AMD "Zen 4" Based Ryzen Threadripper "Storm Peak" Surfaces with 96-core/192-thread Config

[btarunr]

AMD will build "Zen 4" based Ryzen Threadripper processors in an attempt to meet competition from Intel, which is rumored to launch HEDT processors of its own based on "Sapphire Rapids." While Intel's chip tops out at 60-core/120-thread and has a constellation of task-specific hardware-accelerators, AMD will arm its processors with raw CPU core-count, going as high up as 96-core/192-thread. The company has assigned the codename "Storm Peak" for these chips.

The Ryzen Threadripper 7000-series "Storm Peak" processor engineering samples surfaced on the Einstein@Home user database. As many as three OPNs have surfaced, "AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000884-21_N" and "AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000884-20_Y," which are 96-core/192-thread; and the "AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000454-20_Y," which is 64-core/128-thread. "Storm Peak" is likely just a variation of EPYC "Genoa," geared for higher frequencies.



How AMD sells these chips is a whole different story. The company skipped the client-HEDT market entirely for its "Zen 3" based Ryzen Threadripper 5000 series, and only targeted the workstation-HEDT market under the "WX" brand extension. The expectation now is that it could do something similar, by making Ryzen Threadripper 7000WX series SKUs that are initially sold exclusively through pre-built workstation manufacturers such as Lenovo, with a retail-channel launch expected some 6 months afterward.

Even as a workstation-only processor, "Storm Peak" has some jaw-dropping I/O specs that could include 12-channel DDR5 memory (24 x 40-bit sub-channels); and up to 160 PCI-Express Gen 5.0 lanes, which can connect up to 10 graphics cards at full x16 bandwidth; or a heap of PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMe SSDs and other high-bandwidth devices. AMD is expected to develop an exclusive chipset and CPU socket for these processors, which could be a variation of SP5.

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[Dimitriman]

What a beast.

Also, $10,000 minimum in today's market given how much greed ganja CEO's have been smoking.

 

[Guwapo77]

What a beast.

Also, $10,000 minimum in today's market given how much greed ganja CEO's have been smoking.

You might be right...The EPYC versions is almost $12K MSRP. I can't imagine what HEDT system would need anything remotely close to that.

 

[Minus Infinity]

You might be right...The EPYC versions is almost $12K MSRP. I can't imagine what HEDT system would need anything remotely close to that.

Well $12K for 96 cores is pretty good given Intel is asking nearly $13K for 60 cores. Still I think adding accelerators is good idea and surprised AMD did not use them in Zen 4, but apparently they will have plenty on offer in Zen 5 Turin.

 

[Dimitriman]

Well $12K for 96 cores is pretty good given Intel is asking nearly $13K for 60 cores. Still I think adding accelerators is good idea and surprised AMD did not use them in Zen 4, but apparently they will have plenty on offer in Zen 5 Turin.

At least they finally got proper avx512 though, it should be a good selling point for this threadripper.

 

[Airisom]

Kind of makes you wonder what the next step will be for CPUs. Cores are getting plentiful and GPUs can handle a lot of things better than a CPU can. Maybe chiplets that are optimized for certain instruction sets? Just a beer though lol.

 

[thesmokingman]

Kind of makes you wonder what the next step will be for CPUs. Cores are getting plentiful and GPUs can handle a lot of things better than a CPU can. Maybe chiplets that are optimized for certain instruction sets? Just a beer though lol.

CPU and GPU both have their place and one will probably never replace the other. This chip is imo a godsend for video production.

 

[ypsylon]

AMD I beg you, not to paywall it with SI first, because that was totally scummy thing to do with TRX40 while delaying WRX80 by 18 months.

Sure I don't need top of the line monster, but something down the stack - I drool already at the possibilities.

 

[Alan Smithee]

This article uses the wrong name. It's Threadripper Pro. There will never be another Threadripper non-Pro.

