Just a little taste

AMD gives us clocks and core counts, with a performance tease, on Threadripper!

In a surprise move with no real indication as to why, AMD has decided to reveal some of the most exciting and interesting information surrounding Threadripper and Ryzen 3, both due out in just a few short weeks. AMD CEO Lisa Su and CVP of Marketing John Taylor (along with guest star Robert Hallock) appear in a video being launched on the AMD YouTube website today to divulge the naming, clock speeds and pricing for the new flagship HEDT product line under the Ryzen brand.

We already know a lot of about Threadripper, AMD’s answer to the X299/X99 high-end desktop platforms from Intel, including that they would be coming this summer, have up to 16-cores and 32-threads of compute, and that they would all include 64 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 for a massive amount of connectivity for the prosumer.

Now we know that there will be two models launching and available in early August: the Ryzen Threadripper 1920X and the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X.

Core i9-7980XE Core i9-7960X Core i9-7940X Core i9-7920X Core i9-7900X Core i7-7820X Core i7-7800X Threadripper 1950X Threadripper 1920X Architecture Skylake-X Skylake-X Skylake-X Skylake-X Skylake-X Skylake-X Skylake-X Zen Zen Process Tech 14nm+ 14nm+ 14nm+ 14nm+ 14nm+ 14nm+ 14nm+ 14nm 14nm Cores/Threads 18/36 16/32 14/28 12/24 10/20 8/16 6/12 16/32 12/24 Base Clock ? ? ? ? 3.3 GHz 3.6 GHz 3.5 GHz 3.4 GHz 3.5 GHz Turbo Boost 2.0 ? ? ? ? 4.3 GHz 4.3 GHz 4.0 GHz 4.0 GHz 4.0 GHz Turbo Boost Max 3.0 ? ? ? ? 4.5 GHz 4.5 GHz N/A N/A N/A Cache 16.5MB (?) 16.5MB (?) 16.5MB (?) 16.5MB (?) 13.75MB 11MB 8.25MB 40MB ? Memory Support ? ? ? ? DDR4-2666

Quad Channel DDR4-2666

Quad Channel DDR4-2666

Quad Channel DDR4-2666

Quad Channel DDR4-2666 Quad Channel PCIe Lanes ? ? ? ? 44 28 28 64 64 TDP 165 watts (?) 165 watts (?) 165 watts (?) 165 watts (?) 140 watts 140 watts 140 watts 180 watts 180 watts Socket 2066 2066 2066 2066 2066 2066 2066 TR4 TR4 Price $1999 $1699 $1399 $1199 $999 $599 $389 $999 $799

Threadripper 1950X Threadripper 1920X Ryzen 7 1800X Ryzen 7 1700X Ryzen 7 1700 Ryzen 5 1600X Ryzen 5 1600 Ryzen 5 1500X Ryzen 5 1400 Architecture Zen Zen Zen Zen Zen Zen Zen Zen Zen Process Tech 14nm 14nm 14nm 14nm 14nm 14nm 14nm 14nm 14nm Cores/Threads 16/32 12/24 8/16 8/16 8/16 6/12 6/12 4/8 4/8 Base Clock 3.4 GHz 3.5 GHz 3.6 GHz 3.4 GHz 3.0 GHz 3.6 GHz 3.2 GHz 3.5 GHz 3.2 GHz Turbo/Boost Clock 4.0 GHz 4.0 GHz 4.0 GHz 3.8 GHz 3.7 GHz 4.0 GHz 3.6 GHz 3.7 GHz 3.4 GHz Cache 40MB ? 20MB 20MB 20MB 16MB 16MB 16MB 8MB Memory Support DDR4-2666

Quad Channel DDR4-2666 Quad Channel DDR4-2400

Dual Channel DDR4-2400

Dual Channel DDR4-2400

Dual Channel DDR4-2400

Dual Channel DDR4-2400

Dual Channel DDR4-2400

Dual Channel DDR4-2400 PCIe Lanes 64 64 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 TDP 180 watts 180 watts 95 watts 95 watts 65 watts 95 watts 65 watts 65 watts 65 watts Socket TR4 TR4 AM4 AM4 AM4 AM4 AM4 AM4 AM4 Price $999 $799 $499 $399 $329 $249 $219 $189 $169

The 1920X will feature 12 cores, 24 threads, a base clock of 3.5 GHz, and Boost clock of 4.0 GHz. Priced at $799, the 1920X goes aggressively between the Core i9-7900X at $999 from Intel (10c/20t) and the Core i7-7820X at $599 (8c/16t). AMD demoed the Threadripper 1920X against the Intel 7900X in CineBench R15, beating it by 12%.

Priced at $999, the Threadripper 1950X has the full 16 cores and 32 threads of compute, running at a base clock of 3.4 GHz but still is targeting the boost clock rate of 4.0 GHz! For reference, this is the same clock Boost clock speed as the Ryzen 7 1800X. At $999, the 1950X is the direct target at the 7900X, but will offer considerably more multi-threaded performance. It resulted in a Cinebench R15 score of 3062, 41% faster than the Core i9-7900X!

Obviously, this is only a single performance data point, and we know that Intel will maintain its performance advantage in single threaded workloads, but the aggressive pricing and performance capability in multi-threaded workloads bodes well for the Threadripper product. Questions of power consumption will remain, but AMD has some wiggle room here based on the extremely high power draw we see from the current assortment of Skylake-X parts, not to mention the issues and questions surrounding the X299 platform’s VRM concerns.

There were rumors that the Threadripper processors were going to target a $849 price tag so there will likely be some disappointment that AMD didn’t hit those numbers. Still, $999 for the 16-core part puts it $700 below the MSRP of the 16-core Intel Core i9-7960X processor while also shipping well before it. I knew that AMD wanted to put pressure on the Skylake-X family and this price, despite being higher than the rumors, still accomplishes that. There is a lot more to test, including gaming performance and boat-loads more applications and workflows, but the first glimpse of Threadripper is very, very strong.

Don't forget about Ryzen 3!

While news of the high-end desktop announcement will get the most attention, the most sales will probably be with also-announced Ryzen 3 product family. Expected after the announcement of the Ryzen Pro series that included Ryzen Pro 3, plain old Ryzen 3 will be available in the form of the Ryzen 3 1200 (3.1 GHz base, 3.4 GHz boost) and the Ryzen 3 1300X (3.5 GHz / 3.7 GHz). These are both quad-core and quad-thread, bucking the trend of having SMT enabled across the entire Ryzen family.

No pricing information was shared yet, but AMD says they will be selling on store shelves as of July 27th, so we will know very soon. I expect pricing to be in line with the Core i3 family of processors, but with four true cores, compared to the dual-core / HyperThreaded implementation that Intel offers, AMD should continue to show multi-threaded performance benefits and slight single threaded deficits.

The year of AMD continues to march on – the company has already released Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5, the Radeon RX 500 series, EPYC data center processors, and Vega Frontier Edition. Ryzen 3, Ryzen Threadripper, and RX Vega are all due later this month or early in August. The hallways in Austin and Santa Clara must be buzzing with excitement because I know our team and readers can’t wait to get our hands on the goods!