Adobe Premiere Pro: AMD Threadripper 7000 vs Intel Xeon W-3400

Introduction

With the new Threadripper 7000 and Threadripper PRO 7000WX CPUs, AMD is once again splitting their high core-count CPUs into two separate product families: the High-End Desktop (HEDT) AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series, and the even higher tier AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series processors. Both are based on AMD’s Zen 4 architecture, which means they now support new technologies like PCI-e Gen 5.0 and DDR5 memory, but we also expect an increase in both per-core and multi-core performance.

The big difference between the Threadripper and Threadripper PRO families is that Threadripper PRO offers more memory channels, additional PCIe lanes, and a 96-core processor that isn’t available from the Threadripper line. While these may have some benefits for Premiere Pro, we suspect that the standard Threadripper line will be more than enough for most users, and perform on par with the more expensive Threadripper PRO line.

Today, we want to focus on the performance of the Threadripper 7000 Series (non-PRO) compared to the previous generation Threadripper PRO 5000WX and the Intel Xeon W-2400/3400 line. In our last Intel Xeon W-3400 review, we found that the Threadripper PRO 5000 Series CPUs were solidly faster than the Xeon chips, so we suspect that the new Threadrippers will further AMD’s lead in this space. In addition to Threadripper PRO and Xeon, we will also include the Intel Core 14900K to provide some context for how AMD Threadripper compares to a more typical CPU choice for this type of workload. This is especially important for video editing, as the 14900K includes Intel Quick Sync, which can provide a performance boost for H.264 and HEVC media compared to using your GPU for processing that type of codec.

Because there are so many CPUs to examine, we will break our analysis down into Intel vs AMD (AMD Threadripper 7000 vs Intel Xeon W-3400) and performance versus the previous generation (AMD Threadripper 7000 vs AMD Threadripper PRO 5000WX)

To learn more about how the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series processors perform in other workflows, we have compiled an overview in our AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Content Creation Review article. That post also includes more detailed information on the CPU specifications and test results for various applications: Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects, Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D, Blender, and V-Ray.

In addition, although all the new AMD CPUs have a TDP of 350 W, TDP is rarely the whole story. To see how much power these chips use to complete tasks, check out our Power Analysis: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 article.

Raw Benchmark Data

We design our benchmarks to cover a large swathe of workflows and tasks to provide a balanced look at the application and its hardware interactions. However, many users have more specialized workflows. Recognizing this, we like to provide individual results for benchmarks as well. If there is a specific area that comprises most of your work, examining those results will give a more accurate understanding of the performance disparities between components.

AMD Threadripper 7000 vs Intel Xeon W-3400 for Adobe Premiere Pro

Video Editing applications like Premiere Pro are among the more complex workflows we look at for CPU performance, as the best CPU depends on the type of media you are working with. LongGOP codecs like H.264 and HEVC (chart #2) are among the most commonly used and are a bit unique in that the hardware decoding and encoding capabilities of your system are often more important than the raw power of your CPU. Something as powerful as Threadripper can brute force its way through some things, but for specific flavors like HEVC 4:2:2 10-bit, there is no replacement for technology like Intel Quick Sync (found on the Intel Core family) that can be used for hardware decoding.

On the other hand, Intraframe codecs (chart #3) like ProRes and DNxHR are purely CPU-based. They are also among the easiest to work with, however, so a CPU that gives a lower benchmark score is often still well beyond the “good enough” level for most users. Lastly, RAW codecs (chart #4) like RED, ARRIRAW, and X-OCN are a mixed bag in how they use your system, but often benefit from having both a powerful CPU and a powerful GPU.

With that explained, we can take a look at how the new AMD Threadripper 7000 series compares to the Intel Xeon W-2400/3400 line. Right away, you can tell that AMD comes out very favorably, with even the 7960X scoring above the fastest Intel Xeon W processor. We want to point out that the Intel Core i9-14900K is only a few percent behind, largely due to its terrific performance for H.264 and HEVC codecs.

