It looks like AMD has saved the best for last. Following its recent announcement of the third-gen Threadripper processors, AMD yesterday confirmed that its monstrous Threadripper 3990X will arrive in 2020.
The upcoming AMD flagship 3990Xmprocessor will feature 64 cores / 128 threads; an extremely high-core count even for a HEDT processor. Built on the AMD Zen 2 architecture, it uses the same sTRX4 socket as the other chips in its lineup.
AMD’s third-gen Threadripper processor lineup currently consists of the 24 core 3960X and the 32 core 3970X. Going by core count alone, the third-gen Threadripper processors match the second-gen Threadripper processors core-for-core.
But there are major differences between the third-gen and its predecessors. AMD’s Zen 2 architecture first debuted in the form of its third-gen Ryzen processors. Compared to the previous generation designs, AMD has separated the core cluster and input/output (I/O) controllers into separate dies. This new design addressed the memory access efficiency and latency issues that plagued the first and second-gen Ryzen / Threadripper processors.
An embargoed overview slide posted on AnandTech shows the Threadripper 3990X having 288MB of cache, which is unsurprisingly double that of the Threadripper 3970X. Despite so, it still carries a 280W TDP; the same as the Threadripper 3970X even with twice the number of cores.
Pricing, PCIe lane support, memory support, and other details remain undisclosed.
