Remember AMD's Threadripper Pro CPUs which went on sale in prebuilt workstations? Well, they're now available for the general public in boxed CPU offerings - if you have the cash for them. The platform offers support for up to 2 TB of DRAM through its eight-channel configuration, 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, and up to 64 cores (128 Threads with the company's Simultaneous Multi Threading [SMT] technology). The best motherboards for these productivity beasts are, according to AMD, WRX80-based motherboards, which start at a pretty negligible $999.

The company's lineup tops out at the flagship Threadripper PRO 3995WX, which is a 64-core/128-thread max-out of the "Rome" MCM, with a max boost frequency of 4.20 GHz ($5,489). Next up is the Threadripper PRO 3975WX, which is a 32-core/64-thread part, clocked up to 4.20 GHz boost ($2,749). Following this, is the Threadripper PRO 3955WX, a 16-core/32-thread part clocked up to 4.30 GHz boost ($1,149). The Threadripper PRO 3945WX, a 12-core/24-thread part clocked up to 4.30 GHz boost, is apparently absent from this release. If you need the current best from AMD apart from their EPYC CPUs, it doesn't get much better than this.

AMD today announced that the Ryzen Threadripper PRO workstation processors will be directly available for purchase from March 2021. Until now, the processors were exclusively available as options for the Lenovo ThinkStation P620 workstation. The processors are being released alongside a small selection of compatible motherboards by ASUS and GIGABYTE. The Threadripper PRO processors are built in the sWRX8 package, and compatible with the AMD WRX80 chipset. From what we can tell, these processors are not compatible with sTRX4 motherboards.

What sets the Ryzen Threadripper PRO apart from the regular Ryzen Threadripper 3000 series is that it's a fully unlocked "Rome" multi-chip module re-configured for the workstation, with up to 64 CPU cores, 8-channel DDR4 memory, and 128 PCI-Express Gen 4 lanes. In comparison, the Ryzen Threadripper 3000 chips only feature 4-channel memory, and fewer 72 PCIe Gen 4 lanes from the SoC. The PIB (processor in box) retail package of the Ryzen Threadripper PRO looks rather plain compared to the PC enthusiast-focused Threadripper 3000, with a simple paperboard box that packs the processor, an Asetek AIO CLC adapter, and a spring-loaded screwdriver that's tuned for the sWRX80 socket.

Videocardz seems to have snagged some official AMD slides detailing their upcoming Threadripper PRO lineup. AMD is tiering its Threadripper CPU offerings between the Threadripper and Threadripper PRO via added functionality that AMD considers is better suited to the prospective buyers of a PRO-branded Threadripper: professional studios, designers, engineers and data scientists. AMD's positioning for these creatives or scientists is to offer a much improved platform throughput compared to Threadripper: the PRO version supports up to 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes (64 in non-PRO); up to 2 TB of ECC memory support (either in UDIMM (Unbuffered DIMM), RDIMM (Registered DIMM), LRDIMM (Load-Reduced DIMM) and 3DS (three-dimensional stacking) RDIMM vi an 8-channel configuration (4-channel in non-PRO); as well as professional-oriented tools and features such as Pro Security, Pro manageability, and PRO business ready support.

Four different CPUs will reportedly be offered in the Threadripper PRO lineup: the 64-core 3995WX is a relatively known quantity by now; likewise, the 3975WX will mirror consumer parts core counts (32 cores), both with reduced clocks by 100-200 MHz compared to their non-PRO counterparts. AMD seems to also be launching 12 and 16-core PRO Threadrippers in the form of the 3955WX (16-core) and 3945WX (12-core), both with boost clocks being set to 4.3 GHz.