Rendernode build advice

[dean_dmoo]

Hi,

We need to update our old rendernodes and I was planning on ordering a couple of 3970x threadrippers. However, to my surprise, they seem to be really hard to get now and then you have to go the threadripper PRO route which seems excessively expensive at the moment. So another option looks like the ryzen 7950x, decent pricevalue so we could get 3 instead. One key aspect is 128GB.

Is it possible to get some advice on recommended MB, RAM and cooling? I saw some info in other threads from awhile ago (6months) so not sure if there are better options now.

We tend to render about 3 nights a week, mostly stills.

Hopefully you guys have some tips, thanks!

Muhammed_Hamed

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Hey dean_dmoo

The 7950X works really well for me, I have been using for the past 2 months with 128 GB of VRAM and Asus X670 ProArt Motherboard
The only issue is getting 128 GB of DDR5 to run stable, XMP is not gonna work out of box, you will need to drop the memory frequency to 4800 or 4400

I have a 3970X as well, running with 3x 4090s + 3090ti. It is very close in performance to the 7950X, maybe like 5% faster in rendering. But the 7950X is a lot faster on single-threaded tasks in Max, it is a day and night difference!

And yeah the 3970X is rare at the moment, it doesn't get mass produced anymore. This makes the pricing higher than MSRP
For cooling of the 7950X I'm using Nocuta NH-D15, it should work well. Keep in mind this CPU will run at 95 degrees at full load without thermal throttling, this is ok in AMD words.

Another difference is how the motherboards for the 7950X are a lot cheaper than Threadripper boards, It makes the Ryzen a better value

Best,
Muhammed

[dean_dmoo]

Hey dean_dmoo

The 7950X works really well for me, I have been using for the past 2 months with 128 GB of VRAM and Asus X670 ProArt Motherboard
The only issue is getting 128 GB of DDR5 to run stable, XMP is not gonna work out of box, you will need to drop the memory frequency to 4800 or 4400

I have a 3970X as well, running with 3x 4090s + 3090ti. It is very close in performance to the 7950X, maybe like 5% faster in rendering. But the 7950X is a lot faster on single-threaded tasks in Max, it is a day and night difference!

And yeah the 3970X is rare at the moment, it doesn't get mass produced anymore. This makes the pricing higher than MSRP
For cooling of the 7950X I'm using Nocuta NH-D15, it should work well. Keep in mind this CPU will run at 95 degrees at full load without thermal throttling, this is ok in AMD words.

Another difference is how the motherboards for the 7950X are a lot cheaper than Threadripper boards, It makes the Ryzen a better value

Best,
Muhammed

Thanks Muhammed, good to see I was in the right direction. Surprised to see the render difference you're experiencing is only around 5%, looking at the base clock speed and cores I had about 50% difference in mind!

Do you have any recommendation regarding RAM, or can they just be 2 sets of 2x32GB kits on the asus QVL list? And not too fast as we can't use the speed anyway.

Seeing as the single threaded performance is so much better another option would be to build a WS and use our existing threadrippers as rendernodes...

Thanks!