Ryzen Decision to Make

[Kawzman]

BLUF: I’m liking the Ryzen 7 3700X or 9 3900X from the initial bench numbers being posted out there; similar to better performance than the Intel Core i9-9900K. Wouldn’t mind having the 3900X, but I’m thinking it'll be overkill for my needs though. I'm not planning to OC.

I’m well overdue for another build, see sig below; yikes! That’s my original CPU from my last build in 2008. I’m completing a total rebuild and I want to put together a kick-*** rig to blaze through my needs. This rig will have a variety of purposes, both work and play. I’m doing lots of research but starting with the CPU and going from there.

For Work. It’s a lot of PPT, multitasking Chrome to 5-15 tabs, frequent downloading and unzipping large files, and running some beastly programs. The most resource intensive program hits CPU and RAM hard while flexing the GPU. Recommended system requirements are (their wording, not mine) multithreaded 3.0 GHz Pentium i7 main processor or equivalent, 32GB of memory, modern 3D gaming NVIDIA graphics card (1 GB of RAM or greater) and SSD.

For Home chores/play. I don’t have a lot of time for gaming, so it’ll be something I do on the side as time permits but I want this rig to be a solid performer when I do. I occasionally use GIMP for pic editing and designing web graphics. I’m using Handbrake to digitize my DVDs to x265 MP4 and I have lots of discs left to convert. I frequently play/stream HD movies. Multitask Chrome to 5-15 tabs.

Appreciate wisdom and guidance from CPUs bigger than mine! Thanks for the feedback!

 

[bassnut]

If you want to talk multi task ….. 3900X hands down. I can rip / convert BLU-RAY (@ 300+FPS) and not quite use 100% of my cores that's with Multy process turned on. While still running Fireworks (Image editing) and web browser in the background …. that will net me about 92 to 95% utilization of all 12 cores and 24 threads. This thing is a beast.

 

[Zerileous]

If you're application (please specify btw, details are good) can use the cores, the 3900x is the way to go.

 

[mackerel]

For general tasks you're not going to notice a difference between the CPUs. The question is more will you get value from 12 cores over 8 in the more limited scenarios that could effectively use it. The only software mentioned that might benefit directly is Handbrake, although I'm not really familiar with its operation.

If the 3900X is in budget, go for it, but I certainly wouldn't be unhappy to have the 3700X.

 

[trents]

If on a budget, you would need to look at the CPU and the RAM together as a cost unit since Ryzen benefits so well from fast RAM and is choked by slow RAM.

 

[bmwbaxter]

The R9 3900X also has double the L3 cache of the R7 3700X. Just wanted to let you know there is more than just a core count difference. Not sure if any of the work you do would take advantage of it or not.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

BLUF:

I’m well overdue for another build, see sig below; yikes!

Buy within your budget. Any Ryzen chip is going to be a very very very large performance increase. Gaming? Spend the moneys on the video card.

 

[DaveB]

Nothing you have said shows any need for the 12C/24T 3900X. So spend the $170 you save by getting the 8C/16T 3700X on an better GPU, SSD or RAM.

 

[EarthDog]

Dude has a socket 775 cpu.... I'd go 3900x if hes going to keep the machine for 10 years...

Stick with 3600 ram.. it's the performance sweetspot... though the difference between 3200 amd 3600 is like 1-2%.

 

[Kawzman]

If you want to talk multi task ….. 3900X hands down. I can rip / convert BLU-RAY (@ 300+FPS) and not quite use 100% of my cores that's with Multy process turned on. While still running Fireworks (Image editing) and web browser in the background …. that will net me about 92 to 95% utilization of all 12 cores and 24 threads. This thing is a beast.

bassnut, yeah it looks like a great CPU. Both the 3900X and 3700X kick *** in multitasking/multithreading. Scores I've read out there still show Intel Core i9-9900K still besting them in singlethreaded performance. Listed TDP for the 3900X is 105W, under the load you listed, how are the temps? Did you ever use the included Wraith Prism RGB? I'm not looking to OC and will run on air as long as the noise isn't an issue. From what I've read out there temps are reasonable with the Prism.

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If you're application (please specify btw, details are good) can use the cores, the 3900x is the way to go.

Zerileous, thanks for the response!

The beastly work app is called Interactive Scenario Builder. It scans your system at launch detecting hardware and network. During calculations it'll use all CPUs except one so that it's free for other apps; using an Intel Core i7-6820HK on another workstation it'll frequently/steadily max out all used cores to 100-118% with turbo. RAM usage depends on the complexity of the calculations but I'm thinking 32GB for this build as I've hit 28GB running a single instance of Builder. Lots of read/writes take place as well, so a fast SSD is in order, haven't looked into that yet but I might look to take advantage of PCIe 4. The reason they specify "modern 3D gaming NVIDIA graphics card" is because certain calculation types require CUDA and MPI libraries but I'm not going to be working with those calculations. The GPU really gets leveraged during the rendering of all the calculated data on the map which can be taxing at times. I'm open to either NVIDIA or AMD but haven't researched GPUs yet.

