Wouldn't the higher clocks impact single-core performance? The article claims that's about the same. I suppose the userbenchmark single-core perf test[1] (the article links to some userbenchmark.com results) could just be a bad test; I'm unfamiliar with it. (It could also be that 2990WX wasn't power/heat limited on a single core, and neither is 3xxx; but say, at 16 core 100% clock, 3xxx can go higher than 2990WX due to a lower power process?)
Anyway, it's still 32 cores. While eliminating the ultra weird NUMA effect and increasing clocks could explain a significant benefit, I'm still really struggling to intuit 72% higher performance. But it is Windows 10, so your remarks about the Windows scheduler may explain the gap.[2]
Zen2 is moving to a somewhat deceptive advertising model for clocks.
AMD is advertising the absolute highest that any core on the die can hit under extremely light load for an absolute instant. Sustained single-core clocks will be 100-200 MHz less and sustained all-core will be significantly less. Most cores on a chip are not capable of sustaining the advertised clockrate even under severe voltage and even for instant loads, only the "preferred core" on a chip. There is a significant "binning effect" not just between chips, but between individual cores on a chip.
Intel and previous generations of AMD cores used to advertise the sustained single-core rate, which could be achieved on any of the cores. This is a changeup to how the clockrate has been advertised.
I don't actually recall any Zen2 clock advertising in particular. My comment was purely in response to your earlier statement:
> Another part is the power consumption and resulting higher clocks. The 2990WX was basically power limited, the new chips are on 7nm which will drastically reduce their power consumption and allow higher clocks inside the same power envelope.
Anyway, it's still 32 cores. While eliminating the ultra weird NUMA effect and increasing clocks could explain a significant benefit, I'm still really struggling to intuit 72% higher performance. But it is Windows 10, so your remarks about the Windows scheduler may explain the gap.[2]
[1]: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Faq/What-is-single-core-intege...
[2]: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/19698768