AMD EPYC 9654 shows what 96 Zen 4 cores can do by outbenching a Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by almost 30% on PassMark
A single sample of the AMD EPYC 9654 processor has appeared on PassMark and has immediately blown all its competitors out of the water. The “Genoa” Zen 4 part has occupied first place in the High End CPU Mark table, which is dominated by core-bristling chips from AMD. The previous table topper, the 64-core Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX, has finally relinquished its lofty position that it had occupied since the first quarter of 2022. Unsurprisingly, the EPYC 9654 hasn’t just pipped its rivals to the post though – it has appropriately set a whole new benchmark with the multiple test suite result.
The EPYC 9654 was awarded a CPU Mark of 124,119 points, which is currently based on the one test run, so there is a high margin of error. However, if this tally ends up being typically average, then it outbenches the Threadripper PRO 5995WX’s result of 95,539 points by an impressive +29.91%. Of course, the AMD EPYC 9654 has a +50% advantage in terms of core count but cannot hit the same sort of clock rates as its HEDT relative: 2.4-3.7 GHz vs. 2.7-4.5 GHz. So, this also results in a slower single-thread score for the Genoa Zen 4 chip (2,893 rating vs. 3,300), but then nobody is going to be splashing out US$11,805 on an EPYC 9654 for its single-thread prowess anyway.
This result demonstrates AMD’s continuing excellence in this arena, with the EPYC 9654 utilizing a 5-nanometer manufacturing technology to deliver more processing power while also offering support for the AVX-512 instruction set, PCIe 5.0, and DDR5. You have to scroll past over 20 AMD processors before finding a competitor from Intel in the High End CPU chart, with the Xeon Platinum 8380 from 2021 representing Team Blue on 62,318 points. It might end up being a short reign for the AMD EPYC 9654 though, as it shouldn’t be too long before the “Bergamo” chips with the headlining 128-core EPYC 9754 show off their capabilities.