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I used ECC with a ThreadRipper 2920x on an Asrock motherboard, but for a new Ryzen 7950x build I went back to regular RAM. The problem with ECC with the TR was

I used ECC with a ThreadRipper 2920x on an Asrock motherboard, but for a new Ryzen 7950x build I went back to regular RAM. The problem with ECC with the TR was that only Unbuffered DIMMs work, not Registered DIMMS, and the 7950x is the same. Unbuffered ECC is slower or costlier (or both) than the equivalent non-ECC or Registered, enough that it just wasn't worth it in a new build. Ryzen has the additional disadvantage vs TR of only being able to run RAM fast if you limit yourself to two sticks. My TR build used 4x16GiB but for my 7950x build I had to get 2x32GiB to be able to run them at 6000MHz.

nirvdrum 3y ago
I currently run a 3700X with 64 GB ECC. I've been interested in a jump to an AM5 series, but have found the matter of ECC compatibility frustrating to research, particularly because DDR5 has limited ECC built in and that confuses the discussion. I'm curious what your use case is. I mostly use mine for software development (including VMs) and some family media processing. I like the peace of mind that ECC brings, but I have no way to really know if RAM speed is performance factor.
- Arnavion 3y ago
  Personal Linux machine mostly used for watching video, code compiling, and some light gaming. The 7950x definitely compiles my stuff much faster than the TR 2920x did, but I don't know how much of that is because of the RAM speed (6000MHz vs 4800MHz, faster timings) and how much because the CPU clocks higher (~5.4GHz vs ~4.2GHz).
  - Arnavion 3y ago
    (Made a typo. The RAM speed in my 2920x build was 2666MHz, not 4800MHz, of course.)
vetinari 3y ago
> Ryzen has the additional disadvantage vs TR of only being able to run RAM fast if you limit yourself to two sticks. TR has it similar, just doubled; you are able to run 4 sticks faster than 8. On my TR2920X+X399 (probably the same config as yours, Asrock Taichi) I'm able to run any four of them at 3066 MHz and all of them only at 2933 MHz.
- Arnavion 3y ago
  Yes, I wasn't saying TR doesn't have a limit. I was saying Ryzen's limit was smaller, so I would've had to get bigger UDIMMs to have the same total memory as before. (My 2920x was on an X399 Phantom Gaming 6 and my 7950x is on a B650 PG Lightning. I find the Taichis of all generations to be overkill.)

nirvdrum 3y ago

I currently run a 3700X with 64 GB ECC. I've been interested in a jump to an AM5 series, but have found the matter of ECC compatibility frustrating to research, particularly because DDR5 has limited ECC built in and that confuses the discussion. I'm curious what your use case is. I mostly use mine for software development (including VMs) and some family media processing. I like the peace of mind that ECC brings, but I have no way to really know if RAM speed is performance factor.

Arnavion 3y ago
Personal Linux machine mostly used for watching video, code compiling, and some light gaming. The 7950x definitely compiles my stuff much faster than the TR 2920x did, but I don't know how much of that is because of the RAM speed (6000MHz vs 4800MHz, faster timings) and how much because the CPU clocks higher (~5.4GHz vs ~4.2GHz).
- Arnavion 3y ago
  (Made a typo. The RAM speed in my 2920x build was 2666MHz, not 4800MHz, of course.)

vetinari 3y ago

> Ryzen has the additional disadvantage vs TR of only being able to run RAM fast if you limit yourself to two sticks. TR has it similar, just doubled; you are able to run 4 sticks faster than 8. On my TR2920X+X399 (probably the same config as yours, Asrock Taichi) I'm able to run any four of them at 3066 MHz and all of them only at 2933 MHz.

Arnavion 3y ago
Yes, I wasn't saying TR doesn't have a limit. I was saying Ryzen's limit was smaller, so I would've had to get bigger UDIMMs to have the same total memory as before. (My 2920x was on an X399 Phantom Gaming 6 and my 7950x is on a B650 PG Lightning. I find the Taichis of all generations to be overkill.)