@Keith et al,
Lets assume I get lucky and get a 3900x or 3950x in the very near future (like Sunday night or Black Friday) . I have a ROG Crosshair VII Hero MB.
Given that I am NOT planning on running it in turbo-mode (I can't afford the power and I don't have the liquid cooling that would make me comfortable doing it) what version of the mandatory bios upgrade would you go with?

Asus's most recent Bios for this MB was issued Nov 4th.

Tom

I'm running the 2801 BIOS currently. Have downloaded the 2901 BIOS but haven't installed it yet. Reports are that the 2901 BIOS is as good and trouble free as the 2801. Some reports are that the memory clocking is a bit better. Get at least the 2801 BIOS to not have the fan stopping problem.

The BIOS is still on AGESA 1.0.0.3 ABBA and does not have AGESA 1.0.0.4 yet which will be necessary for the 3950X. ASUS is always the slowest of the vendors to release BIOS'

I assume that the 1.0.0.4 BIOS will be released sometime after the 25th when the 3950X drops.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Reports are that the 2901 BIOS is as good and trouble free as the 2801. Some reports are that the memory clocking is a bit better. Get at least the 2801 BIOS to not have the fan stopping problem.

I 2nd the 2901 being hiccup free. Being curious I flashed it maybe 20 minutes ago.
I was able to load the optimized defaults and then make my changes (disable CPU boost, enable D.O.O.C?).

It is reporting that it is running under 1 volt but hasn't quit yet so I am going to let it run a while and see if I can get away with it. Otherwise it will be back up to 1.2 volts using an +offset.

tom@MoonShot3:~$ sensors
asuswmisensors-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
CPU Core Voltage:         +0.98 V  
CPU SOC Voltage:          +1.13 V  
DRAM Voltage:             +1.35 V  
VDDP Voltage:             +0.42 V  
1.8V PLL Voltage:         +1.85 V  
+12V Voltage:            +12.10 V  
+5V Voltage:              +4.99 V  
3VSB Voltage:             +3.36 V  
VBAT Voltage:             +3.21 V  
AVCC3 Voltage:            +3.36 V  
SB 1.05V Voltage:         +1.07 V  
CPU Core Voltage:         +0.99 V  
CPU SOC Voltage:          +1.13 V  
DRAM Voltage:             +1.36 V  
CPU Fan:                  836 RPM
Chassis Fan 1:           3534 RPM
Chassis Fan 2:              0 RPM
Chassis Fan 3:              0 RPM
HAMP Fan:                   0 RPM
Water Pump:                 0 RPM
CPU OPT:                  826 RPM
Water Flow:                 0 RPM
AIO Pump:                   0 RPM
CPU Temperature:          +49.0°C  
CPU Socket Temperature:   +39.0°C  
Motherboard Temperature:  +31.0°C  
Chipset Temperature:      +49.0°C  
Tsensor 1 Temperature:   +216.0°C  
CPU VRM Temperature:      +42.0°C  
Water In:                +216.0°C  
Water Out:               +216.0°C  
CPU VRM Output Current:  +40.00 A  

k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +49.4°C  (high = +70.0°C)

asus-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
cpu_fan:        0 RPM

tom@MoonShot3:~$ 

Tom

---

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

Google search has spotted a first Amd 3950x on sale at eTsy of all places. Claims to have 10.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/753281927/amd-ryzen-9-3950x?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_a-electronics_and_accessories-computers_and_peripherals-computers&utm_custom1=77d55cfa-11ae-4abb-abfc-037403b93dfb&utm_content=go_1843970779_69216057785_346429258292_aud-318110574626:pla-353923937411_c__753281927&gclid=CjwKCAiA8ejuBRAaEiwAn-iJ3uuW0Qpk41oWCRHRdVEFRf9Ckz8Pl4a59lOGuYrQUgfvIkn7SX2klhoCVZYQAvD_BwE

For "only" $918USD.

Tom

---

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

And you can get an EPYC 16c/32t for less than that https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16819113461?item=9SIA6ZP70N5945&source=region&nm_mc=knc-googlemkp-pc&cm_mmc=knc-googlemkp-pc-_-pla-nothingbutsavings-_-processors+-+server-_-9SIA6ZP70N5945&gclid=CjwKCAiA8ejuBRAaEiwAn-iJ3t83rw8HO8eG8D0zcG1MwcamlwqVVI9Xxor5j258cOqzDuwmIak4ARoCCLAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Of course it's "a little bit" slower and you would have to buy another MB since it's not AM4 socket compatible....

Tom

---

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

I guess we shall see whether they are available after midnight. I saw posts in the forums they won't be available or can be shown on the retailers web pages till the 26th.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

I guess we shall see whether they are available after midnight. I saw posts in the forums they won't be available or can be shown on the retailers web pages till the 26th.

For all I know, its the 26th where that retailer is.... :)

Tom

---

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

I am working towards trying out the Lunatics approach and as I mentioned I would use one of my 1800 m/cs for this approach. Unfortunately I have already run into a crunching problem. I dual booted with Ubuntu 18.04LTS which had no problems and as a first step installed default BOINC to compare with WIN10 performance. Horror! From a sustainable average of 15000 per day the Ubuntu is averaging 7000. lshw gives memory freq as 2400. Is that right? Should I move the Ubuntu on to 1910 or look at the BIOS?
Obviously I am not going to try TBAR until I sort this abysmal performance out.
jsm

I'm not sure I understand what you are telling. Is 2400Mhz for the memory different from what it is in Windows? Did you change the settings in the BIOS for some reason? It should not matter what OS you are running. The clock frequencies for cpu and memory are decided in the BIOS.

