Adobe Premiere Pro: AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series vs Intel Xeon W-3300

Introduction

Adobe Premiere Pro is an interesting application to examine in terms of hardware performance due to the fact that it is highly dependent on the end user's workflow. Someone working with highly compressed H.264 or HEVC media is likely going to want a solution that supports hardware decoding, while someone working with RAW footage is going to need a beefy CPU (and often GPU) in order to power through the debayering and decoding process.

With the new Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series, AMD is keeping many of the same features as the previous generation (up to 64 cores, 8-channel RAM, 128 PCIe lanes, etc.), but has increased the raw performance of each CPU. Not only is the maximum boost frequency increased slightly, but the move to the newer "Zen3" architecture is supposed to bring about a significant increase in performance across the board.

In this article, we will be using our PugetBench for Premiere Pro benchmark paired with Premiere Pro 22.4 to examine the performance of the new AMD Threadripper PRO 5000WX CPUs. As a comparison, we will be including the previous generation AMD Threadripper PRO 3000 WX-Series, as well as their primary competition – the Intel Xeon W-3300 series. In addition, we will also throw in the Intel Core i9 12900K. This consumer CPU is not at all in the same class as the Threadripper PRO and Xeon W lines, but it is actually among the fastest CPUs currently available for certain Premiere Pro workflows due in large part to its Quick Sync feature which can be used to decode certain flavors of H.264 and HEVC media. Because of this, it will operate as a good comparison point for how well the Threadripper Pro 5000WX line compares in terms of pure performance with the much less expensive consumer lines.

If you want to read more about the new Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series and what sets them apart from the previous generation, we recommend checking out our main AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series Content Creation Review. That article includes testing results for a range of other applications including After Effects, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and Unreal Engine; and also has all the test setup details on the hardware and software side if you want more information on the individual specs for each system.

Raw Benchmark Data

While our benchmark presents various scores based on the performance of each test, we also like to provide individual results for you to examine. If there is a specific task that is a hindrance to your workflow, examining the raw results for that task is going to be much more applicable than the scores that our benchmark calculated.

Feel free to skip to the next sections for our analysis of these results to get a wider view of how each configuration performs.

Benchmark Analysis – Overall Performance

Before we talk about the results of our benchmark, we wanted to mention that unlike many of the other applications we tested as a part of our greater Threadripper PRO 5000WX testing, we didn't see any appreciable performance difference between the "Balanced" and "High Performance" Windows power profile. Because of this, these results in this article are all from the default "Balanced" profile.

Getting into the results, we first want to talk about how much faster the new Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series is compared to the previous generation 3000WX series. In an overall sense, these new CPUs are anywhere from roughly 5% to 20% faster overall, although the exact amounts are a bit messy. To start, since there is no 24 core model in the previous generation, it is hard to judge just how much faster the 5965WX 24 core is. Compared to the 3955WX 16 Core, however, it hovers around 20% faster, and that is true across both live playback and exporting.

The Threadripper PRO 5975WX 32 Core and 5995WX 64 Core see a bit less of a gain over the last generation, although that is somewhat to be expected since they don't have the added benefit of having more cores than the previous models. Compared to the 3975WX, the 5975WX 32 Core is only about 4% faster overall, with most of that coming from a 7% increase in export performance. Live playback was only a few percent faster in most cases, and only slightly more when working with RAW codecs. The 5995WX 64 Core, on the other hand, was a solid 9% faster than the 3995WX on average. Once again, however, most of that comes from the increased export performance, where it was a solid 16% faster than the 3995WX.

Compared to the Intel Xeon W-3300 series, the new Threadripper PRO 5000WX line looks even better. Starting with the 5965WX 24 Core, AMD is overall a solid 23% faster than the W-3345. Again, the biggest performance gain is for exporting (where the 5965WX is almost 40% faster), but even for live playback, AMD holds a strong 18% performance advantage on average.

AMD's lead is slightly less at the 32 core mark, with the 5975WX only being about 10% faster than the W-3365 overall. Once again, exporting is where AMD has the biggest advantage, with the 5975WX scoring about 18% higher there.

One thing we want to point out that we have so far ignored is the fact that the consumer-grade Intel Core i9 12900K is often sitting at the top of our charts – right in line, or above, the significantly more expensive workstation-class CPUs. The reason behind this is due to the fact that when it comes down to what hardware is best for Premiere Pro, it highly depends on what you are doing; and the Core i9 12900K is exceptional for a few specific workflows. To help explain this, let's take a closer look at a couple of our benchmark results in more detail:

Performance with RAW codecs vs H.264

To start off, we wanted to look at the live playback score for our "4K RED" set of tests. RED is a RAW codec that uses both the CPU and GPU in tandem – the GPU for debayering (turning the raw sensor data into a usable picture) and the CPU for decoding. The GPU makes a big impact here, but the need for a beefy CPU is also critical for getting the best performance. And, as you can see in the first chart above, the new Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series is excellent for this type of codec. Performance relative to the previous generation, and to the Intel Xeon W-3300 series, is a bit higher compared to the overall scores, but you can also clearly see the benefit to the higher core count CPUs that is lost when looking at an average across all the codecs and tests in our benchmark.

