I can see a number of scenarios where a HEDT motherboard with the extra PCIe lanes can be of benefit without the need for more that16 core/32 cpu threads.
This can be from a household virtual PC as recent seen on LINUS where they used 4 or so video cards where used with optical fibre KVM to produce a remote virtual desktop without needing a PC in every room but uses a KVM optical fibre device for the Display/speaker/mouse and keyboard where each are allocated there own ram and cpu cores as well as disk space which could a multitude of Pcie nvme 4x storage devices or arrays of them.
This is where you quickly start running out of PCIe lanes. (4 cores per desktop on the 5000 series would most like be OK for most games but 6 cores would allow more breathing room 24 cores total)
64 lanes just for the GPUs i.e. 4 x RTX3080 or better or more.
for each nvme that is 4 pcie on standard m.2
or 16 lanes per card allowing for 4 per card (raid 0 or 1 or 5 if your controller allows )
now if you have a combination of 4 onboard NVMe plus 3 x pcie 16x populated these can quickly use up another 64 lanes
(128 lanes gone and some are shared)
Here a motherboard like the asus 7 pcei would be great, Ram would depend on the amount each user could require 16gb x 4 =64gb or double that for 32gb each though the LINUS one did go a bit overboard i.e. 128gb each.
There are some crazy rigs out there that people come up with specially with a system that lends itself to virtualisation the way thread ripper does.


Another scenario could be purely for data servers where processing is minimal but speed of access is paramount, for quick access to crucial data.

Another could be where a recording streaming /4k security server where specialist cards are required to have a multitude of streams being encoded using hardware and again the storage and pcie lanes get used up like they are going out of style each of the encoding cards can used anywhere from 8 to 16 pcie lanes and storage cards similarly high amounts .. though I have seen the odd hybrid systems that use some drives as cache for slower drives such as those using sata ports for longer term storage.

I am sure some of the other tech people in the industries have seen even more bizarre setups.

TheFutureIsNotWhatItWasNot at all... threadripper is a fantastic product since the 3000 series, and I literally detest Intel, becuase they are bluntly said crooks....but the thing is if You really work with computers, and look at the options and super high frequency mega core count is not your first priority, TRX40 has very less to offer....
You get tops 4 pcie slots 16 of tops two are wired at x16...on intel with a dual socket at half teh cost of xtr40 u can pack 88 pcie lanes and wire at least 4 at x16..you can change the pci slots pcie lanes, you cant do this on amd systems.(unless i missed out something)
I can run raid 10on Intel and have still tons of extra expansion, I cant on AMD...
Now Gigabyte has made an IPMI motherboard with 7 pcie slots for threadripper pro....this is a great option in case amd allows to buy the pro series to compete with intel W, or it is a sign that at least at Gigabyte they woke up and they will be making threadripper motherboards with better expansion possibilites, in that case i am all in AMD, but as for now, despite having fantastic cpus and the 5000 series will be definitely that, they are some kind a waste of money unless u wanna build a small system with just 2/4 gpus instead of ideally 5....and the only decent motherboard for that is the aorus extreme becuase of the pcie slot spacing.
I do not dispute AMD threadripper, but I am disputing that the TRx40 platform as offered today is total piece of junk no matter how high end the components are....if i cant milk all the pcie lanes how i need them what use is to me to buy a threadripper.?!
Motherboard manufacturters have stil NOT understood what a threadripper notherboard shoudl be like AND frankly at this point AMD themselves are not really aware of what Threadripper is ideal for themselves...it seesmto me they just made threadripper to show theyare faster than Intel, but do nto have the fainthest idea what people do with this grade of Platforms.
And it shows...they have zero collabopriton with Chaos group , Zero collaboraiton with Otoy, Zero collaboration with Pixar, zero Collaboraiton with SideFX..they have zero collaboration withthe VFX and movie industry and the software makes for such proffesionals....I doubt they ever even contacted Autodesk or even Adobe.
I am also pretty sure that at AMD they have no idea at all that a 3990X rendering perfomancre is equal to more than two TITAN RTX...
They are just focusing in consolles and storage servers.... and in the meantime all the rest of the world is going at a much faster pace and if they continue to stay like this it wont take more than 2 years for them to go down the drain again as they did in the past.
AMD today should be buying out all the rendering software companies possible which cost relatively nothing compared to Xilinx a drop in the octo buyean and have a stake in most gaming studios, and much deeper finacial connection with sony or samsung.
At supermicro it took forever to get out a EPyc or threadripper motherboard..or a GPGPU sever motherboard....if it was not for nvidia AMD would not be in NVIDIA SERVERS.
I suspect, that at AMD there are great engineers, but that they and the CTO and the CEO are totally incapable of seeing beyond their nose and what is going on around in the world.
Nvidia has got ARM now.. AMD can see the whole consolle world slip away from under their nose.... they should have bid for ARM in competition with NVIDIA.. now they better make good use of xililinx and get into aerospace military and similar industries fast.

