Upgrade or Sidegrade ?

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey guys,

 

So in short as per my Sig Rig "Workstation/Gamer", I have a Threadripper 2990WX paired with an MSI Meg Creation, a great CPU for sure, but not something I find I absolutely max out enough to warrant staying on the TR pathway. I was taking a look at the GEN 3 Ryzen CPU, namely the R9 3950X and the ASrock X570 Aqua (Yes it is an expensive Mobo for sure, but that integrated WC block looks hella nice lol). So there is an inherent disadvantage with the TR 2nd Gen as we know, with respect to the not so stellar memory controller configuration when operating over 16 cores and the the clock speed (I sit at 4.1 all core OC) not being all that high, I mean it is technically fine if you are always using all 32 Cores, but if you aren't then why not get a lesser core CPU at a higher clock rate. The PCIE-4.0 will be nice, though not something I think I will particularly take advantage of a while but nice nonetheless. The addition of 10Gb LAN is also nice and I can see myself going that route soon anyway, WIFI 6 is also another nice addition (though we all know LAN is king)

 

So I am left pondering whether to ''Upgrade'' or not. It is a newer gen, higher clock rates (something I can OC higher as well). All it would be is a Mobo and CPU swap out, I do not even need to get another block for the CPU as I would plumb the WC lines directly into the Mobo. For me I think the R9 3950X is a good balance between cores and clock speeds at this point.

 

Not 100% sure yet. What do you guys think ?

 

Cheers,

E

[The Pook]

unless you need an upgrade or an upgrade would save you buckets of time rendering or something I wouldn't do anything.

 

buy a fancy new keyboard or some audio goodies if you just have an upgrade itch

 

10nm Tiger Lake is (supposedly) coming late this year and AMD won't be that far behind with Zen 3

[ENTERPRISE]

Well there is the argument of waiting on Zen 3. That being said the other reason for selling up the TR platform is to recoup as much value as possible. Hmmm deliberation:confused:​​​​​​

 

Perhaps you are right about scratching an itch but may still make sense to sell up and recoup and downgrade...I say the term downgrade lightly though as its more of a sidegrade in a way.

[KyadCK]

I personally moved from a 1950X and dual 1080tis to my 3900X and 5700XT and it was an up or sidegrade all around as you say; Latency, ST Perf, MT Perf, but the thing you will miss the most will be PCI-e lanes, no doubt about it, given you use two GPUs. The 3950X will be a better all-arounder than the 2990WX, that is for certain, and the 2990WX/X399 should still fetch a decent price since AMD left a gap in their lineup with TRX40.

 

I suppose since your storage is M.2/2.5 and not AIC that you would have fewer issues than I did with the move and what you have will fit, but... 10g onboard is a joke, because it is all CAT6. If you want to go that route, take a tip form your name and go Enterprise with it; SFP+/Fiber is superior to and cheaper* than trying to run 10g CAT. The Aqua has an extra X4 on the bottom you can use for networking and the storage you have now is not likely to bottleneck the Chipset link thanks to 4.0, so its fine.

 

All that said, Zen 3 is this year. If you can not wait, the Aqua should still be able to handle an upgrade, but knowing this, does a 3950X make sense? The 2990WX may still catch a good price, but the moment Zen 3 is out the 3950X is going to bomb just as hard as the 2700X and 1800X did in the used market*. The question is how long you want to wait.

 

I'd consider the Aqua and a cheaper chip, maybe even a used chip, to be replaced with Zen 3 later this year. Then you get to scratch the itch twice and may even break even financially if you find a good buyer.

 

*Opinions based on US Used market. I am aware that used market in other places can be dumb.

[schuck6566]

If there's no real NEED for all 32 cores on a regular basis and money isn't the issue,then I'd probably switch to the Ryzen 9 system.It even offers faster speed memory(but only dual channel) DDR4 -3200 vs 2933. Judging from the few on e-bay,U should see a nice profit even after the new purchase.

[ENTERPRISE]

Thanks for the feedback chaps. I bit the bullet and got a 3950X with the Asrock Aqua. I think its a worthwhile upgrade, not huge but being able to recoup money from the TR platform while the goings still good lol. As stated, the only thing I may miss is all those PCIE Lanes, but honestly my usage scenario does not require I have more than the average user.

 

Zen 3 is around the corner but if I decide to go that routE I would be surprised if the X570 does not support it, lets hope its not a repeat of X399 lol

 

I Will certainly be sure to get some pic action going on and do some benching.

 

 

 

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