After having a successful launch with the mainstream 2nd generation Ryzen series, AMD is pulling out the big guns. We, of course, refer to the next-generation Ryzen Threadripper family that was announced in June.

Today, AMD is making it official. The new Ryzen Threadripper family is now on sale at major retailers like Amazon and Newegg.

AMD’s Threadripper family defines the highest category for CPUs. These HEDT CPUs feature high core-count and multi-threading, and are aimed at gaming enthusiasts, content creators, and developers. The first series was met with positive reception, and you even argue that it caught Intel off-guard.

Intel soon found itself pushing an entirely new Core-X family of CPUs – the Core i9 – that was a direct response to Threadripper.

The 2nd generation Ryzen are based on the Zen 1 architecture, albeit improved and dubbed as “Zen+” architecture. Similar to the mainstream lineup, all four new Threadripper processors are built on TSMC’s 12nm process. As a result, core frequencies have improved from previous generation. It is worth noting that existing X299 boards are compatible with the new lineup. Although a slew of new X399 motherboards accompany the launch.

The crème de la crème of the new Threadripper family is the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX. A monstrous 32-core/64 thread chip that has no equal. The $1,799 chip, aimed at professionals, will be the first to launch on August 13.

A beefy processor like this is bound to break a few records. In fact, AMD was able to push the Threadripper 2990WX to over 5.1GHz using Liquid Nitrogen. The result? It broke Intel’s Core i9-7980XE record of 5,828 by earning a score of 7,618 in Cinebench R15.

Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX and 2970WX are not for everyone. It is why AMD is introducing the “WX” category to send a message that processors under the umbrella are best suited for multi-threaded applications. It is primed at professional content creators and developers. Enthusiast gamers will find little to no use of the high core-count.

One of the things that sets up Threadripper as a winner is how AMD doesn’t hold back PCIe lanes. All Threadripper processors feature 64 PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes, and quad-channel DDR4 memory with ECC support.

Ryzen Threadripper 2950X will follow a launch on August 31. The Threadripper 2970WX and 2920X are set to arrive sometime in October.

AMD is setting up to dominate Intel’s HEDT and server-side leadership. The value Threadripper presents disparages anything Intel has right now. Even the 28-core CPU that was shown off at Computex 2018 is months away from launch.

Author: Jawwad Iqbal

Having written on tech for years now, Jawwad Iqbal took his passion for sharing news and opinions with the inception of Hardware Blitz. He holds a firm view that quality content drives long-term success.