First two AMD Ryzen Threadrippers hit the market

Posted on Thursday, August 10 2017 @ 18:30 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
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Today is the availability date of AMD's first two Ryzen Threadripper HEDT processors. The company introduces the 16-core, 32-threaded 1950X for $999 as well as the 12-core, 24-threaded 1920X for $799. An 8-core, 16-threaded 1900X model will follow on August 31 for $549.

General consensus seems to be that Threadripper obliterates everything across its path in multi-threaded benchmarks. But while Threadripper excels in workstation or content creation workloads, Intel is still the big winner in terms of single-threaded performance. What it boils down to for gamers is that Threadripper doesn't make a lot sense if you're building a rig that will mainly be used for gaming. Gamers are better off with the non-HEDT processors from AMD or Intel.
Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) released two models of its highly anticipated, Ryzen™ Threadripper™ high-end desktop processors, AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper ™1950X and AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ 1920X. During an already record-setting year for the company through the successful launch of several award-winning Ryzen™ desktop processors for the AM4 platform, today's release of Ryzen Threadripper marks a major step forward in performance and features for the high-end desktop market, with the new processor exceeding the expectations of even the most demanding developers, researchers, prosumers, creators, and multi-tasking gamers. Built around the new AMD x86 "Zen" core architecture, Ryzen Threadripper delivers overwhelming power, unrestrained potential, and indisputable supremacy over comparable products in the market.

"The level of global support and excitement built-up around AMD Ryzen processors has been incredible to watch these last few months, and with today's Ryzen Threadripper launch, we deliver a new level of computing power to the world's fastest ultra-premium desktop systems via an entirely new platform and set of multi-core processors," said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Group, AMD. "Ryzen Threadripper is the jolt of innovation that the high-end desktop customer was waiting for, providing the long-awaited ability to choose a processor that best fulfills their computing needs at a competitive price."

Both new models of Ryzen Threadripper support the new SocketTR4 platform, sporting sixty-four PCIe® lanes, quad channel DDR4 memory, and AMD simultaneous multithreading (SMT). With support for 16 cores and 32 processing threads, the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X delivers unprecedented multi-processing power, the likes of which have never been available for consumer desktop systems before. The Ryzen Threadripper 1920X provides 12 cores and 24 processing threads and will be available on-shelf along with the Threadripper 1950X on August 10th, 2017. A third variant, the 8-core 16-thread Ryzen Threadripper 1900X, is expected to be available August 31.

Whether rendering complex 3D scenes, streaming high-quality video game content, or encoding, compiling, and encrypting files in parallel of each3other, the world-class performance per clock and efficiency of AMD's "Zen" architecture means users can do so without sacrificing efficiency or performance. Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X processors include 40MB and 38MB of processor cache, respectively, and all Ryzen Threadripper processors from the $549 Threadripper 1900X to the $999 Threadripper 1950X feature the same Quad-Channel DDR4 memory bandwidth, 64 lanes of PCIe® 3.0 connectivity, and processor-direct SATA/NVMe/USB connectivity. In addition, every Ryzen Threadripper processor is multiplier-unlocked to provide unlimited user flexibility. A full ecosystem of SocketTR4 X399 platforms, with native USB 3.1 Gen2 10GB/s connectivity, provide support for all Ryzen Threadripper processors at launch, with motherboards coming from top manufacturers like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI.
AMD gave OEM exclusivity to Alienware's Area-51 Threadripper Edition so until the end of the year you will not find any Threadripper systems from the other major PC makers. Boutique PC makers do have Threadripper systems for sale though.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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