Wednesday, July 8th 2020
AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX Processor Pictured: 8-channel DDR4
Here is the first picture of the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX processor, designed to be part of AMD's HEDT/workstation processor launch for this year. The picture surfaced briefly on the ChipHell forums, before being picked up by HXL (@9550pro) This processor is designed to compete with Intel Xeon W series processors, such as the W-3175X, and is hence located a segment above even the "normal" Threadripper series led by the 64-core/128-thread Threadripper 3990X. Besides certain features exclusive to Ryzen PRO series processors, the killer feature with the 3995WX is a menacing 8-channel DDR4 memory interface, that can handle up to 2 TB of memory with ECC.
The Threadripper PRO 3995X is expected to have a mostly identical I/O to the most expensive EPYC 7662 processor. As a Ryzen-branded chip, it could feature higher clock speeds than its EPYC counterpart. To enable its 8-channel memory, the processor could come with a new socket, likely the sWRX8, and AMD WRX80 chipset, although it wouldn't surprise us if these processors have some form of inter-compatibility with sTRX4 and TRX40 (at limited memory bandwidth and PCIe capabilities, of course). Sources tell VideoCardz that AMD could announce the Ryzen Threadripper PRO series as early as July 14, 2020.
Sources:
HXL (Twitter), ChipHell Forums, VideoCardz
The Threadripper PRO 3995X is expected to have a mostly identical I/O to the most expensive EPYC 7662 processor. As a Ryzen-branded chip, it could feature higher clock speeds than its EPYC counterpart. To enable its 8-channel memory, the processor could come with a new socket, likely the sWRX8, and AMD WRX80 chipset, although it wouldn't surprise us if these processors have some form of inter-compatibility with sTRX4 and TRX40 (at limited memory bandwidth and PCIe capabilities, of course). Sources tell VideoCardz that AMD could announce the Ryzen Threadripper PRO series as early as July 14, 2020.
29 Comments on AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX Processor Pictured: 8-channel DDR4
It's a Data Matrix.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix
8-channel DDR4 memory may necessitate another change but for those who can take advantage of that feature and pay for it the change isn't necessarily something to worry about,.....to say nothing about clutching their purse or Pearls over.
Most people are priced out of the Threadripper platform or at least most are priced out of the current / newer Threadripper platforms especially at the top end of the market,.....so its a none issue for 99.99% of people in forums like these.
1% wont blink at the ~$4000+ USD price tag of the current 3990x Threadripper or $$$$$ for the upcoming 3995x,..... Why would they blink at needing a new motherboard for it?
AMD specificly stated that the TR3000 socket change was to enable longer support but that's blatantly false if sTR40 receives only two generations of CPU's like TR4 socket did.
When Threadripper first came out it was great but AMD broke compatibility and significantly upped the prices with TR3000 once they saw that Intel was unable to complete (in terms of performance, energy efficiency and even availability).
This is why we need competition. I have no doubt that AMD would do the same on desktop with AM5 if Intel is unable to compete. Raise prices and limit AM5 to two generations of CPU's.
That's not the future im looking forward to. And as much as i love my 3800X and AM4 and as much as i dislike Intel - AMD is not above criticism for me.
Significant improvements in successive processor iterations over a span of years aren't easily planed for on version 1.0 of the platform.
If people want more then just a meager clock bump they may have to sacrifice some backward compatibility at some point.
Intel's implementations was wrong in that it was planned obsolescence if not forced obsolescence from generation to generation. That was egregious.
Hopefully AMD doesn't do anything like this or make a habit of it but again most people aren't on the Threadripper platform here. The few that are likely bought in after significant price cuts when AMD moved on to the next generation. The few that didn't buy discount last gen Threadripper probably use it as a workstation and apply real workloads not just games. Those are working machines that need to earn their keep, the economics of which doesn't make it difficult to upgrade when applicable regardless of platform / socket change (at least not when it comes to money but rather downtime is the problem).
I'm kind of surprised that this product exists at all. I figure that if someone wanted 128-threads, they'd prefer a wider machine. Maybe this Threadripper PRO is for the HFT crowd (known for overclocking and needing obscure, very low-latency, machines). This 3995X isn't mainstream at all... most normies probably would use a EPYC 7662 over it.
On another note with 8-channel memory imagine what a TR chip like this designed intentionally as APU would perform like!? If they cut the CPU cores in half or even a quarter and utilized the rest for stream processors it would be rather beastly for a APU especially if they transitioned to RNDA2 on the APU side. I mean it wouldn't beat discrete, but it sure would go a long way towards eating up a lot of the mid range GPU's while leaving the PCI-E slots available for whatever else you want to pair it with like a x16 PCI-E 4.0 quad NVMe raid card which if the APU had HBCC would be pretty interesting.
I want to see that 8-channel memory tested with Primo Cache on a quad PCI-E 4.0 NVMe setup. That thing would absolutely scream on the I/O side of things.
- We wanted to drive maximum performance for the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors and sTRX4 helps us do exactly that. The 3rd Gen Threadripper will have 88 total PCIe Gen 4 lanes with 72 usable (CPU+motherboard). The net of total versus usable is because we’re also increasing the CPU<->chipset link from 4x Gen4 to 8x Gen4—quadruple the bandwidth vs. 2nd Gen TR. Extra data pins between the chipset and CPU make this possible, so you’ll be able to hang more I/O off the motherboard at full performance.
- The socket change also sets us up nicely for future development and scalability of the Threadripper platform, both on a near- and long-term basis.
Yet despite this EPYC CPU's retained compatiblity without a socket change while still introducing PCIe 4.0So AMD's arguments are pretty hollow. And now with sWRX80 platform and DDR5 based platform coming in 2022 i fail to see where this long term support and scalability exists when users can expect barely ~2 years of support with sTRX40 still needing a replacement to run WRX CPU's. AMD should have enabled TR4/X399 compatibility even if it meant losing some features like wider CPU-Chipset uplink and then gone all out with unified DDR5 based 8 channel system in 2022. Instead we got 2 intermediate sockets that are not compatible with each other nor backwards or forwards. Great job AMD...
Regarding 8 channel Threadripper requiring a new socket, I can only understand people being annoyed if AMD doesn't release 4th gen Threadripper on sTR4. If AMD is establishing another tier of Threadripper that supports 8 channel memory, then I can't see why that would upset sTR4 users, especially if they get a 4th gen update (that would remain limited to 4 channel memory).
Socket compatibility at this end of the market matters less than mainstream. 1) the ratio of build cost to motherboard cost makes replacing the motherboard a relatively smaller cost driver for upgrading, and 2) the point of these processors is maximum performance at any cost, so it seems bizarre that people would happily pay $4k for a processor (and 4 more DIMMS) but be offended about the need for a new $400-600 motherboard.
The story lists sTRX4 as HEDT and sWRX8 as workstation.