AMD Threadripper 2970WX and 2920X - the smaller offshoots of the big crunchers | Page 10

The same applies to the coolability of both new CPUs, which I wrote about the Ryzen TR 2990WX and 2950X. You could also equip both processors with a very potent air cooler as long as you are on the overclocking or Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO). However, a large blender workload already shows that at least the Ryzen TR 2970WX will then become almost uncoolable.

You manage to reach the 450 mark here quite gallantly in a completely everyday compatible scenario. Such amounts of waste heat are not even cooled with air or a rickety AiO compact water cooling system, so proper cooling solutions have to be produced.

It is important to note that the protection mechanisms in the CPU are very finely tuned even with The PBO enabled, and that both CPUs could easily be pushed to the limits of a weaker cooling solution without any damage. But in return you also have to forgo proper performance.

XFR2 and PBO are a great thing – as long as the CPU stays cool enough. Since the voltages are adjusted very well with the clock and by resorting to the telemetry data, PBO is actually preferable to any manual overclocking. I'm not a friend of hidden mechanisms, but PBO does exactly what you'd expect.

AMD has again prioritized Tdie for both CPUs. All measurements and data are based on Tdie, as the temperature of the package! What is output as a 27°C higher Tctl value for compatibility reasons is only used for fan control and other functions to remain backwards compatible! AMD sets the upper limit for Tdie to 68°C for both new thread ripper CPUs (which in turn results in 95°C Tctl as the control value). Tctl is therefore only a calculation, but not a measured value!

First, let's look at the temperatures of the smaller Ryzen TR 2920X. When idle, our cooler manages to keep the CPU below 25C, whereby I have to consider partial feedback of 19°C as a measurement error, as I have set the cooling to exactly 20°C. For the practical load with a Blender workload, there are only approx. 43°C on average and the CPU manages to clock all cores at 4.0 GHz.

If you activate PBO, it is 4.15 GHz on all cores and the average temperature of Tdie rises to just over 49°C. This would allow me to have a maximum delta of just under 30°C for my potent cooling solution.

Now let's look at the larger Ryzen TR 2970WX. In the normal Blender workload without PBO, all cores still reach 3.55 GHz at an average of 48°C. With PBO activated, the all-core clock is 4,025 GHz and the average temperature is above 62°C.

However, the CPU in the peaks reaches the 68°C for a short time and you are just below what can still be done at full speed without thermal brakes.