AMD Reportedly Launching Ryzen Threadripper “Zen 3” Processors in August

[Tsing]

Image: AMD



AMD launched what it called the world’s most powerful desktop processors, the 24-core Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 32-core Ryzen Threadripper 3970X, in November 2019. According to a post from ServeTheHome forum member lihp, the first successors to 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper will be announced in August 2021 and go on sale in September. Leveraging the modern Zen 3 architecture, AMD’s next-generation Ryzen Threadripper family is expected to reintroduce a cheaper, 16-core SKU and maintain compatibility with the current sTRX4 socket. Leaker KittyYYuko had hinted that 4th Gen Ryzen Threadripper would make its debut in August last month...

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[Brian_B]

I really want to be excited for this, but my soul has been crushed.

 

[Grimlakin]

Availability has made technology fans apprehensive about new releases.

 

[LazyGamer]

Availability has made technology fans apprehensive about new releases.

This captures the feelings

 

[Dogsofjune]

This captures the feelings

Mine too

 

[Endgame]

My guess is that the Zen 3 threadrippers will be fairly available - it’s not like the 3970 ever went out of stock.

the bigger question to me is, why would you want one if it’s not a drop in replacement for an existing motherboard? Zen 4 will hit like 9 months or less after Zen 3 threadripper, and the 7950 will have higher IPC, higher clocks, better memory bandwidth due to DDR 5, PCIE 5, and be less than half the cost. Back in the day, I bought a core 2quad 9650 6 months before the i7 920s dropped - I still regret not waiting the extra couple of months for the dramatically better hardware.

 

[Brian_B]

My guess is that the Zen 3 threadrippers will be fairly available - it’s not like the 3970 ever went out of stock.

the bigger question to me is, why would you want one if it’s not a drop in replacement for an existing motherboard? Zen 4 will hit like 9 months or less after Zen 3 threadripper, and the 7950 will have higher IPC, higher clocks, better memory bandwidth due to DDR 5, PCIE 5, and be less than half the cost. Back in the day, I bought a core 2quad 9650 6 months before the i7 920s dropped - I still regret not waiting the extra couple of months for the dramatically better hardware.

Hmm.

Well, TR lags behind Ryzen by almost a year. So the new Zen3+ Chips may be out soon, but new TRs based on that are probably a ways off. Zen 4 (7000 series?) is Late ‘22 / early ‘23, if things go well? That would put TR Zen4 mid-late ‘23, at best.

This Zen 3 is socket compatible with existing sTRX4 boards, according to this article.

And Zen3 was a pretty big leap over previous generations. Zen3+ probably won’t be as significant, and rumors are starting to leak about Zen4 but … nothing concrete or confirmed.

Honestly, if your looking at TR - this looks like it would be a good time to jump and will probably be the biggest improvement since their introduction. Or settle in for a 2+ year wait.

 

[LazyGamer]

Honestly, if your looking at TR - this looks like it would be a good time to jump and will probably be the biggest improvement since their introduction. Or settle in for a 2+ year wait.

stop reading my thoughts to the internet

Zen 4 will hit like 9 months or less after Zen 3 threadripper, and the 7950 will have higher IPC, higher clocks, better memory bandwidth due to DDR 5, PCIE 5, and be less than half the cost.

Zen 4 yes, but here's the thing: more IPC would be cool, but that's not what's really needed for TR. Ryzen yes for consumer workloads where that still matters, but TR is more about flexibility. PCIe 5.0 gets me... nothing. DDR5? An even bigger hole in the wallet.

Whereas Zen 3 TR lets me use commonly available DDR4 and has enough PCIe lanes to cover all the bases.

Biggest thing that would be missing is Thunderbolt / USB4, and let's not get started on AMDs near-compliant USB controllers, but there's enough resources on the current TR platform to workaround that.

 

[Endgame]

stop reading my thoughts to the internet


Zen 4 yes, but here's the thing: more IPC would be cool, but that's not what's really needed for TR. Ryzen yes for consumer workloads where that still matters, but TR is more about flexibility. PCIe 5.0 gets me... nothing. DDR5? An even bigger hole in the wallet.

Whereas Zen 3 TR lets me use commonly available DDR4 and has enough PCIe lanes to cover all the bases.

Biggest thing that would be missing is Thunderbolt / USB4, and let's not get started on AMDs near-compliant USB controllers, but there's enough resources on the current TR platform to workaround that.

Platform cost wise, a zen 4 7950, even with ddr 5, is likely to come in $1000+ under the cost of a 5960 if you’re shopping a whole system. The chip alone will likely run around $700+ more, and you still have to buy motherboard running around double the cost. With the boost to clock and IPC the multi core load is going to be pretty close, and in memory bound work, the 7950 will pull ahead unless you fit in the window of needing more Ram than the max supported on the 7950, but less than the max of a 5960. Pcie can manage double the bandwidth per lane, so if you can consolidate lanes using PCIE 5 devices (nvme raid card?) it should be close (48 effective pcie 4 lanes vs 64).

Where zen 3 TR seems to make sense to not be obsolete in less than a year is:
1) drop in upgrade for existing TR systems,
2) certain (and limited) cases were you need 64 lanes of pcie 4, but don’t need Epyc 128 lanes, and don’t expect a pcie 5 device for your use case in 9 months.
3) need 32 or 64 cores…. But can’t use Epyc (otherwise you would have bought Epyc in December)
4) need roughly 129 to 255 GB of Ram

likely you need to check more than one of those boxes for zen 3 TR to make sense?

I understand why people might want TR, no question there, but this just seems like an exceptionally awkward time for zen 3 TR. from a tech standpoint, it would make more sense to skip zen 3 TR and move up the release of zen 4 TR to launch ahead of consumer zen 4. There are a bunch of reasons why they won’t skip zen 3 TR, but boy does it land in a strange place.

 

[LazyGamer]

Platform cost wise, a zen 4 7950, even with ddr 5, is likely to come in $1000+ under the cost of a 5960 if you’re shopping a whole system. The chip alone will likely run around $700+ more, and you still have to buy motherboard running around double the cost. With the boost to clock and IPC the multi core load is going to be pretty close, and in memory bound work, the 7950 will pull ahead unless you fit in the window of needing more Ram than the max supported on the 7950, but less than the max of a 5960. Pcie can manage double the bandwidth per lane, so if you can consolidate lanes using PCIE 5 devices (nvme raid card?) it should be close (48 effective pcie 4 lanes vs 64).

Main this is I wouldn't be shopping a whole system; I'd be transplanting, and other than getting another pair of DIMMs, everything would be drop-in.

About the only thing that would actually pique my interest with a Zen 4 system would be broad USB4 / TB3 support. I don't need anymore memory bandwidth and more CPU cores can only help so much- it's really about having more physical PCIe lanes in my case.

Otherwise, I'm inclined to agree with you - and depending on what Intel does in the consumer space, Zen 4 might take my high-end gaming nod. Zen 3 has it now, just out of lower power usage, if you can get one.

Other side of it is that I'd want to put in a custom loop. AIOs are nice enough, but if doing that on CPU and GPU, I'm betting that I'll be better of just upgrading blocks when needed once I get the initial hydro plant set up.