positive reviewers please? I like to have a broad range of reviews before deciding and all the ones I normally look at came out today (though were not overwhelmingly positive in every area).
[+] Tepix|3 years ago|reply
Heise Online has released their review (alas, behind a paywall) and it starts very positive. I'm pretty sure they are the most trusted reviewers in the german language.