AMD Confirms Ryzen Threadripper Is Still Alive, 16-core Ryzen 9 Overclock Spotted At Computex





AMD sparked quite a firestorm earlier this month when its latest May 2019 CPU roadmap removed references to the third-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors. The Ryzen Threadripper 3000 processors, however, did show up in an earlier March 2019 CPU roadmap update.

Needless to say, speculation ramped up as to what was exactly going on with these HEDT processors. Was AMD delaying the processors to 2020, or would the company kill them off entirely to make way for cheaper, high-core consumer Ryzen processors? Luckily, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su was able to provide some insight into what's going on at a behind-the-scenes talk at Computex 2019.

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su

“I don’t think we ever said that Threadripper was not going to continue—it somehow took on a life of its own on the Internet,” said Su according to PC World. "You will see more [Threadripper] from us; you will definitely see more.”

As to why Ryzen Threadripper disappeared from the latest roadmap, the next comment from Su sheds some light on a potential reason. “If mainstream is moving up, then Threadripper will have to move up, up—and that’s what we’re working on." In other words, AMD likely needs a bit more time to figure out how to better differentiate Threadripper from the mainstream Ryzen processors, which are now up to 12 cores and 24 threads with the introduction of the $499 Ryzen 9 3900X.

With that being said, the rumored 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 processor didn't make an appearance yesterday at Lisa Su's Computex 2019 keynote. But that doesn't mean that such a processor isn't in the cards. In fact, according to one report, a 16-core Ryzen 9 processor was spotted behind the scenes, overclocked using a water cooler. The processor scored 4346 points in Cinebench R15 while overclocked at 4.25GHz.

That score largely lines up with our reporting from earlier this week which showed an unidentified 16-core Ryzen 3000 processor clocked at 4.2GHz across all 16 cores pulling in a Cinebench R15 score of 4278 points.

At this point, we don't know if this chip will ever see the light of day, or if AMD is making some final tweaks to spring a "one more thing" on us when the Ryzen 3000 family officially launches on July 7.