Threadripper 3970X MOBO recommendation

dpriest

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
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I'm considering upgrading my 1950X to the 3970X and was thinking about sticking with Asrock or moving to Asus. I currently have the X399 Taichi and couldn't be happier with it and it has lots of room to accommodate my Silver Arrow cooler. Thoughts?
 
Honestly at this point I would wait til TR3 comes out. It should be a few months out. Doubt it will be so heavily scaped as other AMD cpu.
 
Same socket/board for TR3, so you can pre-shop.

I've had great luck with the Zenith II Extreme Alpha. Heard good things about the Other Asus boards - especially the ROG Strix. No experience with ASRock. Heard the Meg Creation feels... flimsy, but tends to do well...
 
Honestly at this point I would wait til TR3 comes out. It should be a few months out. Doubt it will be so heavily scaped as other AMD cpu.
I would love to wait but I thought with AMD releasing the TR Pro to the public there wasn't going to be a new TR anytime soon. Are you referring to the 5000 series? Any info on this?
 
I would love to wait but I thought with AMD releasing the TR Pro to the public there wasn't going to be a new TR anytime soon. Are you referring to the 5000 series? Any info on this?
We're all guessing around mid-year, based on prior release history. TR Pro is still Zen2 based, should be Zen3 versions coming at some point - but everything they've said is that they're going to be same chipset/socket for now.
 
We're all guessing around mid-year, based on prior release history. TR Pro is still Zen2 based, should be Zen3 versions coming at some point - but everything they've said is that they're going to be same chipset/socket for now.
I've also been reading that AMD will go back to 16 core which is fine for me because my main use is transcoding video with Handbrake and Handbrake supposedly cannot utilize more than 16 cores but why is the 3970X out performing the other TR and the 5950X? I'm wondering how much of a performance increase there will be with Zen 3 compared to the 3970X and even compared with the 1950X.
 
I've also been reading that AMD will go back to 16 core which is fine for me because my main use is transcoding video with Handbrake and Handbrake supposedly cannot utilize more than 16 cores but why is the 3970X out performing the other TR and the 5950X? I'm wondering how much of a performance increase there will be with Zen 3 compared to the 3970X and even compared with the 1950X.
Haven't run it recently. The starting point will be 16 cores - 3970X, depends on the workload. Which review are you looking at?
 
Haven't run it recently. The starting point will be 16 cores - 3970X, depends on the workload. Which review are you looking at?
I haven't seen any info on Zen 3 and know nothing about it but just on the web have I seen rumors that the starting is 16 core. I've held off so far from upgrading because I haven't seen enough of a performance increase compared with the Ryzen 5950X to justify the cost but maybe on the fence with the 3970X.
 
I haven't seen any info on Zen 3 and know nothing about it but just on the web have I seen rumors that the starting is 16 core. I've held off so far from upgrading because I haven't seen enough of a performance increase compared with the Ryzen 5950X to justify the cost but maybe on the fence with the 3970X.
It's all about needing the extra cores - what are you encoding? Speed or reliability / quality?
 
It's all about needing the extra cores - what are you encoding? Speed or reliability / quality?
I'm encoding MKV videos into MP4 1080P and now going to be doing quite a bit of 4K content. I've researched this over the last few years and the way to get the best quality where I can take a 25GB MKV file and encode it into a 5-7GB MP4 with no noticeable degradation in picture quality is by encoding using the CPU as opposed to the GPU.
 
I'm encoding MKV videos into MP4 1080P and now going to be doing quite a bit of 4K content. I've researched this over the last few years and the way to get the best quality where I can take a 25GB MKV file and encode it into a 5-7GB MP4 with no noticeable degradation in picture quality is by encoding using the CPU as opposed to the GPU.
That's accurate - is this time sensitive, or just something you'd like to be faster?
 
That's accurate - is this time sensitive, or just something you'd like to be faster?
It's more of a hobby and not very time sensitive however if I have the queue filled with a several files it can take a while. Plus one 4K movie takes over 12 hours to encode with the 1950X
 
damn what program are you using? my labtop with a 1060gb and a 7700k does a 45-75gb 4k movie in about hour and a half, with software encoder program i use and drops the files to about 6-12gb each. game of thrones 4k all 8 seasons took up 755gb once done encoding was down to 35gb no loss in quailty.
 
damn what program are you using? my labtop with a 1060gb and a 7700k does a 45-75gb 4k movie in about hour and a half, with software encoder program i use and drops the files to about 6-12gb each. game of thrones 4k all 8 seasons took up 755gb once done encoding was down to 35gb no loss in quailty.
I use Vidcoder (Handbrake) which does not use the gpu and is all processor. I use very high settings and a 60-75GB file encodes to about 15GB. What program are you using?
 
i use dvdfab 11 use the converter option when i need to encode my files, i also use make mkv when i need to do a disc backup of my 4k discs. as i dont have any device that can do playback. i make backups of them when arrive and put em on my nas to playback via kodi on my nvidia shields on the tvs.
 
Hands down my favorite X399 board was the GIGABYTE X399 Designare EX. The Xtreme was almost identical aside from the NICs and the color scheme. I reviewed both and ran the X399 Designare EX in my personal machine for some time. If i were shopping for a TRX40 motherboard, I'd give the GIGABYTE TRX40 Aorus Xtreme a serious look.
 
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As someone who has used a TRX40 Aorus Master, I can vouch for that. Been running DC work for basically its whole life, and about halfway through had all 8 DIMM slots populated. Nary a fault.
 
I got the TRX40 designare and built it dec 2019, aside from never using the extra m.2 card expansion thing it has been excellent.

Watercooled mine with ek revo dual d5 pumps, 2x PE360 and 1x XE360, all with noctua fans in an 011 dynamic xl. The 2080 ti never goes above 45c and the cpu is overclocked all cores between 4.1 and 4.2 depending on ccx. Its been super stable and there are few things that actually use all the cores (motion tracking in resolve will do it). For encoding the nvidia cards are still king unless you refuse to accept nvenc encoder quality, running mine with 128gb ECC memory.
 
I got the TRX40 designare and built it dec 2019, aside from never using the extra m.2 card expansion thing it has been excellent.

Watercooled mine with ek revo dual d5 pumps, 2x PE360 and 1x XE360, all with noctua fans in an 011 dynamic xl. The 2080 ti never goes above 45c and the cpu is overclocked all cores between 4.1 and 4.2 depending on ccx. Its been super stable and there are few things that actually use all the cores (motion tracking in resolve will do it). For encoding the nvidia cards are still king unless you refuse to accept nvenc encoder quality, running mine with 128gb ECC memory.

The X399 Designare EX and other Designare boards I've worked on were nothing short of fantastic in my experience. I'm not surprised the TRX40 version would be excellent as well. Expensive, but potentially worth it.
 
I also will vote for ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha which is the best choice for the money. This motherboard has so many options and expansions that can fit for every needs.
I also migrated from I9 10980xe to Tr 3970x and honestly it was a great move. I am waiting for encoding of 4k movie sometimes 28 hours. Now is much better between 2 and 5 hours.
For that things also is very important to have a very fast and big SSD too.
 
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I also will vote for ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha which is the best choice for the money. This motherboard has so many options and expansions that can fir for every needs.
I also migrated from I9 10980xe to Tr 3970x and honestly it was a great move. I am waiting for encoding of 4k movie sometimes 28 hours. Now is much better between 2 and 5 hours.
For that things also is very important to have a very fast and big SSD too.
You're encoding 4K movies between 2-5 hours? That's fast. What program and what settings are you using to encode with?
 
You're encoding 4K movies between 2-5 hours? That's fast. What program and what settings are you using to encode with?
At the beggining I used Camtasia but it was very slow and quality was terrible I need to wait for 28 hours for one video.
Now I am with Davinci Resolve 17 free version and it is very fast for the same I need to wait about 8 to 10 hours.
I am planning to buy Studio version and to use my RTX 3090 for video encoding. It need to reduce the time at half I hope.
 
At the beggining I used Camtasia but it was very slow and quality was terrible I need to wait for 28 hours for one video.
Now I am with Davinci Resolve 17 free version and it is very fast for the same I need to wait about 8 to 10 hours.
I am planning to buy Studio version and to use my RTX 3090 for video encoding. It need to reduce the time at half I hope.
This makes sense now. Sounds like you are going to do hardware based encoding with the graphic card. Processor (Software) based encoding is much slower.
 
I have the ROG Strix and it has been largely problem free.

My largest complaint with it (and most/all MBs) is the lack of slots on such an I/O rich platform. Only 4 slots? Crazy.
 
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