AMD will start selling new Threadripper 7000 CPUs to consumers again

AMD announces the arrival of a new generation of Threadripper processors. Unlike the Zen 3-based series, the new generation based on Zen 4 are also being released with consumer-oriented models. It will take more than a month before that happens.

The new processors come in the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series for consumers and the Ryzen Threadripper 7000WX series for professional users. Physically these are the same chips and they also share the same socket sTR5, but the consumer platform gets fewer memory channels and PCI Express lanes. According to AMD, this should significantly reduce the costs of the platform.

Lineup and intercompatibility

For consumers, the lineup consists of three models: the Ryzen Threadripper 7960X with 24 cores, the 7970X with 32 cores and the 7980X with 64 cores. They all have a TDP of 350W. The Threadripper Pro line-up is largely similar, but has an additional top model in the form of the 7995WX with 96 cores. Unlike before, it is possible to use a Pro chip in a consumer board with the TRX50 chipset, so that as a demanding consumer you can still get started with those 96 cores. The other way around, so a consumer CPU in a business WRX90 motherboard will not work.

Based on Epyc Genoa

In a technical sense, both series involve the chip that AMD has been using for almost a year for its Epyc 9004 processors, better known under the code name Genoa. The chip is produced on TSMC’s 5nm process and consists of twelve CCDs, each with eight Zen 4 cores. There is 1MB L2 cache per core, and a shared L3 cache of 32MB per CCD. The I/O contains an eight-channel DDR5 controller that supports registered dimms with a speed of up to DDR5-5200, although speeds of DDR5-8000 should be possible with overclocking. Regular DDR5 memory according to the Udimm standard is not supported, not even with non-Pro Threadrippers.

Difference Pro and non-Pro

In addition to the Pro feature set for remote management, among other things, the consumer Threadrippers lack four of the eight memory channels and more than half of the PCIe 5.0 lanes. For the Threadripper Pro models there is a maximum of 128, for the non-Pro models a maximum of 48. In addition, the necessary PCIe lanes according to older standards are available, bringing the total number of lanes to 148 for the Pro models and 92 for the non-Pros. If you use a Pro CPU in a consumer board with a TRX50 chipset, you won’t get more than what a non-Pro CPU would offer in any of these areas.

Naturally, we asked AMD why the non-Pro Threadripper series is making a return three and a half years after its last introduction. According to AMD, there is enough demand for these types of CPUs from people who do not need eight-channel memory or 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes to justify a separate non-Pro series. However, the manufacturer still seems to doubt the usefulness of an extremely large number of cores for consumers, as evidenced by the absence of the 96-core top model in the non-Pro line.

Release date

Sales of the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 processors will start in just over a month, on November 21. The boxed versions of the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Pro series will also be available in stores from then on.