AMD’s unannounced 96-core monster just crushed Intel’s best CPU to claim world record
Test results of the soon-to-be-released Ryzen ThreadRipper PRO 7995WX “Zen 4” have appeared on the popular Geekbench benchmark and it turns out to be a staggeringly fast processor that should be able to beat just about anything (except maybe AMD’s own 128-core EPYC server CPU) and will find its place in the best workstation PCs when launched.
The Geekbench 5 score – with the Linux version – for single-core was 2095, while it reached a whopping 81,408 for multicore; not a linear progression, but still good enough to surpass the previous single-core champ, an overclocked Asus system that reached 72,786 in May 2023 with a 56-core Xeon w9-3495X CPU.
Other details remain sparse, but assuming the details are indeed correct, the processor comes with 96 cores, 192 threads, 96MB of L2 cache and 384MB of L3 cache, while the system itself bumps up half a terabyte of memory. The only questionable data is the fact that the base frequency is recorded as 7.97 GHz, which is probably not true.
A particularly interesting point is the fact that the platform used is an HP Z6 G5 workstation, the flagship of HP’s workstation range and an Intel Xeon-only stable so far. HP is the only major workstation vendor that hasn’t released a Ryzen ThreadRipper Pro component, and the fact that it has will send a strong signal to professionals.
Other smaller vendors such as Puget Systems or Velocity Micro have already tested and evaluated these processors for software validation and system refinements.
Is it ominous for Intel?
AMD seems to be able to launch new parts at will, and the 7995WX, part of the Storm Peak family, is likely to cement the company’s performance dominance at the top, much to Intel’s chagrin. Launched earlier this year, the Intel Xeon “Sapphire-Rapids” W9-3495X, the company’s fastest workstation processor, has just 56 cores, 40 fewer than the 7995WX.
Expect AMD to show a tour de force on a number of benchmarks, including major ones like Cinebench R23 (where Intel showed off LN2 overclocking) and computationally intensive. Toms hardware reports that the drive will have a TDP of 350W, which is higher than the previous generation ThreadRipper Pro 5995WX and roughly in line with the 360W delivered by the EPYC 9654, AMD’s other 96-core CPU.
The latter has a base clock of 2.4 GHz, an all-core boost clock of 3.55 GHz and a max boost clock of 3.7 GHz; expect the 7995WX to have higher clock speeds across the range.
Ironically, perhaps the biggest competition for the Ryzen ThreadRipper Pro range comes from the entry level of the oft-refreshed Ryzen processors and from the top end, from the single/dual socket EPYC with the 9754 offering up to 256 cores.