[Edit] Are you expecting your RAC to instantly be the same value for a brand new machine and the same value it was for months as a Windows machine?

RAC does not work like that. RAC takes 2 months to stabilize. I looked at the APR's for the Windows hosts cpu applications and the APR for the Linux host cpu application beats it handily. Should surpass the Windows host easily after the RAC stabilizes.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

[Edit] Are you expecting your RAC to instantly be the same value for a brand new machine and the same value it was for months as a Windows machine?

RAC does not work like that. RAC takes 2 months to stabilize. I looked at the APR's for the Windows hosts cpu applications and the APR for the Linux host cpu application beats it handily. Should surpass the Windows host easily after the RAC stabilizes.

Or just compare the runtimes for the same type of WU. From memory it can take a few hours for the APR to adjust, and as you said- RAC can take up to 2 months.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

I guess we shall see whether they are available after midnight. I saw posts in the forums they won't be available or can be shown on the retailers web pages till the 26th.

For all I know, its the 26th where that retailer is.... :)

Tom

He is in Australia. And shipping cycle will be "a couple of weeks". So that should take care of the "don't release" till the 26th issue.

And as of this moment no one else has told Google Search they have them on sale. NewEgg is reporting "not found".
----Edit----
Slap forehead, today is the 25th, not the 26th. So it will be midnight tonight NOT last night....
----Edit-----------

Hmmmmm........

Tom

---

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

Yes, I think Tuesday has always been a launch day, not Monday.

[Edit] Already getting now in stock notifications. This one is for Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07ZTYKLZW?SubscriptionId=AKIAJF4X3QDDEUEKC7FA&tag=nismain-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=5143&creativeASIN=B07ZTYKLZW&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[Edit 2] And this one is from Newegg.com
https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-9-3950x/p/N82E16819113616?Item=N82E16819113616&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=112519AMD&cm_mmc=EMC-112519AMD-_-EMC-112519AMD-Index-_-DesktopProcessor-_-19113616-E0A&email64=a2VpdGgubXllcnNAYXR0Lm5ldA%3d%3d&tp=i-H43-Q7F-1ZE-1O3BPc-2D-1C09p-1c-1O3b0s-sNOzT&om_rid=17636881&om_mid=6028

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

UK amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Ryzen-Threadripper-3970X-Processor/dp/B0815JJQQ8/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=threadripper+3+3970&qid=1574700205&sr=8-1-fkmr0

With a delivery of "usually delivered in 1 to 2 months".......................
jsm

Yes I expected the throughput credit to be similar ): If the Linux offer will beat WIN10 hands down the figure should increase daily so I will let it run like this for a while before moving on.
jsm

Omg guys AMD power the new threadrippers this is insane :O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKYY37ss3lY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8apEJ5Zt2s

Omg guys AMD power the new threadrippers this is insane :O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKYY37ss3lY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8apEJ5Zt2s

Hahahahahah LOL, luv Linus' "you're a weasel and a chicken" rant about Intel.

As expected, another solid Zen 2 based product launch. Best of the binned Zen 2 chips going into the two TR3 SKU's.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Neat architecture diagram I grabbed out of Level1Linux TR 3960X/3970X review.



And the paragraph prefacing the image says a lot about the improvements in thread scheduling and memory NUMA node changes in Threadripper3.

AMD has done a lot of work on their single/lightly threaded topology. They have explored several tricks with CPU topology and thread scheduling order signaling to the host operating system to ensure that, in lightly threaded scenarios, each busy thread essentially gets its own CCX with 16mb of cache just for that single thread.

And the following paragraph:

The CPU topology is also now a 1-node UMA – Uniform Memory Access node. Far more work and optimization has gone into Windows 10 to support “single-processor” systems than the relatively funky 4-NUMA-node 2990WX 32-core from last generation, which means for this generation programmers don’t have to do nearly as much work to take advantage of all that compute horsepower in these CPUs.

The single core performance has taken a big leap. There is no handicap on gaming performance now.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Anyone was able to grab a 3950X, 3960X or 3970X today? I was checking 3950X in the morning (US) and it's already gone. Some of my colleague told me it's gone in a minute or two. :-( Both Threadrippers are out of stock as well. It seems that people have infinite appetite for silicon these days and every high-end product is sold out on launch day and not in stock for weeks to months...

---

No I didn't have any luck. I'm convinced that insiders have preference over stock at the distributor level before it ever gets to retail. I am sure that 3rd party resellers already have listings for 2X or 3X SEP retail prices.

I'm hoping to snag the 3950X a month after release like I did my 3900X.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Threadripper 3960X and 3970X reviews are now online.
Ridiculous pricing, but insane performance. If you're running a business that can make use of all those cores, they'll pay for themselves in no time at all. Even though they cost more than the equivalent Intel CPU, their performance is so much better that they are the better option when looking at the performance/price ratio.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Well eBay has 3 "buy it now" (Amd 3950x)listings at $1249, $1500 and $1501..... Plus 3-4 more under Auction.

Tom

---

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).