AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9980X and 9970X Review

1. Introducing AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9980X and 9970X2. The Test Systems3. Testing and Performance 4. Closing Thoughts5. View All Pages

Computex 2025 was light on major launches from AMD, Intel and Nvidia so we welcomed news about AMD Threadripper 9000 which uses their latest Zen 5 architecture to deliver heaps of grunt. Today we are reviewing the 32-core Threadripper 9970X and the 64-core Threadripper 9980X so hang on to your power bill, this review is going to get juicy…

Time stamps

00:00 Start
01:07 Threadripper History Lesson
05:14 Threadripper 9000 Platform Details
06:37 Threadripper 9000 High End Desktop
09:00 Gigabyte motherboards & 3D V-Cache info
12:19 A lot of cores in action
16:13 Leo shares some info
19:38 Cinebench R23 Single Core
20:09 Cinebench R23 Multi Core Points Per Watt
21:00 Blender: Classroom Render
22:12 Handbrake Conversion (h264)
22:52 Handbrake Conversion (h265)
23:42 7-Zip Decompressing Benchmark
24:17 7-Zip Compressing Benchmark
24:40 AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth
25:29 Adobe Premiere Test
26:16 Gaming benchmarks (well we had to)
28:25 What hardware did we use?
29:58 Closing thoughts

In appearance the new Zen 5 Threadrippers look exactly the same as previous models and that is for very good reason as AMD has carried over the CPU socket and cooler mounting points.

When you dig into the specifications you might wonder exactly what has changed from Threadripper 7000 on Zen 4 technology to these Zen 5 Threadripper 9000 parts. The answer on the face of it is ‘not much' apart from support for slightly faster memory and the expectation of improved IPC.

Test systems

The test system part of our reviews is usually brief but in this instance it is extensive, as we explain in our video. We have tested a large selection of CPUs at different times and have recently re-tested the most relevant CPUs for this review. The good news is that you can glean the most important information from our test charts where we list clock speeds and power draw.

AMD Threadripper 9980X, 9970X and 7970X
Motherboard: Gigabyte TRX50 Aero D
Memory: 128GB G.Skill T5 Neo RDIMM DDR5-6400 in Quad Channel
CPU Cooler: SilverStone XE360-TR5
SSD: Crucial T700 PCIe 5.0
Power supply: Seasonic Vertex GX-1200 Gold

Club 386 review of Threadripper 7980X
Motherboard: Asus Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WiFi
Memory: 128GB G.Skill Zeta R5 DDR5-6400 in Quad Channel
CPU Cooler: MSI MEG CoreLiquid S360

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
Motherboard: MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
Memory: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 in Dual Channel
CPU Cooler: MSI MEG CoreLiquid S360
SSD: Crucial T700 PCIe 5.0
Power supply: Seasonic Vertex GX-1200 Gold

Intel Xeon W9-3495X and W9-3475X
Motherboard: ASRock W790 WS
Memory: 64GB Kingston Fury Renegade Pro DDR5-6000 in Quad Channel
CPU Cooler: EKWB Custom Loop
SSD: PNY XLR8 Gaming
Power supply: Seasonic Vertex GX-1200 Gold

AMD Threadripper Pro 5965WX, 5975WX and 5995WX
Motherboard: Asus Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE WiFi
Memory: 256GB Kingston Fury Renegade RGB DDR4-3200 in Eight Channel
CPU Cooler: IceGiant ProSiphon Elite

AMD Threadripper 3990X
Motherboard: Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme
Memory: 256GB Kingston Fury Renegade RGB DDR4-3200 in Quad Channel
CPU Cooler: SilverStone XE360-TR5
SSD: Crucial T700 PCIe 5.0
Power supply: Seasonic Vertex GX-1200 Gold

AMD Threadripper 2970 WX and 1950X
Motherboard: Asus ROG Zenith Extreme
Memory: 32GB G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3600 in Quad Channel
CPU Cooler: Fractal Design Celsius S36
SSD: WD Black SN850 PCIe 4.0
Power Supply: Seasonic Focus 1000W Gold

Testing and Performance

Cinebench R23 Multi Core

In Cinebench R23 Multi Core and right at the top of the chart we see that Zen 5 9980X beats the Zen 4 7980X by a handy margin and demonstrates the benefits of Zen 5 technology. Further down the chart it is a similar story for 9970X vs. 7970X.

Cinebench R23 Single Core

There is a surprise in Cinebench R23 Single Core with Intel desktop CPUs leaping to the top of the chart, but after that we see a sequence of Zen 5, Zen 4, Zen 3, Zen 2, Zen+ and finally the original Zen. The new Threadrippers do well in this test.

Cinebench R23 Multi Core per Watt

We take the Cinebench R23 Multi Core score and divide by CPU power draw to get a measure of efficiency. From this we see the 64-core Threadrippers use the best silicon and the latest technology performs best. The upshot is that 64-core Zen 5 Threadripper 9980X tops the chart, exactly as we would expect.

Blender Classroom Render

In Blender the Classroom Render test we once again see the Threadripper 9980X top the chart with the 9970X in third place. These new Threadrippers perform impressively well.

Handbrake H.264 Conversion

Handbrake only scales so far when it is faced with a mighty 64-core CPU and the result is that the fast 32-core 9970X can beat the slightly slower 64-core 9980X. This means there is nothing to separate the CPUs at the very top of the chart.

Handbrake H.265 Conversion

Handbrake H.265 Conversion favours high clock speed over high core count and we see the Ryzen 9 beating Threadripper despite its much lower cost and power draw.

AMD Threadripper 9000 is taking a victory lap to drive home its dominance over Intel and to prove the HEDT market belongs entirely to AMD. You might look at a range of Threadripper prices that start around £1,350 and then head up to £2,250 and arrive at £4,500 and say to yourself, ‘woot, that's too strong for my blood' and AMD would reply, ‘no problem, Ryzen 9 can be bought for less than £400'.

On the other hand, if you decide you need the biggest and the best (and can live with a CPU power draw of 350W) you need to select your CPU carefully. Clearly these Threadrippers make little sense for gamers but they also bring marginal benefit if you are working with Adobe Premiere or Handbrake. Our advice is to carefully consider the software you use and to ponder the trade-off between core count and clock speed. We can see the use case for the 32-core 9970X but struggle to see who might benefit from the 64-core 9980X.

You can buy Threadripper 9980X for £4,480 inc VAT, while Threadripper 9970X will cost £2,240 inc VAT.

AMD Threadripper 9980X

Pros

• Excellent performance and a useful improvement over Zen 4 7980X.
• Easy to cool at 80 degrees C despite 350W power draw.
• Good motherboard and driver support.

Cons:

• High system cost.
• Check your software will benefit from anything like 64 cores.
• Clock speed is held back by the massive core count.

AMD Threadripper 9970X

Pros:

• Impressive performance and useful levels of boost in short workloads.
• Faster memory delivers a small benefit when the clocks speeds are high.
• The huge CPU is easy to cool despite the high power draw.

Cons:

• The 9970X is significantly cheaper than 9980X but you still need a high end motherboard, memory and GPU.
• High power draw makes air con a necessity.

KitGuru says: Zen 5 Threadripper 9000 has landed and it delivers a useful increase in IPC and memory speed.

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