AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7985WX 64-Core Zen 4 Beast Chip Smiles For The Camera

A snapshot of AMD’s upcoming Ryzen Threadripper 7985WX 64-core Zen 4 CPU was spotted by @yuuuki_ans on Twitter. The image shows the chip listed on some sort of Chinese app or website, featuring a photograph of the chip itself in all of its glory, including its famous orange installation bracket that Threadripper chips are known for. If this new listing is an actual listing from a retail outlet, it would suggest that AMD is getting ready to finally launch its Ryzen Threadripper 7000 workstation CPUs, backing up previous rumors predicting a September 2023 launch window for the new CPU lineup (which is this month).

The Threadripper Pro 7985WX is reportedly the 64-core variant of AMD's upcoming workstation CPU lineup. The chip will reportedly come with 8 channel memory support, and a 350W TDP. This chip will be the flagship model if models with more cores do not come out.

Why use SP6？🫠
I prefer the SP5 Socket. pic.twitter.com/cB6udRYgra

— 结城安穗-YuuKi_AnS🍥 (@yuuki_ans) September 16, 2023

Threadripper 7000 is AMD’s next-generation workstation/HEDT platform that will replace AMD’s current Ryzen Threadripper 5000WX offerings. The new CPU platform is expected to come with AMD’s current generation Zen 4 CPU architecture and operate on AMD’s new (but smaller) SP6 socket. Core counts are expected to be the same as the previous generation — maxing out at 64 cores, but there have been rumors revealing even more powerful 96-core 7995WX variants which might be true.

Besides the massive jump from Zen 3 to Zen 4, two of the biggest upgrades coming to Ryzen Threadripper 7000 are reportedly PCIe Gen 5 support and DDR5 support. With Gen 5 going mainstream on Ryzen 7000, Threadripper will supposedly crank things up a notch by featuring an eye-watering 128 PCIe Gen 5 lanes coming from the CPU alone. Threadripper 7000 will also be AMD’s first workstation/HEDT-focused platform to support DDR5 memory, which will seriously improve transfer rates compared to DDR4. DDR5 support is basically confirmed since none of AMD’s current Zen 4 offerings feature DDR4 backward compatibility.

A HEDT comeback for Threadripper 7000 is also rumored to be coming, but this has not been confirmed yet. Rumors suggest the HEDT variants of Threadripper 7000 will feature neutered specifications compared to their workstation parts, including a massive cut in PCIe CPU lanes from 128 down to 64 — matching AMD’s lane count from the last time they launched HEDT Threadripper parts. DDR5 support is also rumored to be halved, going from 8 channels down to 4, which would again match AMD’s previous HEDT parts.

Hopefully, this new Threadripper listing is a sign of events to come. AMD’s current generation Threadripper parts are starting to become outdated and it's the only modern computer platform today still operating on DDR4 memory. With Zen 5 mainstream CPUs likely launching soon for AMD, now would be the perfect time to launch Threadripper 7000 before those chips begin to eat some of Threadripper's potential market share, especially on the HEDT side of things. It'll also be a good time to launch ahead of Black Friday and the holiday season in general.