And the timing is a long way off. Threadripper Pro 5000 took 21 months after Ryzen 5000 launch to hit DIY, and even then it was a paper launch. Actual retail CPU availability was more like 24 months.

 

[Hofnaerrchen]

Kind of makes you wonder what the next step will be for CPUs. Cores are getting plentiful and GPUs can handle a lot of things better than a CPU can. Maybe chiplets that are optimized for certain instruction sets? Just a beer though lol.

I think ARM based designs are a good example what we will see in future. Increasing performance by increasing power consumption, even with better nodes, will not work for ever. I think we will see more cores in future chips but also more specialized cores, not only performance and efficiency cores like with intel 12th and 13th gen, "only" suited for specific tasks. Happened before but some people might not remember CPUs not having floating point units. Originally they were not part of the CPU and - if I remember correctly - on 286/386 MBs you had a separate socket for the FPU-chip.

 

[Solaris17]

This article uses the wrong name. It's Threadripper Pro. There will never be another Threadripper non-Pro.

If that’s the case then why not just call it thread ripper?

 

[Alan Smithee]

If that’s the case then why not just call it thread ripper?

There are feature differences, Ryzen Pro CPUs (Threadripper or 3/5/7/9) support kernel memory encryption for example.

 

[Solaris17]

There are feature differences, Ryzen Pro CPUs (Threadripper or 3/5/7/9) support kernel memory encryption for example.

OH you mean in regards to OG threadripper. lol I didnt even consider it. Thanks.

 

[aQi]

Im pretty sure these will be nicely cooked to target deep pockets yet im still onto Intel's HEDT platform. It has been a while now and not that Intel cannot compete, they simply wont do it until they feel like doing it. They are cooking something and I bet they wont go as sky high priced as AMD did with threadripper. Raptor lake is already competing with Amd's price segments and Intel HEDT would do the same.

 

[Zareek]

Im pretty sure these will be nicely cooked to target deep pockets yet im still onto Intel's HEDT platform. It has been a while now and not that Intel cannot compete, they simply wont do it until they feel like doing it. They are cooking something and I bet they wont go as sky high priced as AMD did with threadripper. Raptor lake is already competing with Amd's price segments and Intel HEDT would do the same.

Unless Intel is going in a totally new direction, there is no way Intel will ever price an HEDT platform a lot cheaper than AMD. Maybe a little cheaper to compete but Intel is not the market value player and never has been. They are seeing the erosion of their empire and pricing this generation to win back the market share they lost. There is definitely a market for high-end workstations, but it's still a low volume market. I seriously doubt HEDT will become a pricing battleground. On top of that, if they price them too competitively, they risk eroding their server chip market.

 

[aQi]

Unless Intel is going in a totally new direction, there is no way Intel will ever price an HEDT platform a lot cheaper than AMD. Maybe a little cheaper to compete but Intel is not the market value player and never has been. They are seeing the erosion of their empire and pricing this generation to win back the market share they lost. There is definitely a market for high-end workstations, but it's still a low volume market. I seriously doubt HEDT will become a pricing battleground. On top of that, if they price them too competitively, they risk eroding their server chip market.

I can agree with you on this but Intel has to bring back glory to HEDT. So that consumers can enjoy the same HEDT performance not disappointing their enthusiasm. If you see when there was no HEDT repetition from Intel, AMD priced its tx40 quite high as there was no other options to challange them but when Intel had its HEDT there was always X399 to go with.

 

[Zareek]

I can agree with you on this but Intel has to bring back glory to HEDT. So that consumers can enjoy the same HEDT performance not disappointing their enthusiasm. If you see when there was no HEDT repetition from Intel, AMD priced its tx40 quite high as there was no other options to challange them but when Intel had its HEDT there was always X399 to go with.

Perhaps, that is why AMD priced it's HEDT platform higher. Maybe a certain OEM made them realize that they could be asking a lot more for it. That professionals were more than willing to pay.