Thursday, June 30th 2022
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5900WX-series Pricing Revealed
Last week, AMD announced that its Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5900WX-series of processors were going to be available from more OEMs, with an eventual retail version of the three models going to be available. Now the company has shared the retail pricing for the new workstation processors and it would appear that AMD's HEDT platform has become unobtanium for most consumers, after having been one of the cheapest platforms out there only a couple of generations ago. According to Tom's Hardware, whom AMD shared the pricing with, the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5965WX, the 24 core, 48 thread entry level model, will start at US$2,399, which is more than a 32 core, 64 thread Threadripper 3970X, which has a retail price of US$1,999.
A step up is the 32 core, 64 thread Threadripper Pro 5975WX for US$3,299 and at the top of the stacks, sits the 64 core, 128 thread Threadripper Pro 5995WX for the hefty price of US$6,499. All three models have 128 PCIe lanes and a 280 W TDP. AMD seems to have decided to cash in on its core and thread advantage over Intel, as Intel's highest-end workstation chip is the Xeon W-3375, with 38 cores and 76 threads, which comes in at US$4,499, but only has half the PCIe lane count and a much smaller cache. That said, Intel is expected to launch its 4th generation of Xeon W processors, codenamed Sapphire Rapids later this year, which is expected to feature a 56 core, 112 thread SKU, which should bring some competition to AMD in this market segment.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
A step up is the 32 core, 64 thread Threadripper Pro 5975WX for US$3,299 and at the top of the stacks, sits the 64 core, 128 thread Threadripper Pro 5995WX for the hefty price of US$6,499. All three models have 128 PCIe lanes and a 280 W TDP. AMD seems to have decided to cash in on its core and thread advantage over Intel, as Intel's highest-end workstation chip is the Xeon W-3375, with 38 cores and 76 threads, which comes in at US$4,499, but only has half the PCIe lane count and a much smaller cache. That said, Intel is expected to launch its 4th generation of Xeon W processors, codenamed Sapphire Rapids later this year, which is expected to feature a 56 core, 112 thread SKU, which should bring some competition to AMD in this market segment.
65 Comments on AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5900WX-series Pricing Revealed
- This came from AMD directly and through official channels
- AMD confirmed alongside this information, also through official channels, that "AMD isn't releasing non-Pro Threadripper processors anymore".
Is there leeway in that wording for it to be speculation/analysis on top of the provided information? Sure, some. But that would be a level of disingenuousness that I expect from the likes of WCCFTech. Tom's is still a rung above that IMO.Really? You're sure about that? Have you thought about the size of that niche, and its characteristics? 'Cause they're extremely specific:
To buy TR, but not TR Pro, EPYC or Ryzen, a customer would need to
- benefit materially from >16 cores, >2 memory channels or >20 PCIe 4.0 lanes
- also not benefit materially from >4 memory channels or >64 PCIe lanes
- not benefit even more from offloading these tasks to a render farm or other off-site/separate compute cluster
- have the budget for ~$1-4000 CPUs and ~$500-1000 motherboards
- not have the budget for $2-6500 CPUs and $500-???? motherboards
- have the knowledge, manpower and resources to build, maintain and support DIY workstations
- not have a desire to outsource that job to someone specialized
Add in storage and AICs to match the overall build, and the price difference between TR and TR Pro is minor for most of those interested.
In sum, that's a really, really, really tiny niche. I guess you could add DIY workstation diehards to that list, but again, that's not that many people. Globally. And they'd still need the budget.
News flash for you, if we talk about it and make it clear it's what we want, AMD might actually DO IT! There are a fair number of voices in this thread alone making it clear it's what we want. And when companies see demand for a product they can churn out with relative ease, they might just capitalize on it. So use your loaf and quit being a defeatist pantomime.
I'm going to show an example... Here. Let's see what the community response is, shall we?
EDIT: 7 votes cast so far and with 28% in favor... But we'll see.
EDIT2: 14 votes cast and we're still at 28% in favor, but this is just day one...
