Read just about every audio benchmark article I can find on the TR - has anyone had any problems with it?
Only thing that seems to crop up consistently is low-latency performance, but I tend to work around 512 anyway so shouldn’t necessarily be an issue for me.
Summation of my feelings right now: Intel feels solid. Threadripper feels edgy and exciting.
Is it a ticket on the Titanic, or am I gonna be gutted in a years time that I didn’t jump on the big boat of progress?
Obviously the Threadripper have more cores, but it cost a lot more as well as the motherboards cost a lot more.
To be honest i think you will be fine with the 8700K, or maybe wait a few months for the new I9-9900K which will come with 8 cores and doesn’t need those expensive motherboards.
Great thank you - I’ve heard similar. Any ideas on a release date for the i9? I’m on a deadline for the current build but if my motherboard was future-proof I could just sell the i7 down the line and pick up the i9 to replace
Any Z370 chipset motherboards should work just fine with the new Intel 9th gen CPUs, all you would need is a BIOS update.
If you work at 512 then I would look at AMD solutions for sure. The one negative is lack of Thunderbolt support currently.
If future upgradability is a thing then I think clearly AMD is looking good, like it has for years and years. Far better support for older sockets than Intel as far as I can see. So an x399 board with a 1920x would give you 12 cores, twice as many as the 8700k and 50% more than the upcoming 8 core CPU from Intel. On top of that you get 60 PCIe lanes where 3x4 lanes go straight into the CPU from M.2 NVME drives - no sharing of bandwidth. On top of that you can then drop-in a 32-core monster if you feel like it! (or upcoming 24 or 16 core chips).
Also, I would pay close attention to the pricing of Threadripper Gen 1 chips as well as the 8700k in the upcoming couple of months. The newer chips should push down prices on the older ones. I read a blurb on a forum about a temporary sale that might have been a mistake, but someone got the 1920x for under 300 bucks!
It’s a good time to shop for CPUs.
I think that’s true. With other AMD chips you get an air cooler thrown in with the product so that gives you more for your money, but yeah you do pay for the TR platform.
On the other hand Intel is the same way in that their HEDT/pro platform is more money in general.
But is the built-in cooler sufficient, or is an additional fan recommended?
I’m actually looking at the 1900x now as well to try and offset the cost of the motherboard - didn’t realise I’d have to shell out that much more for compatibility originally
I would carefully evaluate options before getting the 1900x if I were you.
What are your needs? You said you need to buy soon, so how soon and how long does it need to last?
As for fans; I got a Ryzen 7 1700 (not “x”) late last year. It comes with a cooler. The base speed is a modest 3GHz over 8 cores and then it has pretty modest turbo speeds. I just set the overclock on all cores to 3.7GHz, with the stock cooler. My room has been 90+ degrees (32+ celsius) this summer and I’ve had no cooling issues. There’s a bit of a lottery with any CPU you get regardless of model and brand, and I think my CPU could probably be pushed to 3.9GHz on all cores if I felt like it, still with the stock cooler.
But anyway, I’d look at time and money and what you need from the platform etc. Can you share?
Sure thing. Looking to run a single system with VEP 6 into Cubase 9.5, with a buffer no higher than 512.
I’ll be looking to run a fully-purged VEP server instance, with 3-4 instances, within each approx 30 channels of Kontakt, each with anywhere between 2-16 instruments. About 500+ MIDI tracks in Cubase, with most of the plugin heavy-lifting being done separately via a UAD Apollo.
Basically mid-heavy orchestral use for film composition, hybrid percussion and some synths here and there - modern film scoring setup
Hmm… “VEP” is outside of my ‘comfort zone’.
I think other people are more qualified to give you a good recommendation.
Fair enough. Specifically what is it about the 1900x that is cause for me to evaluate so carefully? I’m playing a bit of a budgetary balancing act right now between the i7 and the 1900x - a lot of people have weighed in over the past couple of days with various opinions
The 1900x is only 8 cores at 3,8-4,0 GHz, not worth it and you still need an expensive motherboard.
And new 2. Generation Threadripper has just been released that do perform a little better.
If that translates to better daw performance, time will tell.
I’ve got a 1920x. I can’t tell you how it compares to an 8700k but I can tell you that I use my system full time every day and it is perfectly stable running Cubase on Win10. I pretty much always run buffers of 512+ as low latency is not a particular concern for me.
Having always had Intel CPUs in the past, I haven’t found any issues switching to AMD.