You seem to have a real problem with Threadripper. I think you are definitely an Intel shill though by making it seem that Dr Su is in some way a moron. No one that owns Threadripper feels the way you feel. As someone that owns TR4, the only thing we lament is the cost of 3000 series chips. In some ways the TRX40 boards make more sense (and are cheaper) than some X570 and 1/2 the cost of the highest purported Z590 that is just getting PCIe 4.0. Even with that you must be living under a rock as the public was not allowed to even sniff 128 lane CPUs but they are coming to DIY soon. HENCE Supermicro is releasing a board that as good as they are in the enterprise space looked like a Biostar board compared to the Asus WRX80 board . I guess Disney doesn't count as a movie industry member but I watched the CES stream and they seem to be well entrenched in the space you claim they have no knowledge of. I suggest you go back to your den and finish hibernating.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but when will Xeon W be released with PCIe 4.0 support? I know Rocket Lake is coming very soon for mainstream desktop but that still won't have PCIe 4.0 across the chipset, only the CPU lanes. Sapphire Rapids was supposed to have launched already but that is Xeon scaleable / server CPUs.

arconzSorry if this is a dumb question

No, it's not. Specially when Intel has like ten freaking thousand lakes and ridges and coves, etc. It's frankly nauseating.

The W580 chipset is rumored to be launched somewhere around April/May, so there's a chance Intel will launch new Xeon W processors during that time, since they usually launch processors and chipsets together.
www.techpowerup.com/273052/intel-to-debut-500-series-chipset-with-core-rocket-lake-s-which-launches-late-q1-2021

windwhirlNo, it's not. Specially when Intel has like ten freaking thousand lakes and ridges and coves, etc. It's frankly nauseating.

The W580 chipset is rumored to be launched somewhere around April/May, so there's a chance Intel will launch new Xeon W processors during that time, since they usually launch processors and chipsets together.

Thanks, so about the same time as Threadripper 5K...? Its a bit disappointing at CES there was no mention of TR5K.

I do 3D simulations in Maya and extra cores helps with the solvers a great deal. I render with the GPU on Redshift. I don't have an unlimited budget but would spend maybe US$ 2K on CPU. My fear is that if Xeon W doesn't finally put something decent on the table (preferably before TR5K), then AMD will just price hike the whole TR5K range by 30% or something lol :/

As a side note I've been looking at TRX40 motherboards... are there really none that have passively cooled chipsets? With X570 the Gigabyte Auros Extreme and Asus Dark Hero proved that fans are not needed for PCIe 4.0 over the chipset... it looks like manufacturers just like the bigger profit margin from using a cheap fan. This sort of laziness is really disappointing to see on a high end platform, they could charge a premium and slap on some metal and the professional market would pay.

arconzAs a side note I've been looking at TRX40 motherboards... are there really none that have passively cooled chipsets? With X570 the Gigabyte Auros Extreme and Asus Dark Hero proved that fans are not needed for PCIe 4.0 over the chipset... it looks like manufacturers just like the bigger profit margin from using a cheap fan. This sort of laziness is really disappointing to see on a high end platform, they could charge a premium and slap on some metal and the professional market would pay.

It's the same thing with the WRX80 boards (actual workstation boards, with no RGB or gaming bs). So far, the three or so I heard about have a fan on the chipset. Though, if I'm being honest, I'm not sure it's all that terrible. Realistically, considering the performance you'd expect to get from the platform, a Threadripper rig doesn't seem like it would be easy to keep silent. And if you're really pushing it, then the CPU cooler fan is going to spin up rather high. Add to that the noise from the case fans and I think the chipset fan noise is just gonna fade in with the rest.

Though, that's just my take on it. On my board, the chipset fan isn't really noticeable. It might be a different matter depending on the fan each board has.

arconzThanks, so about the same time as Threadripper 5K...? Its a bit disappointing at CES there was no mention of TR5K.

Maybe AMD is waiting for Intel's move? Though, I think they're also holding it back because of the demand for other products. Console chips, the RX 6000 series, mainstream Ryzen, Epyc... it's a lot to make on a single node.

The fan quality matters even on a smaller size. There certainly isn't as much innovation on that end as larger fans however generally speaking. There probably should be a bit more of it though they could be better for thermo electric generator powered fan's to harvest some power free cooling to components that don't need a abundance of heat dissipation in the first place.

windwhirlIt's the same thing with the WRX80 boards (actual workstation boards, with no RGB or gaming bs). So far, the three or so I heard about have a fan on the chipset. Though, if I'm being honest, I'm not sure it's all that terrible. Realistically, considering the performance you'd expect to get from the platform, a Threadripper rig doesn't seem like it would be easy to keep silent. And if you're really pushing it, then the CPU cooler fan is going to spin up rather high.

The CPU & GPU will be waterblocks :) With big radiators its not too hard to have a quiet system under load.