AMD’s unannounced 96-core monster just crushed Intel’s best CPU to claim world record

Test results of the soon-to-be released Ryzen ThreadRipper PRO 7995WX “Zen 4” have emerged on the popular Geekbench benchmark and it turns out to be a staggeringly fast processor that should be able to beat almost everything (except perhaps AMD’s very own 128-core EPYC server CPU) and will find its place in the best workstation PCs when it launches.

The Geekbench 5 score – using the Linux version – for single core was 2095 while it reached a whopping 81,408 for multicore; not a linear progression but still good enough to surpass the previous performance single-core champion, an overclocked Asus system that hit 72,786 back in May 2023 with a 56-core Xeon w9-3495X CPU.

Other details remain scant but assuming the details are indeed correct, the processor comes with 96 cores, 192 threads, 96MB L2 cache and 384MB L3 cache while the system itself boosts half a Terabyte memory. The only dubious data is the fact that the base frequency is recorded as 7.97GHz which is unlikely to be true. 

One particularly interesting point is the fact that the platform used is a HP Z6 G5 workstation which is HP’s flagship workstation range and hitherto, an Intel Xeon-only stable. HP is the only big workstation vendor not to have released a Ryzen ThreadRipper Pro part and the fact that it does will send a powerful message to professionals.

Other smaller vendors like, Puget Systems or Velocity Micro, have already been testing and evaluating these processors for software validation and system refinements.

Is it ominous for Intel?

AMD seems to be able to launch new parts at will and the 7995WX, which is part of the Storm Peak family, is likely to cement the company’s performance dominance at the top, much to the chagrin of Intel. The Intel Xeon “Sapphire-Rapids” W9-3495X, the company’s fastest workstation processor, was launched earlier this year and sports only 56 cores, 40 fewer than the 7995WX.

Expect AMD to show a tour de force on a number of benchmarks including key ones like Cinebench R23 (where Intel has been showboating with LN2 overclocking) and compute-heavy ones. Tomshardware reports that the drive will have a 350W TDP which is higher than the previous generation ThreadRipper Pro 5995WX and roughly in line with the 360W delivered by the EPYC 9654, AMD’s other 96-core CPU.

The latter has a base clock of 2.4GHz, an all-core boost speed of 3.55GHz and a max. boost clock of 3.7GHz; expect the 7995WX to have higher clock speeds across the range.

Ironically, the biggest competition for the Ryzen ThreadRipper Pro range may come from the entry level from the frequently-refreshed Ryzen processors and from the top, from the single/dual socket EPYC with the 9754 offering up to 256 cores.

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