Zen 2 for Distributed Computing: Any interest?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

TennesseeTony

Elite Member
Aug 2, 2003
4,204
3,631
136
www.google.com
This would be my board of choice. (for single GPU) It only needs a BIOS update for the 3000 series. It is only 8 + 2 power delivery, rated for the 2700X at 105 watts. I don't think that you need the robust power supply, unless you intend to overclock and lose all that efficiency.

With your energy rates, it would NOT pay for itself any time soon, crash.

Sadly, I was really really hoping the 3950X would take the $550 slot, instead of being $750. That would have crushed Intel though*, and we don't want AMD getting complacent on us. :)

* I retract that statement, the masses will buy the cheapest thing they can find, and all this high end gear is of little concern to them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: crashtech

ao_ika_red

Golden Member
Aug 11, 2016
1,679
715
136
I bet 3900X and 3950X will be PrimeGrid's most used CPUs by the end of this year. I mean, look at the L3 cache figure. It used to be Xeon's exclusive.
Gigabyte's Aorus Extreme seems to handle 3950X very well, VRM-wise.
Another question, why do the press and us really concern with the VRM of X570 boards? We used to have 9590 monster and the fuss wasn't that big.

How low can you go on a motherboard for the 3950X, do you think?
I'll wait for ASRock's next iteration of their Gaming K4 lineup.
 
  • Like
Reactions: crashtech

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,521
2,111
146
It will be interesting to see just how performant and efficient Zen2 really is. My rates aren't quite as low anymore as they were. Certainly the 3950X would have to be considered when replacing my 2P E5-2689 rig, it would be same number of cores but vastly better efficiency and better IPC. Probably not until fall or even 2020, though.
 

ao_ika_red

Golden Member
Aug 11, 2016
1,679
715
136
1560386755077.png
And the fact that AMD promotes Ryzen 3000 with 4200+ ceiling indicates that even 3950X won't be severely starved as some people suggest.
 
  • Like
Reactions: crashtech

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,220
3,801
75
I bet 3900X and 3950X will be PrimeGrid's most used CPUs by the end of this year.
I doubt that. GWNums will have to be optimized for Zen 2, then an LLR will have to be compiled and tested.
 

ao_ika_red

Golden Member
Aug 11, 2016
1,679
715
136
I doubt that. GWNums will have to be optimized for Zen 2, then an LLR will have to be compiled and tested.
Well, there's still 3 months between 3950X availability and Black Friday so one can hope. Anyway, your doubt forces me to dig deeper. At first, 64MB seems very big to me, but according to AT's article, it's not that simple.
AMD manages its L3 by sharing a 16MB block per CCX, rather than enabling access to any L3 from any core.
It's the sum of 4*16MB cache on each CCX so the latency is definitely bigger than Intel's equivalent especially on PG's subprojects which need big dataset and it would be a noticable performance hit.
Well, I'm glad if I'm wrong, though.
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,323
4,904
136
I'm planning to be an early adopter of X570 + R9 3900X. Maybe not launch, but whenever the dust settles a bit and it's clear which boards are the best value for OCing. It will be water cooled with at least 360mm of radiator so I do want to see what the limit for all-core OC is...
 
  • Like
Reactions: biodoc

biodoc

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
6,257
2,238
136
I have a 2700X / Asus ROG Strix X470-F combo which drove me crazy until I got the vcore under control. I have a corsair CL water cooler with the smallest radiator. I just did a total system power draw test with Rosetta running on all cores. TDP of 2700X is 105 watts.

Bios setting #1:

AI overclock tuner set to D.O.C.P., which loads XMP SPD settings from RAM.
Everything else is optimized defaults.

Power draw: 210 watts o_O
processor frequency (all core): 4.056 GHz
temp: 74 C :oops:

Bios setting #2:

Same as #1 but with a negative (-) vcore offset of 0.131 volts

Power draw: 135 watts :)
processor frequency (all core): 3.848 GHz
temp: 48 C :)


If I had much better cooling, Bios setting #1 would probably give me a better overclock freq.

EDIT: I guess my point is my MB VRM should be just fine for any Zen 2 processor as long as I don't need PCIE 4 or anything but a mild overclock.
 
Last edited:

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
24,120
507
126
I've been tracking total power draw at the wall on one of my 2700X computers @3.9 GHz (1.21 vcore) at full load for various DC projects. If I could drop in a 3700X and reduce power consumption by 40%, that would be great. Computational capability could be better too (FP and IPC).