Starting with the AMD Threadripper 7960X 24-core, the closest Intel Xeon CPU in price we tested was the Xeon w7-2495X 24-core, although the 2495X is closer in price to the 7970X 32-core. Still, it is a core-to-core comparison, and even with the Intel CPU being more expensive, the 7960X comes out on top by about 17% overall. Since the performance for RAW codecs is significantly impacted by the GPU, the 7960X mostly outperforms the w7-2495X in the LongGOP and Intraframe portion of our benchmark to the tune of 26%.

Moving up a step to the Threadripper 7970X 32-core, the Xeon w7-2495X 24-core is again the closest price comparison from Intel. The 7970X isn’t that much faster than the 7960X in Premiere Pro, so AMD’s performance lead is pretty much the same at 19% faster overall.

At the top of the stack, the Threadripper 7980X 64-core is a bit hard to compare because its price falls right in between the Xeon w9-3475X 36-core and the w9-3495X 56-core. Both of those CPUs perform about the same, however, so we can simply say that the 7980X is about 17% faster overall, with most of that again coming from the LongGOP and Intraframe scores.

AMD Threadripper 7000 vs AMD Threadripper PRO 5000WX for Adobe Premiere Pro

Comparing the new AMD Threadripper 7000 CPUs to the previous generation is a bit awkward since we are looking at two different classes of processors. The pricing between Threadripper 7000 and Threadripper PRO 5000WX is very different, as are the overall platform capabilities. However, the fact that Threadripper 7000 has fewer memory channels and PCI-E lanes than Threadripper PRO 5000WX shouldn’t be much of a factor for Premiere Pro users, so in most cases, the new Threadripper CPUs are simply faster – and cheaper – than the previous generation.

In terms of pure performance, we are looking at single-digit performance gains for the Threadripper 7960X 24-core and 7970X 32-core. The exact amount varies based on the specific test, but almost everything was between 6% and 10% faster than the previous generation. The Threadripper 7980X 64-core, however, showed a bit more of a performance uplift, with an overall 16% higher score than the Threadripper PRO 5995WX.

Overall, This is a fairly modest gen-over-gen performance gain compared to what we saw in other applications like After Effects, but it is still enough to put AMD firmly ahead of Intel for this class of CPU.

How Well Do the AMD Threadripper 7000 CPUs Perform in Premiere Pro?

Unlike other applications, we tested where the gen-to-gen performance gain is very impressive, for Premiere Pro, the new AMD Threadripper 7000 processors are mostly less than 10% faster than the previous generation Threadripper PRO 5000WX. The only exception is the Threadripper 7980X 64-core, which is 15% faster than the 5995WX, although that only makes it a few percent faster than the 7970X 32-core.

Even though the performance gains are fairly modest in Premiere Pro, it still makes the Threadripper 7000 processors solidly faster than any Intel Xeon W CPU currently on the market. Based on Xeon CPUs of a similar MSRP, the new Threadripper 7000 models are around 20% faster overall. Xeon can almost keep up with RAW codecs that utilize the GPU heavily; otherwise, AMD has a very firm lead.

It is worth noting that even though Threadripper 7000 does very well in Premiere Pro, it doesn’t mean that it is the best choice for every workflow. These processors will likely be our go-to recommendation for those working with RAW codecs in particular, but if you primarily use H.264 or HEVC codecs, an Intel Core 14th Gen processor is likely to be the better choice due to the hardware decoding capabilities of Intel Quick Sync.

But if you need raw compute power, Threadripper 7000 is the best we have tested to date. Threadripper PRO 7000WX may be able to push the performance even further, but we have to wait until WRX90 motherboards become available before we can test the PRO models to find out.

Every application uniquely utilizes hardware, so our results here don’t necessarily translate to any other application. Our focus in this article centers specifically on Threadripper 7000’s performance in Adobe Premiere Pro. However, we recommend checking out our AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Content Creation Review article, which includes a broad overview of results for several different applications. If you use other software packages, it also has links to our in-depth testing articles for content creation: Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D, Blender, and V-Ray.

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