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For general tasks you're not going to notice a difference between the CPUs. The question is more will you get value from 12 cores over 8 in the more limited scenarios that could effectively use it. The only software mentioned that might benefit directly is Handbrake, although I'm not really familiar with its operation.

If the 3900X is in budget, go for it, but I certainly wouldn't be unhappy to have the 3700X.

mackerel, the budget can handle either. The extra cores will help the app I detailed in my response to Zerileous. Thanks!

 

[Kawzman]

Dude has a socket 775 cpu.... I'd go 3900x if hes going to keep the machine for 10 years...

Stick with 3600 ram.. it's the performance sweetspot... though the difference between 3200 amd 3600 is like 1-2%.

LOL, come on EarthDog don't rub it in, I know. With minimal upgrades, this rig has been good to me though. Time and money just haven’t been on my side for a while. Let's just say that the Navy doesn't pay that well but now that I'm finally a civilian, much different story. Never again will my unit of measure for time between upgrades be in decades. Yeah, I've seen multiple sources citing 3600 for RAM.

 

[bassnut]

I never tried the stock cooler I am on a big custom loop … temps around 60*C @4300 …. might be a bit lower.

 

[bignazpwns]

My 3900x can warm up a xr7 240 pretty good.

 

[Woomack]

I'm on the phase of how small cooler I can install and my ryzens won't overheat ... so far I'm losing ... everything below good large tower cooler seems like a mistake

 

[trents]

I'm on the phase of how small cooler I can install and my ryzens won't overheat ... so far I'm losing ... everything below good large tower cooler seems like a mistake

It is.

 

[pgdeaner]

I thought this was a "go big or go home" sort of forum. This is what you need... https://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/1378 or maybe..... http://www.cryorig.com/af41.php.

 

[Bustos]

http://www.cryorig.com/af41.php

I dont see AM4 support though.

 

[bignazpwns]

Problem for coolers is Ryzen will boost its self single core to the moon. I seen 65w Ryzens pull 64w for all cores. The boost single core and still pull 60+w. There boost game is strong. But then you get some crazy single core temps lol.




And no. If you go air we must go back in time to 2007 and pick up a Scythe prototype.

Now you need fans. A few of these should do the trick.

https://www.frozencpu.com/products/...1212UHE-F00_No_RPM.html?tl=g36c435s1109#blank

Now we dont need mounting. we need hold downs. This should be able to hold the fans down to the heatsink and the heatsink down to the mobo tray. Remember use safety wire because if the bolts become lose you basically have a uncontrolled quadcoptor taking off at full power into your ceiling.

Oh yeah. Get these to. Your going to need them.

3M Peltor Optime 105



https://www.goodvibesracing.com/moreinfo.php

 

[Woomack]

Problem is with Ryzen architecture, not really with coolers. I was talking with Noctua about it in the last days. The difference between some smaller and top air cooling is not so big. It's because of too much heat condensed on a small surface. The same issue is with Intel chips like 9900K. In the same time there is a BS specification saying that Ryzens are 65-105W TDP or that 9900K is 95W TDP. In real 150W TDP coolers can't keep them below 90C.
As an effect of Ryzen architecture, max temps on 6 cores are about the same as on 8, and 12 cores are also not so far away. Also 8/12 cores can work at a lower voltage for the same clock as 6 what clearly shows core binning.
I have more coolers for tests but I just want to find the smallest solution which I can close in a small ITX box. So far it's Noctua D9L with 2 fans. I have 2 Ryzen rigs, one is more like 24/7 ITX and the other one is ATX for tests/reviews.

Btw Bustos, this Cryorig cooler looks ridiculous ... sadly I lost contact with Cryorig as the had some problems and cancelled all PR contracts some months ago. On the other hand they had nothing interesting besides maybe refreshed C7 cooler, for 2 years+ (and I reviewed all their products till 2019).
One example to what I said earlier, Cryorig C1 is 140W TDP cooler and it can't handle R5 3600 at stock. Simply it hits 95C and throttle down to 3.2GHz at a lower voltage, the same as stock AMD cooler.

 

[Zerileous]

Agreed TDP is bunk at this point.

It sounds like you could use the 3900x, so you might as well, also sounds like a good case for 32GB. Regarding PCIe gen 4, are the file sizes large? My understanding is not really thorough for this, but I believe the higher bandwidth only benefits large file sizes. A bunch of small read/writes ends up being limited by other factors (CPU, controller, etc) before saturating even the SATA bandwidth.