Best Value Epyc Processor for Blender Workstation?

Hardware Build a PC
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Hi Friends,

I’m looking to build a workstation for general use, graphics/video work, and Blender modeling, animation and rendering. I do a lot of volumetrics stuff in Cycles, so rendering favors the CPU over GPU in that case. The OS will be Linux.

Assuming a CPU (just the processor) budget of $1k-$2k, what’s the best choice for this type of work?

It should be compatible with an AsRock ROMED8-2T:


(although I can still return it and get another mobo if there’s a better choice).

I don’t know enough about the Epyc line and any gotcha’s there might be. ie. if any Epyc will fit or if there are subtypes. There’s also the “P” suffix in some models that might cause issues. What’s the best CPU for this workflow and budget?

I am also looking for suggestions on a graphics card, not sure if gaming or workstation is a better choice for Blender. I usually like to drive up to three screens, or one large one. Also needs to play nice on Linux and with Blender. Beyond that, I’m open to suggestions. I don’t want to waste money, but if there’s performance value (Blender, video editing) in something better I’m open to it.

So some of the options are:

7302P 16 core 3.0Ghz ($1,156)
7402P 24 core 2.8Ghz ($1,407)
7352 24 core 2.3Ghz ($1,580)
7551 32 core 2.0Ghz ($1,663)

It looks like as you go up in price, cores increase and clock drops. Is it safe to assume that the higher priced chips will always be faster on loads that can use all cores (ie rendering)? Are there any cases where a lower priced chip is actually a better value?

Thanks!

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The Phoronix blender benchmarks for Blender suggest that the 7402 gives the best performance for your budget. The 7402P will have the same peformance - it is the cheaper single CPU only variant. That is the one you will want for the motherboard you have chosen.

If you do not need more than 256GB RAM, you might want to consider a Threadripper based system. For example, the equivalent 24-core CPU (3960x) is $200 cheaper and clocks higher. And your budget of $2k for the CPU means you could get the 3970x with 32 cores. But you will need a different motherboard for this.

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with threadripper pro you get both clockspeed and cores AND the memory channels of Epyc systems but with the speed of threadripper

that being said I’m having a hard time finding info despite it launching 3 months ago
https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-threadripper-pro-3995wx

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As far as I know TR Pro is still exclusive to the Lenovo Workstations it launched with. I.e. they are not yet available for DIY systems.

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they only have 2 models on their site
but this toms hardware article states you can order them from BLT, you can’t use a vpn to view the site


http://www.shopblt.com/search/order_id=251555829&s_max=25&t_all=1&s_all=thinkstation+P620&search=Search

the 3995wx is the more expensive tier but its the 64 core one, the 32 core 3975wx would probably be more in line with the budget

they are preordered as in you order it and then they are made as ordered and will take about half a month to be shipped out

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I hadn’t realised that the Threadripper Pro systems were available yet. Those benchmarks are very interesting - the 3995WX is more than 10% faster than the higher clocked 3990X. Clearly the extra memory bandwidth counts for something.

Back to the question in hand - if you have the budget and you don’t have your heart set on building your own workstation, the Lenovo systems look like a good choice.

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I ended up with another ROMED board after newegg sent a replacement for a bad one instead of issuing a refund. (I ordered the replacement as a new order to not have to wait on my server build). So I have a second that I could send back (immediately), or build a workstation with.

So the labeling on the Epycs:

When the description says, “EPYC Rome 2nd Gen 7000 Series”, that’s the same as a 7002 series? ie. the last digit is the gen? So a 7003 is 7000 series, third gen?

And the P designates single vs dual CPU compatibility, with the P being the one for single CPU systems.

For the sake of comparison, let me ask a hypothetical question. For the same money as a ROMED ($641) and Epyc 7402P ($1,407) which is about $2,000, how would that compare to two Ryzen 3950x systems ($350 mobo x2, $700 CPU x2). (Ignoring the cost of a second PSU, graphics card, etc.)

I have a Ryzen 3950x system and am happy with it for the most part, but the motherboards don’t have enough PCI slots, and they are stupidly placed, so you can really only get a (mandatory) graphics card and maybe something small like a NIC card and that’s it. Where the ROMED has 7 PCIe 16x slots.

So I’m thinking with enough slots, I could run KVM on the Epyc system and have two guests, each with a passed-through GPU and basically have two Ryzen-9-eqivelent workstations that share a case and PSU, plus have the advantage of being able to have more and bigger cards, like an audio interface card if I want to have six outputs for mixing in surround, etc.

I don’t need more than 256GB right now. I was thinking Epyc because I wanted more PCIe slots on the board, and I already had the board.

I’d rather build myself. I would need to learn more about Epyc vs Threadripper.

Update:
Looks like the TR is 64 PCIe lanes vs 24 for Ryzen and 128 for Epyc.

The motherboards look more gammer-ey on the Threadripper side. They have things like Wifi (which I remove), and don’t have the 10Gbe ports ($100 for a card, plus you loose a slot) and no onboard graphics (which is useful if you do KVM pass-through of a card to a guest machine and want something basic for the host).

On the other hand, it can run a 2990WX (32 core, 3.0Ghz) for $1800, vs 32 core 2.0Ghz on the Epyc 7551 ($1663) vs 32 core 2.9Ghz Epyc 7542 ($3,975).

So is the TR 2990WX actually the same performance wise as an Epyc 7542? They have the same specs (clock and cores) but the Epyc is more than twice the price.

Not really sure what the “CPU Mark” numbers mean, but:

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