Anyone running AMD Ryzen 7 and getting compatibility issues?

Romo82

Romo82

Experienced
Im getting a home PC (at least that what the family thinks) that needs to be a bit of an all rounder but im going to be doing mild production work on it using the FM3 when it arrives and i've seen a great deal on a Ryzen 7 system. However while going through due diligence i came across some claims of compatibility issues with AMD and some production software. There were no specific brands mentioned but seemed to centre around VST issues, so its really hard to see if there's a legitimate issue or not.

Anyone comfortably running a Ryzen system with no issues or do i stay at the mercy of Intel?
 
Thinking of doing the same thing. Could you share what you've found?
 
This is one of the more thorough reviews i've seen with a concerted effort to test DAW performance, most reviews stop at gaming and content performance and rarely include music production so its nice to see this.

https://techreport.com/review/33531/amds-ryzen-7-2700x-and-ryzen-5-2600x-cpus-reviewed/

As for plugins etc. i've checked a few brands for minimum specs/compatibility (Neural, Steinberg, Softube, Waves, Native, UAD) Pro Tools doesn't list AMD as compatible at all but have read several accounts saying that it can work on certain versions, however i would say if your Pro Tools only then AMD is out. Waves list their plugins as AMD compatible but other software such as eMotion, MultiRack etc show only intel. UAD has some mention of PCIe cards not being recognized by Ryzen systems and a lot of instances in gearslutz forum.

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1160865-amd-ryzen-amp-uad-2-thread.html
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1250298-2nd-ryzen-music-production.html

https://www.waves.com/support/tech-specs/system-requirements#plugins|version-11


The research continues............
 
I just built a new 'puter for my primary workstation. I looked at the AMD stuff as all the reviews say the chips are fast but I've been burned by compatibility issues with AMD before and the minor extra performance didn't seem worth the risk. I ended building a machine based around a Core I9-10940X. It's nice. Fast, runs fairly cool and quiet and no issues. Windows 10 on the other hand...
 
I've actually been thinking of getting a 3870X threadripper with 32 cores. Intel doesn't have anything close that's reasonably priced, and I do need a lot of compute and a lot of threads to compile large codebases, so 32 cores would pay for themselves really quickly in my case. I've been running 3 quad-GPU machines with Threadripper 1950X for about a year and a half now, and aside from the initial PITA with figuring out which 128GB RAM kit would work at anywhere near the rated frequency I did not have any issues. AMD CPUs are pretty picky when it comes to RAM.

@Romo82 - I wouldn't buy 2000 series Ryzens at this time. 3-series have more than double the throughput for multimedia workloads, because such workloads tend to be vectorized, and 3-series Ryzens have double the vector unit width, in addition to other improvements. 2-series underperform intel at the same frequency, even with a few more cores. 3-series CPUs blow right past it, especially if you're doing DAW, video, or other vectorizable workloads.
 
One thing to consider though is that AMD is not going to have Thunderbolt. At all. So e.g. the vast majority of UAD stuff is not going to work. I don't know how well it works with Windows even under the best of circumstances, though, so that may or may not be an issue. Just something to be aware of.
 
Yeah I stepped away from anything AMD and ATi fifteen years ago. The stuff is always allegedly fast as shown in benchmarks but their drivers were always shit and things tended to crash and BSOD a lot. They’re alleging 7 nm lithography but it seems to me that getting to market that fast with litho half that of intel chips that aren’t even out yet says to me that they’re rushing and half-assing it just to be firsties.
 
They currently have the fastest CPUs in both desktops and datacenters though. That much is not even up for debate, for the first time in more than a decade. Intel is hurting pretty bad as of late, to the point of basically halving the prices on their higher end CPUs, which, even after the halving, have worse compute per dollar than AMD. Intel CPUs also have a lot more security bugs, requiring software mitigations that further reduce performance.
 
Built a Ryzen+RX box for the kids two years ago and it’s been a PIA to keep it stable. Drivers are buggy. Went top shelf on the MoBo and everything. Built an Intel+NVidia box for the wife last year and it’s been rock solid.

That’s consistently been my experience with AMD over the past 20’ish years. I’m happy they exist. They keep Intel on their toes. But their CPUs are not for me.
 
Keep your audio interface in mind as well.

I'm locked into Intel after buying an Apollo X. It uses Thunderbolt 3. I did hours of research before buying and it just made the most sense for my needs. I'm updating my current PC specifically to be compatible.

Even with Intel, there are only a few (very expensive) motherboards that support Thunderbolt 3 natively. The few PCI adapter cards are brand specific (not every MB brand has them available) and can reportedly be a real pain to setup (unless you know which Youtube video to watch).

I found a deal on a Gigabyte Z390 Designare and went with that. I wanted an MSI board, but MSI's Thunderbolt 3 PCI adapter is basically vaporware. I saw one report of Gigabyte's TB3 adapter working with an MSI z390, but didn't want to risk it on one review. Almost went with ASUS, but their TB3 adapter only has one TB3 port and costs $30 more than Gigabyte's which has 2 ports.

The Designare had 2 TB3 ports integrated, so it was worth paying the extra $ to avoid having to buy an extra PCI device that would cause more hassle and push the price up on the cheaper board.
 
Last edited:
I remember now why i didn't miss building PC's :confounded:

And i was happily burying my head in the sand regarding Thunderbolt 3 but no, you had to bring it up :coldsweat::coldsweat::cry:

Ok so now can i offset Mobo price by going with i5 9600k instead of i7 9700k?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom