The AMD Threadripper 2 Teaser: Pre-Orders Start Today, Up to 32 Cores
by Ian Cutress on August 6, 2018 9:00 AM ESTEnough Jibber-Jabber, Show Me the Money Chips
All-in-all, the new chips look a lot like the old ones:
AMD sampled us the 2990WX and the 2950X for our launch day review. Both of these CPUs are coming out in August, first with the 2990WX on the 13th, and then with the 2950X on the 31st.
On the rear, there are slightly different component arrangements to account for the different dies that are active:
2990WX (left) and 2950X (right)
The packaging is certainly different, with AMD taking into account the public's commentary about the packaging from the first generation. My only feedback to AMD on this is to make the new CPU packaging stackable – as a reviewer having these chips around un-stacked is an organizational nightmare.
Also in the box is a Torx screwdriver for the socket and an Asetek water cooler bracket, as with the first generation.
If we add some EPYCness to the mix, there’s a pretty pattern. Here are 172 cores of Zen:
AMD also bundled two motherboards with the press kits: a second revision of the ASUS X399 Zenith Extreme, with a new VRM cooling kit, and the MSI X399 MEG Creation, the 19-phase monster seen at Computex.
At first, Summer wasn’t interested.
Then she had a sniff.
Now they are good friends. I think. (ed: Ian, if you kill that processor with static electricity, I will end you)
A side note about stacking. The processors do kind of stack on their own.
But this isn’t an advised strategy.
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solnyshok - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Seriously hot, you meant?TheWereCat - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
My overclocked 1080ti does 350W when playing games.It is fairly easy to cool it but yes, the room gets hot a lot.
I cant imagine doing both GPU and CPU intensive workload for a few houra with the TR2 and the 1080ti and staying in the room (if you dont have an AC like me, its a huge pain).
Oxford Guy - Wednesday, August 8, 2018 - link
That's the price you pay for gaming and for increased power. A long time ago, CPUs didn't even need heatsinks.just4U - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
Ian, will you be reviewing this with the high-end ‘Wraith Ripper’ cooler? I am curious about it.. Also that cat is awesome looking! More pics with Summer!marsdeat - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
Some quick typos and errors on the first page that I noticed from citing for Wikipedia.Top table "AMD SKUs":
- 2950X should be $899, not $849
- 2920X base should be 3.5, not 3.4
Middle table "Stacks and Prices":
- 2970WX should be $1299, not $1249
Bottom table "The Battle":
- 2950X should be "180 W", the 'W' needs capitalising
- 2970WX should be $1299, not $1249
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
Right you are. Thanks!rocky12345 - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
Yea I can not wait for the reviews on the TR 2990WX & the TR 2950X. I do hope they let the reviewers do the reviews for both of the 2 top TR's in their class at the same time. I only say this because even though the TR 2990WX will most likely be able to game it will probably not be that great at it because that is not what it was made for and the TR 2950X being a bit higher clocked and most likely more over clock friendly will be a whole lot better at games.SO if we get some reviewers focusing more on just the gaming end of it and then they come to the conclusion of the TR 2990WX sucks at gaming the whole internet will spread the fud around like wild fire. I know Anandtech will do the proper work load tests so this site will be my first go to to get the proper picture.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
AMD already created a gaming mode on the top model of previous Threadripper, which disabled cores. If that doesn't tell people these aren't supposed to be gaming chips what will?These are workstation chips. They're for doing work. They will game okay but that is not their purpose at all, especially the more you move up the stack.
IntoGraphics - Friday, August 10, 2018 - link
I wish that those DDR4 prices would come down though.64GB is the minimum of my Linux KVM DDR4 requirement.
sharath.naik - Monday, August 13, 2018 - link
there is very little reason to buy intel HCC processors anymore.