As for pricing and profits, you currently get a 16-core Ryzen 5950X for ~$550, down from its $750 MSRP. That's massively better value than even first gen TR. The market has moved on. So, sure, AMD makes mroe selling a 3960X than a 1950X, but they also make less selling a 5950X than any of those 1st gen TRs. As a consumer, even accounting for the massive price increases in the past couple of years (and excluding GPUs, talking about CPUs alone right now) we get more value for money overall, and more performance for less.
Saying Hollywood is a big TR adopter is also ... well, likely somewhat accurate, but they're an even bigger adopter of TR Pro and EPYC, and the film and TV industries have seen a massive move towards off-site render farms over the past decade. The problem TR represented a solution for in that space is a problem that has been solved better and at a much larger scale by the wide availability of either self-owned or for-rent render time on massively powerful server clusters. Even freelancers and small studios can now relatively easily get access to massively powerful render farms for much less than it would cost them to build up their own HEDT-based setups.
Also, as you yourself admit - most of that performance you mention, which typically isn't memory or PCIe bound, is now found in the now up to 16-core MSDT market - and at much higher clocks, lower power draws, and higher IPC. Which leads to the situation I outlined above: TR only makes sense if you see significant gains above 16 cores/32 threads, or if you really need the PCIe and/or RAM bandwidth (but also don't stand to benefit further from the extras TR Pro and EPYC bring to the table in those areas). Workers doing 3D/VFX in the entertainment industry are now most likely working on high core count MSDT systems with large render jobs offloaded to a render farm. The benefits to these workflows from a non-pro TR lineup would either be nonexistent or would be even larger with TR Pro.
As for releasing a theoretical 5900X3D or 5950X3D in response to Intel's HEDT efforts - that's unlikely for several reasons. It would still be on an MSDT platform with two memory channels and a relatively low number of PCIe lanes. It would also top out at 16 cores, which is already mostly comparable to Intel's 8+8 MSDT chips. If Intel launches a new HEDT platform, a new MSDT CPU wouldn't be much of a response to that beyond what already exists in the 5950X. That doesn't mean it might not launch - I don't think it will, but AMD seems set on keeping AM4 alive for a while yet, so I may be surprised - but any further X3D AM4 chips would be more of a bid towards keeping AM4 relevant than a "kinda-HEDT" response to Intel.Yet my arguments are rooted in both. You're just in denial. The industry and markets have moved on in ways that render traditional "enthusiast-grade" HEDT a tiny niche, gobbled up from both sides by expanding MSDT performance and massively increased Pro HEDT/server performance. That's just plain facts.Except for the fact that AMD has been pretty clear that TR has never sold well, that it has been more of a hobby/show-off project than anything else, and they've been quite clear in their desire to move those efforts into more sustainable and profitable areas. Hence the launch of TR Pro. Heck, you won't even find TR 3000 non-pro on their site, which is frankly astounding - they exist, after all. But it shows clear intent: TR Pro is where TR is continuing. Traditional HEDT is no longer a sustainable market.Yeah, still early days, but I don't see four votes in favor in an enthusiast forum as much of an argument in your favor. Remember, such a thread is inherently biased towards those interested in the subject, so compared to the overall population you'll likely see an overrepresentation of positive answers - and the population of this forum is in turn massively more likely to be interested in HEDT than the rest of the world. Yet it's currently about 3-to-1, and the discussion in the thread is quite in line with my beliefs. We'll see how this develops, but so far I'm not seeing anything that doesn't explicitly support my views.
For me, HEDT gave me a way to roll a gaming machine and a work machine into one box. Now that's gone. Can I pay for a second PC that at the end of the day is really just for games? Sure but as I have two work rooms that's two more PCs and I really don't need two more PCs. I could just have my two work PCs and play on the Nintendo Switch or PS5. And looking at the entire situation, that's what's going to happen when my current machines start to obsolete out. I need two work boxes and my SO needs her work box and her work laptop. When three of those can double as gaming machines that's a nice option, when they don't and we are looking at more boxes it becomes time to play on the switch and PS5.