AMD Confirms Beastly ThreadRipper 16-Core 32-Thread Ryzen Enthusiast Processor

We have to be careful when vetting rumors and supposedly leaked information because some things ultimately turn out to be too good to be true. That was not the case with Threadripper, a monster chip from AMD that will feature 16 physical cores and 32 threads. While the fine grain details have yet to be revealed, AMD did at least confirm that Threadripper exists and that it wield as many cores and threads as previously rumored.

It was one of several announcements AMD made yesterday evening during its Financial Analyst Day presentation. AMD also confirmed that it will be releasing a brand new platform for Threadripper, one that will introduce expanded memory and I/O bandwidth, that is designed for the high-end desktop (HEDT) market. While not specifically stated, the rumors of Threadripper supporting quad-channel DDR4 memory and having more PCI-Express lanes (44 in all) seem all the more likely at this point.


Previously leaked information also pointed to there being multiple Threadripper CPUs, including two 10C/20T, two 12C/24T, and three 14C/28T chips before culminating in a pair of 16C/32T processors. AMD did not specify what SKUs it has on tap, only that there will be additional Threadripper processors with less than 16 cores and 32 threads, all of which will be based on its Zen microarchitecture.


Threadripper will launch this summer. We still do not have official pricing information, which will obviously play a key role in AMD's ability to compete with Intel and its forthcoming Core i7 Kaby Lake-X and Core i9 Skylake-X processors.in the HEDT market. Based on what we have already seen from AMD's existing Ryzen processors, we can reasonably speculate that Threadripper will shine in multi-threaded workloads.

On the other end of the spectrum, AMD says it will make available Ryzen 3 desktop processors in the third quarter of this year. The company also said that the top five OEM system builders will launch Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 Windows PCs before the end of the second quarter. Up to this point, it has been mainly boutique builders that have adopted Ryzen processors into their product lineups.