AMD's 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $ 3990! Coming February 7th, Hacker News

At the tail end of last year, one of the key launches in the creator / workstation processor market was AMD’s latest 3^rdGeneration Threadripper portfolio, which started with (core and) ************************************************************************************** – core hardware, with a strong teaser that a – core version was coming in (*******************************************************. Naturally, there was a lot of speculation, particularly regarding sustained frequencies, pricing, availability, and launch date. This week at CES, we can answer a couple of those questions.

The new – core AMD Threadripper X is essentially a consumer variant of the – core EPYC P is currently for sale in the server market, albeit with fewer memory channels, fewer enterprise features , but a higher frequency and higher TDP. That processor has a suggested e-tail price (SEP) of $ 4450, compared to the new 3990 X, which will have a $ SEP.

**********AMD HEDT SKUs

Base /

TurboL3 DRAM

TDPSRP

TR (X) / 180************
2.9 / 4.3^{**************}

4x) ***********************************************

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TR (X) /

3.7 / 4.5********************************************************** (MB)

TR (X) /

3.8 / 4.5

TR WX

3.0 / 4.2**************************************************************** (MB) *************

TR (WX) ************/

3.0 / 4.2**************************************************************** (MB) *************

TR 2950 X

TR 2920 X/

3.5 / 4.3MB

Ryzen

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The other element to the news is the launch date. February 7^this probably earlier than a lot of us in the press expected, however it will be interesting to see how many AMD is able to make, given our recent discussions with CTO Mark Papermaster regarding wafer orders at TSMC. As this chip more closely resembles the price of AMD’s EPYC lineup, we might actually see more of these on the market, as they will attract a good premium. However, the number of users likely do put close to $ 4k onto a high-end desktop CPU and not go for an enterprise system is a hard one to judge.

AMD recommends that in order to maintain performance scaling with the 3990 X that owners should have at least 1 GB of DDR4 per core, if not 2 GB. To be honest anyone looking at this chip should also have enough money in the bank to also get a GB kit of good memory, if not 452 GB. As with other Threadripper chips, AMD lists the support as DDR4 – (************************************************, but the memory controller can be overclocked.

We should be talking with AMD soon about sampling, ready for our February 7^threview. Please put in some benchmark requests below.

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*************** AnandTech Cores /Threads

1DPCPCIe

Third Generation Threadripper

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************************************************************************** (W)

****************************************************************************************************************** (W) $

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****************************************************************************************************************** (W) $

Second Generation Threadripper

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/ () 3.5 / 4.4

****************************************************************************************************************** (W) $

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Ryzen 9 (X) / () 3.5 / 4.7MB

************************************************** (W) $

Frequencies for the new CPU will come in at 2.9 GHz base and 4.3 GHz turbo, which is actually a bit more than I was expecting to see. No word on what the all-core turbo will be, however AMD’s EPYC 7H 12, a – core 452 W CPU for the HFT market, is meant to offer an all-core turbo from 3.0-3.3 GHz, so we might see something similar here , especially with aggressive cooling. Naturally, AMD is recommending water cooling setups, as with its other W Threadripper CPUs. Motherboard support is listed as the current generation of TRX (motherboards.)

Although we don’t put much stock in vendor supplied benchmark numbers, AMD did state that they expect to see Cinebench R MT numbers around 25000. That’s up from ~ on the X. This means not perfect scaling, but for the prosumer market where this chip matters, offering 64% performance for double the cost is often worth it and can be amortized over time.