Maximum PC - USA (2019-06)

THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...

↘ submit your questions to: [email protected]

Display Dilemmas

Superb Solid State

Box-Fresh Windows

Maximum PC(Ie)

Hello Doc, I’m gearing up to

build a workstation that will

have dual use: 2560x1440

gaming and VR (on an Oculus

Rift with three Oculus

Sensors, which require USB

3.1), and for data science. I’m

considering AMD’s Ryzen

Threadripper and Intel’s

Core i9-9900K. What are the

real-world implications of

the 64 PCIe lanes on Socket

TR4-based motherboards

versus the 24 lanes offered

by the Z390 platform?

In theory, Threadripper

should be far superior. I

can have a 16-lane graphics

card, two M.2-attached SSDs

in RAID, a four-lane 10Gb/s

Ethernet controller, and a

four-port USB add-in card,

all fed by the host processor.

With a Core i9, once I drop

in the graphics card and

one SSD, connectivity on

Intel’s chip is maxed out,

and everything else needs to

funnel through the chipset’s

paltry four-lane DMI. How

much will performance differ

between the two, though? It

seems like Threadripper is

better suited to VR because

of the connectivity required

by those Oculus Sensors.

Also, is it even worth

considering on-board 10Gb/s

Ethernet or Thunderbolt 3

for non-X-series Intel

CPUs, since everything on

the motherboard has to

be jammed through DMI,

including the networking

controller, all USB ports,

and Thunderbolt 3?

–Marc Mackey

THE DOCTOR RESPONDS:

Comparing the connectivity

available from AMD’s high-

end desktop platform to

Intel’s “mainstream” Z390/

Z370 chipsets definitely

favors Ryzen Threadripper.

It would be fairer to consider

the Core X-series CPUs and

their complementary X299

platform, though that combo

still doesn’t offer as many

PCIe lanes as AMD’s chips.

How much difference

does Intel’s deficit make

in practice? It depends on

your workloads. Of course,

gaming puts an emphasis on

your graphics card and its

x16 slot (or even two cards

sharing 16 lanes via x8 links).

VR isn’t much different. It’s a

GPU-limited task with some

I/O over USB in the case of

Oculus’s original Rift. Either

way, you aren’t held back

by connectivity, and Intel’s

architecture even enjoys

an advantage for its ability

to do more work per core,

per clock cycle. Plus, the

upcoming Oculus Rift S only

needs one USB 3.0 port for

its Insight tracking system,

which employs five cameras

on the headset itself.

Data analysis through

GPU-accelerated algorithms

is also going to fully utilize

your graphics card. But that

segment benefits from gobs

of system memory and fast

storage, too. The Doc uses a

1.6TB SSD DC P3700 on his

machine-learning test bench,

which ties up four lanes of

PCIe 3.0. When you tack on a

fast networking controller,

a 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 3

controller, and add-in USB

connectivity, it’s easy to see

how the link between Intel’s

host processor and Platform

Controller Hub becomes a

theoretical bottleneck.

Do you expect full

utilization from all those

devices concurrently, though?

It would be rare to see a

couple of high-end SSDs

maxed out at the same time

as an Ethernet controller, for

example. In most applications,

available PCIe connectivity

won’t hold you back. Intel’s

Core i9-9900K is generally

adequate (and potentially

less expensive) in those

situations. But it will limit

your ability to expand as you

scale up horsepower for data

science. Co-processors to

accelerate deep learning,

whether they’re GPUs, ASICs,

or FPGAs, need PCIe slots.

That’s going to be an issue for

Intel’s Z390/Z370 chipset.

Blast from the Past

Hi Doc, Please accept all

applicable accolades for an

excellent magazine. I have

a quick question. I’ve been

Samsung’s 970 EVO Plus utilizes 96-layer V-NAND and firmware

optimizations to beat every other TLC-based SSD on the market.

quickstart

22 MAXIMUMPC JUN 2019 maximumpc.com