Last week the Threadripper 9000 series began shipping and as shown in our launch-day Linux testing there was stunning performance with the 32-core Threadripper 9970X and 64-core Threadripper 9980X processors. Beyond the improvements thanks to the Zen 5 microarchitecture enhancements, the new Threadrippers while working as a drop-in replacement to existing TRX50 workstation motherboards now can handle DDR5-6400 R-DIMMs up from DDR5-4800 R-DIMMs with the Threadripper 7000 series. For those wondering about the gain attributed to the faster memory modules, here are benchmarks looking at the DDR5-4800 vs. DDR5-6400 real-world performance impact for AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9970X and 9980X CPUs.
Complementing the benchmark data from last week in our Threadripper 9970X/9980X review that used the new DDR5-6400 R-DIMMs supplied by AMD, this article shows the performance of those Zen 5 Threadripper processors when running at DDR5-4800 using the same memory modules that were tested for the Threadripper 7000 series as part of that original review kit.
For further context into the DDR5-4800 vs. DDR5-6400 performance with the Threadripper 9000 series, the Threadripper 7000 series on their DDR4-800 max speed configuration remained in the comparison to provide additional insight. AMD had supplied GSKILL T5 Neo F5-6400R3239F32GQ 4 x 32GB DDR5-6400 CL32 R-DIMMs as part of the Threadripper 9000 series review kit. It was GSKILL F5-6400R3239G32GQ modules that AMD had supplied for the Threadripper 7000 series review kit albeit maxed out at DDR5-4800.
With the Threadripper 9000 series working as a drop-in replacement to the TRX50 motherboards once updating the system BIOS, these benchmarks aim to help provide insight for helping to judge the benefits of also upgrading from DDR5-4800 to DDR5-6400 if you are upgrading your workstation. Similarly to help showcase some of the specific areas where the DDR5-6400 memory was helpful or not for these Threadripper 9000 series processors.
All benchmarks were on Ubuntu 25.04 with the Linux 6.14 kernel and same software as in last week’s review.
