AMD announced the 32-core Threadripper 2


    Less than a day after the presentation of Intel, where they announced the release of the top 28-core chip at 5 GHz - and now AMD dropped its bomb.

    Today at the Computex press conference, the company revealed the first details about the future of the Threadripper 2 processor, which will become the second generation of “super-high-end” Ryzen desktop processors. This is not a gaming CPU, but a powerful “workhorse” for developers — a multi-threaded, multi-core monster with a total number of cores up to 32 (up to 64 threads). Best of all, AMD promises to release the Threadripper 2 already in the III quarter. 2018, that is, until the end of the summer or in September.

    Threadripper 2 is manufactured on a 12-nanometer process technology on the architecture of Zen +. Compatible with the current socket Socket TR4, but due to the increased TDP, you may still need to replace the motherboard. New GIGABYTE motherboard for Threadripper 2 processors (clickable) As expected, it is planned to release a whole line of processors with different number of cores, in a wide range of clock frequencies and prices. The most powerful and expensive will have 32 cores and 64 threads; these are actually four Ryzen processors in one chip package. Of course, all of them are united by AMD Infinity bus. It seems that AMD is again slightly ahead of the eminent competitor in terms of the number of cores and the release dates. And, most likely, it will traditionally become more profitable in terms of price / performance ratio.










    At the press event, AMD demonstrated a cooling system for 24- and 32-core processors, as well as several preliminary benchmarks. Given the design requirements for a 250 watt heatsink for a Threadripper 2, a powerful cooling system is needed. In the photo below you can appreciate that the radiator is several times thicker than a regular smartphone.


    Photo: Vlad Savov / The Verge

    However, 250 watts is an estimate with a margin, in real systems the indicator should be less, experts say .

    In addition to processors, AMD has made several interesting announcements for the consumer market. For example, the upcoming release of a new generation of GPU Radeon Vega on an even smaller 7 nm process technology has been announced! Such tolerances are already really close to the physically minimal possible size of the transistor, when the number of atoms in each component is counted.

    Apparently, these video cards are aimed more at data centers, and for the “small” form factors of home computers, the Radeon RX Vega56 “nano” model is under development.

    There is news for the server market as well: new Epyc processors were announced on a 7-nanometer processor as well. There, at the Computex conference, HPE showed a 1U single-processor server on an Epyc 7000 chip with 2 TB of RAM and 40 TB of solid-state NVMe.

    Production on the 7 nm process technology will begin this year, and the start of sales of new CPUs and GPUs is planned in 2019.

    The first Threadripper processors came out in August 2017 (see a detailed review on Habré ). The top desktop CPUs of the Ryzen Threadripper 1920X and 1950X were about the same as those of the best Core i9 X-series, but they cost 200-1000 dollars less. According to some experts, the power of these CPUs is already beyond the “top desktop” class (HEDT, High-End Desktop). This is a higher class, which can be called “super-desktop desktop”. It was proposed to classify as SHED: Super High-End Desktop.

    Actually, the new Threadripper 2 is aimed at this SHED class. It’s hard to imagine a regular user who puts a $ 999 (the official price of last year’s Threadripper 1950X) with a TBD of 180 W on a home machine.

    The representative of the second generation Threadripper 2 should be more expensive than its predecessor, although prices have not yet been announced. But in the first Threadripper there were a maximum of 16 cores, that is, two “glued together” Ryzen 7 1800X, and in the new ones - twice as many. Probably, you can focus on the price of $ 1500 per CPU. The preliminary characteristics of the Threadripper 2 compared to the Threadripper are shown in the table.

    Ryzen Threadripper 2 ES (32 cores)Ryzen Threadripper 2 ES (24 core)Ryzen Threadripper 1950XRyzen Threadripper 1920XRyzen Threadripper 1900X
    FamilyThreadripper 2Threadripper
    Technical process12 nm14 nm
    Kernels / Threads32/6424/4816/3212/248/16
    Frequency≥3.0 / 3.43.4 / 4.0 GHz3.5 / 4.0 GHz3.8 / 4.0 GHz
    L3 cache, MB6432sixteen
    RAM controller4-channel DDR4≥29334-channel DDR4-2666
    PCI-E 3.0 lines60 + 4
    TDP, W250180
    ChipsetX399
    ConnectorTR4
    ReleaseQ3 2018August 10, 2017August 31, 2017

    You can be happy for AMD, which makes a successful comeback to the processor market. In April, the company reported revenue for the I quarter. 2018: it amounted to $ 1.65 billion, which is 40% more than last year. True, with a modest profit of $ 81 million.

    At the event, representatives from AMD told how the company eats away from Intel and showed how the Ryzen 7 2700X outperforms the more expensive Core i7 8700K in performance in creative applications and games.

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