On the other hand, if you switch to the second chart, you can see just why the Intel Core i9 12900K ends up with a similar overall score to the more expensive Threadripper PRO lines. In short, the Core i9 12900K has a technology called Quick Sync that Premiere Pro (and many other NLEs) can use to decode certain flavors of H.264 and HEVC footage. These codecs are among the most commonly used due to the fact that they have excellent video quality in a small file size, but the type of compression they use makes them among the absolute hardest for your computer to process. To compensate for this, editing applications take advantage of specific hardware found on many CPUs and GPUs in order to accelerate the decoding process.

Technically, all the systems we tested have hardware decoding support for the "flavors" of H.264 and HEVC included in our benchmark. The difference with the Core i9 12900K is almost entirely that it is able to use Quick Sync, and not rely on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 to handle decoding the media. Quick Sync tends to be a bit faster than the GPU for decoding, and the 12th gen in particular is often significantly faster than the GPUs currently available from NVIDIA and AMD.

What this really highlights is how important it is to consider your workflow when speccing out a new computer. Threadripper PRO is a terrific choice for many high-end workflows, but the way that Premiere Pro takes advantage of various hardware technologies means that it is not always going to be the fastest choice for every workflow.

AMD Threadripper PRO 5965WX vs 3955WX vs Intel Xeon W-3345

In most cases, the new AMD Threadripper PRO 5965WX 24 Core is significantly faster than both the previous generation Threadripper PRO 3955WX 16 Core and the Intel Xeon W-3345 24 Core. The 5965WX 24 Core does have more cores than the 3955WX 16 Core, but since the previous generation does not have a 24 core model, this is the closest comparison we are able to make across the two generations. In any case, the 5965WX ended up scoring about 20% higher than the 3955WX, fairly equally spread between live playback and exporting.

Compared to the Intel Xeon W-3345, the Threadripper Pro 5965WX also scored roughly 20% higher overall in Premiere Pro. Most significant was a nearly 40% increase in export performance compared to Intel, but live playback was also significantly better as well.

AMD Threadripper PRO 5975WX vs 3975WX vs Intel Xeon W-3365

Compared to both the previous generation Threadripper PRO 3975WX 32 Core and the Intel Xeon W-3365 32 Core, the new AMD Threadripper PRO 5975WX 32 Core holds a small, but measurable performance lead. Compared to the previous generation, the 5975WX is roughly 5% faster overall, with most of that coming from a 7% increase in export performance. For live playback, the difference between the two CPUs is fairly minimal.

Compared to the Intel Xeon W-3365, the Threadripper Pro 5975WX is just over 10% faster overall in Premiere Pro. Live playback is about 10% faster on average, although AMD extends their lead when exporting, coming in at just under 20% faster than the W-3365.

AMD Threadripper PRO 5995WX vs 3995WX

Higher core count CPUs like the new AMD Threadripper PRO 5995WX 64 Core and the previous generation Threadripper PRO 3995WX 64 Core tend to only be beneficial in very specific Premiere Pro workloads, even with the increased Boost frequency and IPC gains found on the new Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series.

Overall, new 5995WX is around 10% faster overall compared to the Threadripper PRO 3995WX, in large part due to a 15% increase in exporting performance. However, this makes the 5995WX 64 Core only a few percent faster than the 5975WX 32 Core, so most users will likely opt to stick with the 32 core model and invest the cost savings into other aspects of their system.

How well do AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series CPUs perform in Premiere Pro?

The new AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series processors are a solid bump over the previous generation, and in most cases hold a commanding lead over the Intel Xeon W-3300 series. The majority of the performance gain over the previous generation comes when exporting, where the new models are between 7% and 23% faster than the Threadripper PRO 3000 WX-Series. Live playback, on the other hand, is generally only a few percent faster with the exception of the 5965WX 24 Core which showed 23% better playback performance compared to the 3955WX 16 Core.

Compared to their main competition from Intel – the Xeon W-3300 line – the 5000WX series also maintains a strong lead. Overall, the 5000WX series is about 10-20% faster than the Xeon W-3300 processors, in large part due to a 20-40% increase in export performance. However, they also have a significant 10-20% performance lead for live playback, making AMD solidly faster than Intel across the board.

Overall, the new AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series processors are a great option for high-end Premiere Pro users – especially those working with RAW codecs. However, it is worth noting that there are certain workflows where there are better options available. In particular, if you primarily work with H.264 or HEVC media, Intel's 12th Gen Core processors have a technology called "Quick Sync" that can provide significantly higher performance than what you would likely see if you relied on the GPU for hardware decoding. With these codecs, workstation-class CPUs like Threadripper Pro (and Intel Xeon W for that matter), can at times be several times slower, particularly for live playback.

Keep in mind that the benchmark results in this article are strictly for Premiere Pro and that performance will vary widely in different applications. If your workflow includes other software packages, we highly recommend checking out our AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-Series Content Creation Review article which includes results and links to in-depth testing for a range of other applications including After Effects, Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve.