Ryzen 9 3950X Delayed to November, 3rd Gen Threadripper Starts at 24 Cores

Ryzen 9 3950X Delayed to November, 3rd Gen Threadripper Starts at 24 Cores

Those eagerly anticipating the “September” launch of AMD’s flagship Ryzen 9 3950X processor will need to wait a bit longer. Amid shortages of the already launched 3900X and rumors of production issues, AMD today delayed the 3950X to November.

The silver lining of today’s announcement, however, is that while we won’t get the entire lineup at first, the initial third-generation Threadripper processors will also make their debut in November.

We are focusing on meeting the strong demand for our 3rd generation AMD Ryzen processors in the market and now plan to launch both the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X and initial members of the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor family in volume this November. We are confident that when enthusiasts get their hands on the world’s first 16-core mainstream desktop processor and our next-generation of high-end desktop processors, the wait will be well worth it.

Beyond recently leaked benchmarks, not much is known of the planned specifications and pricing for the next Threadripper except for an official teaser image which states the lineup will be “premiering with 24 cores.” With “mainstream” Ryzen soon to be at 16 cores and 32 threads, the question on the minds of high-end desktop enthusiasts is just how far AMD will take Threadripper, and how it will sit against EPYC in terms of price and performance.

Cores / Threads Base / Boost (GHz) L3 Cache (MB) PCIe Lanes Price (Launch)
2017 1900X 8 / 16 3.8 / 4.0 16 64 $549
1920X 12 / 24 3.5 / 4.0 32 64 $799
1950X 16 / 32 3.4 / 4.0 32 64 $999
2018 2920X 12 / 24 3.5 / 4.3 32 64 $649
2950X 16 / 32 3.5 / 4.4 32 64 $899
2970WX 24 / 48 3.0 / 4.2 64 64 $1299
2990WX 32 / 64 3.0 / 4.2 64 64 $1799
2019 39XX? 24 / 48 ? / ? ? / ? ? ?

First-generation Threadripper launched in August 2017 with up to 16 cores and 32 threads. A year later, the second-generation models pushed those specs to a high of 32 cores and 64 threads. AMD’s top EPYC processors currently top out at 64 cores and 128 threads. Could third-generation Threadripper have a SKU to match, or will AMD instead focus on higher frequencies and features at lower thread counts? The Zen 2-based EPYC “Rome” processors in the 24+ core range have L3 cache sizes between 128MB and 256MB, and 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes.

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About The Author

Jim Tanous

Jim is an Editor at PC Perspective. Jim lives in the Cincinnati area with his wife, son, and two-and-a-half cats.

4 Comments

  1. willmore

    I’m guessing 3900X at 24/48 and 3950X at 32/64, but with better clocks than 2990WX. Threadripper are all four memory channel devices, right? That might mean TR3XXX will come with 128MB of L3–half of that of Epyc 3 as it’s got only the one I/O die.

    Reply
    • James

      I don’t think they would want to have the ThreadRipper part with the same numbers as the AM4 parts. It should use higher numbers like 3960x or something. Also, note that the L3 is on the cpu dies, not the IO die. There is only one IO die on any Zen 2 chip. Either the 2 memory channel die used on AM4 or the 8 memory channel die used in Epyc 2 processors. A 24 core part is likely to be 8 CCX with 3 cores each. 8 CCX x 16 MB L3 per CCX is 128 MB. An 8 CCX part with all 4 cores per CCX would also have 128 MB. If they make a 64 core version of ThreadRipper (probably limited to WX parts), then it should have the full 256 MB L3. Since it is the same IO die in Epyc 2 and ThreadRipper 3000, they may have ThreadRipper variants with 8 channel memory.

      Technically, they could make the 24 core part with 8 cpu die with one CCX per die completely disabled. It is more likely to just be 4 die with 2 active CCX per die. It is unclear what all of the different chip configurations are. I was assuming 4, 6, or 8 die only, but they seem to have some odd parts that may be only 1 or 2 cpu die. For below 32 and for a few other high core count parts, they have only have 1, 2, or 3 cores active per CCX. You should be able to tell the number of active CCX by dividing the listed L3 cache size by 16. They do have a few odd ones listed on the Wikipedia page, like an 8 core with 128 MB of L3 cache. This should be 128 / 16 = 8 CCX, so only one active core per CCX. That means that it has a full16 MB L3 for each core that isn’t shared. The 8 core with 32 MB L3 is also odd. That is only 2 CCX, so it could be a single cpu die. There is two different 48 core, one with 192 MB of L3 and one with 256. The 192 MB variant is probably 6 die, 2 CCX per die, and 4 core per CCX. The 256 MB variant is probably 8 die, 2 CCX per die, but only 3 cores per CCX.

      Reply
  2. BigTed

    When Jim mentioned on the podcast that Sebastian was on holiday, I was a bit gutted as I was hoping he was busy sweating in his basement benching the 3950X under NDA. Oh well, looks like the new shiny video editing rig is going to have to wait a couple of months.

    Reply
  3. James

    I don’t know if I would be best described as production issues. For the parts that they are getting, I don’t think they are having trouble getting enough good parts compared to the number parts made. It seems to just be an allocation / capacity issue. Apple has probably been getting a lot of the wafers for their new cpu. They have to stockpile a lot of the chips before launch of the device. With AMD’s server focus, they are probably trying to make sure that Epyc 2 parts get as much supply as necessary to fill demand. The Epyc parts are probably taking more of the fully functional chips with 8 operational cores. We will probably see better supply of 6 core die with 3 active cores per CCX. The 24 core part is almost certainly 4 die with 2 active CCX but only 3 cores per CCX.

    Reply

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