AMD’s 64-Core Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7985X Gets Tested on Boulder Gulch Platform
AMD is rumored to launch its next-generation Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs sometime in September this year, so it’s no surprise that the company’s partners are testing the company’s codenamed ‘Boulder Gulch’ platform and the 64-core Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7985X processor. Somehow, his Agisoft Metashape 1.8.5 benchmark performance numbers for the system in question were saved in his Puget public database, revealing details of his subsystem of his 8-channel memory in the upcoming CPU.
The Boulder Gulch Platform was discovered by @BenchLeaks It’s powered by a 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7985X CPU with 256 GB of DDR5-5600 memory using eight 32 GB memory modules and Nvidia’s RTX A5000 graphics card. In fact, the main thing that catches your eye is that AMD’s next-generation Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs will feature an 8-channel DDR5-5600 memory subsystem, as opposed to the 12-channel subsystem AMD uses for its EPYC Genoa-enabled products.
Truth be told, it’s still unclear which socket AMD’s next-generation Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs will be on, but we can speculate that they will indeed use the SP6-derived socket for EPYC ‘Siena’ processors, which will support eight DDR5 memory channels. Being SP6 also means that the highest core count for upcoming Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs will be 64 cores.
Eight DDR5-5600 memory channels provide 358.4 GB/s of bandwidth for AMD’s next-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors. This means 5.6 GB/s per core for a 64 core CPU. This is in stark contrast to AMD’s current generation Ryzen Threadripper 5000 series processors. The latter features an 8-channel DDR4-3200 memory subsystem with a peak memory bandwidth of 204.8 GB/s, or 3.2 GB/s per core for a 64-core CPU.
There are many reasons why AMD would prefer their next-generation Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors to feature an 8-channel memory subsystem instead of the 12-channel memory subsystem found on their latest EPYC ‘Genoa’ CPUs. First, it’s physically difficult to fit an SP5 (6096-pin) processor socket onto his E-ATX motherboard. Secondly, wiring 12 DDR5 memory channels is expensive and impossible to fit 12 memory slots on an E-ATX motherboard without reducing the number of available PCIe slots, expandability is a must-have feature for workstations. Third, implementing all 12 memory channels is prohibitively expensive.
| row 0 – cell 0 | Ryzen Threadripper 7985WX best results | Ryzen Threadripper 7985WX worst results | Zeon W7-3455 |
| CPU configuration | 64C/128T | 64C/128T | 24C/48T |
| Metashape Pro 1.8.5 | Rock Model Total Time | 79.7 | 98.6 | 137.6 |
| Metashape Pro 1.8.5 | School Map Total Time | 263.8 | 260.6 | 307.3 |
As for the benchmark results, they don’t really show the potential of the next generation Threadripper. Agisoft Metashape is a program that uses photogrammetric processing of images to generate 3D spatial data. This software uses GPU acceleration to speed things like computing depth maps, building dense point clouds, building meshes, and generating textures, so it may not be the best benchmark for CPUs in general. Furthermore, Metashape version 1.8.5 is a fairly new version, so the closest system I could find with Nvidia’s RTX A5000 graphics card was based on Intel’s 24-core Xeon w7-3455, so the actual performance numbers published are not indicative of AMD’s next workstation CPU potential.
For now, we’re only talking about the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 series processors for workstations here, not the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 series for high-end desktops, which may have fewer memory channels and other peculiarities. Also, please note that this information is preliminary obtained from unofficial sources and, while currently accurate, does not imply that the actual product will have similar specifications.
