Nvidia's Grace server CPU proved to be a formidable competitor to AMD's Threadripper 7000, as revealed by a comparison of 39 tests by Foronyx.
The Linux-based test compared Nvidia's Grace Server CPU to AMD's Threadripper 7980X and Threadripper Pro 7995WX, with the end result: spoiler alert! – revealing that Nvidia's new Arm-based chip is no slouch behind AMD's power.
Phoronix previously pitted the Grace-Hopper-powered GH200, a workstation provided by GPTshop.ai, against AMD's fastest processor, the EPYC 9754, and for this new test, it once again turned to the GH200 workstation.
win some lose some
The GH system includes a Grace CPU and a Hopper-based H200 GPU. The Grace CPU has 72 cores, 480 GB of LPDDR5X memory and is based on the Arm architecture. Unlike the Threadripper 7000, which features multiple models and up to 1TB of DDR5, individual Grace chips are only available in CPU-GPU combo devices like the GH200 and the dual-chip Grace Superchip.
Although, as Tom Hardware As you point out, the Grace CPU lost more tests than it won, yet still managed to beat the 7980X in 17 tests and the 7995WX in 15. The Threadripper 7000, with its more aggressive clock speeds and much larger L3 cache, has many advantages about the efficiency-focused Chip Grace. However, the Grace Superchip's 500-watt TDP means that a single Grace CPU could have a TDP of 250 watts or more, potentially making it more efficient than the 7980X and 7995WX, which are rated at 350 watts.
Despite not being designed for the same purpose, with Grace focusing on server efficiency and Threadripper on maximum workstation performance, the performance of the two chips is noteworthy. Nvidia has yet to reveal the TDP of a single Grace CPU, but the comparison suggests that Nvidia's launch of a desktop CPU could lead to an epic battle with AMD's Threadripper.
In summary, Phoronix says: “For HPC workloads that are optimized for AArch64 and can take advantage of available system memory effectively, the GH200 could offer great performance against these Zen 4 Threadripper workstations. But for software broadly optimized for x86_64 and/or not so strongly Depending on system memory bandwidth, the Threadripper 7980X and Threadripper PRO 7995WX are excellent workstation options.”
