AMD provided a sneak peek on Monday of a new Threadripper 3990X processor for high-end desktop computing that will come to market in 2020 with 64 cores.
It is AMD’s third-generation Ryzen chip and will support 128 threads, 288 MB of cache and 280 watts of heat when under full load, also known as Thermal Design Power (TDP). It is expected to run on new AMD TRX40 motherboards and not be backward compatible to X399 motherboards.
The Threadripper 3000 family uses the same design as AMD’s EPYC data center chips. The 3990X will have eight chiplets similar to the EPYC Rome processor. It will likely be produced on a 7nm process by TSMC in Taiwan, as that’s where AMD’s previous 7nm chips have been produced. Each chiplet has about 3.9 billion transistors.
AMD competes with Intel on PC processors, but Intel has not responded to the 32-core Threadripper 3970X and 24-core 3960X that launched on Monday. Also on Monday, Intel launched its Cascade Lake-X Core i9-10980XE processor with 18 cores.
The Threadripper 3990X’s price has not been announced, but the 3970 X is priced at $1,999 and the 3960X is priced at $1,399. The new Cascade Lake-X sells for $979.
Intel contends that its 10nm nodes, internally fabricated, are comparable to 7nm nodes that AMC uses with TSMC. Intel expects to have a 7nm chip in 2021.
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