SRBase (AVX/AVX2): 172 watts
amicable numbers (AVX?): 165 watts
DHEP: 155 watts
Rosetta: 125 watts

Wow! Even your 2700X is using a shed load less power than my i7 4930k @4.1 GHz! Let alone a Zen 2! (And I've just seen the 2700X is an 8C CPU!:cool:). How does the performance of your cpu compare to mine?

My 4930k draws from the wall (4.1 GHz, 12 threads, vcore 1.13v, VCSSA 1.11v) :-
DHEP 241w
LHC 232w
SETI (v8.800) 269w!
Rosetta 248w

Electricity here is quite expensive (I believe), I'm charged 12.784p/kWh (and a 16.8p/day standing charge).
So for a 250w draw, my rig running 24/7 would cost £23.33/mth, £280/yr!

So are Intel's current generation (Coffee lake?), not even in the game anymore? e.g i7 8700, or 9700 rather (was trying to compare like with like with my old cpu).
 
Last edited:

TennesseeTony

Elite Member
Aug 2, 2003
4,204
3,631
136
www.google.com
I get the feeling WCCFTech is not the most reliable of 'news' sources, but they are reporting today that the next gen ThreadRipper will sport up to 128 threads, and will be available in Q4 or January at the latest. But they also think it will cost $3000. :(

They go on further, and claim to have the scoop on the Nvidia SUPER cards, to be available (or announced, rather), at the end of June. They assert that, in a nutshell, each level of current 2000 series card gets bumped up by 10. The 'old' 2070 becomes the 2060 SUPER, the old 2080 becomes the 2070 SUPER, and the 2080Ti becomes the 2080 SUPER. The 2080Ti and the 2070Ti get an all new chip.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: plonk420

biodoc

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
6,257
2,238
136
So are Intel's current generation (Coffee lake?), not even in the game anymore? e.g i7 8700, or 9700 rather (was trying to compare like with like with my old cpu).

PassMark bench test data are a reasonable first place to look for quick comparisons of different processors (old vs new). Intel haswell and later outperform Zen and Zen+ on AVX2 projects (PG llr) by quite a stretch (maybe 2-fold?). EDIT: Zen 2 might close the gap if llr is optimized for Zen 2.
 

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
24,120
507
126
With mine o/ced to 4.1 GHz, it's nearer to a 4960X, but interesting, although I wonder what their test is based on.
I get the feeling WCCFTech is not the most reliable of 'news' sources, but they are reporting today that the next gen ThreadRipper will sport up to 128 threads, and will be available in Q4 or January at the latest. But they also think it will cost $3000. :(

They go on further, and claim to have the scoop on the Nvidia SUPER cards, to be available (or announced, rather), at the end of June. They assert that, in a nutshell, each level of current 2000 series card gets bumped up by 10. The 'old' 2070 becomes the 2060 SUPER, the old 2080 becomes the 2070 SUPER, and the 2080Ti becomes the 2080 SUPER. The 2080Ti and the 2070Ti get an all new chip.
Err, don't you mean dropped by 10? ;)
 
Last edited:

lane42

Diamond Member
Sep 3, 2000
5,721
624
126
Thanks for the heads up Tony, I was going to go to microcenter this
weekend to pick up another 2080ti, so maybe ill wait. Hope the
price's are cheaper.
 

plonk420

Senior member
Feb 6, 2004
324
16
81

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,521
2,111
146
I have a 3700X inbound as well that I intend to just drop in place of the 1700 Pro that's in my office PC now. It should work as long the BIOS is updated first.
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,323
4,904
136
I've got a 3900X inbound. Will be pairing it with an X470 board as I find exactly 0 value in X570 features (for now).
 
  • Like
Reactions: biodoc and lane42

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
136
I've got a 3900X inbound. Will be pairing it with an X470 board as I find exactly 0 value in X570 features (for now).
Ditto. 3900x in x470 ASUS prime pro. 240 mm AIO and 4233 memory running@3733 right now with the 2700x.
 
  • Like
Reactions: biodoc and IEC

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,521
2,111
146
I really like the idea of a 65W TDP CPU for my office, which is why I bought the 1700 PRO off of ebay to replace a 1600. Problem is that now it experiences rare, random crashes, which is funny because the system I had it in before did fine. I think there is some subtle incompatibility with the mobo.