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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mjz_5 - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Wow, come on people. We should all be praising AMD and hating INTEL for juicing us up for all these years. We should welcome competition and purchase AMD to show Intel that what they have done in the past is not right!mapesdhs - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Buy AMD if it's a better solution for your problem, not because doing so somehow conveys some emotional concept of which Intel will be completely unaware. Buying things in that way is no less daft than buying Intel just because it's Intel. Steve at GN describes this whole thing best, in this case with regard to GPU flame wars, but the same thing applies to CPU arguments:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyAOtQOu2YM
And what does "hating Intel" even mean? Intel is a company; as such, it isn't an entity with agency and awareness with which it can respond to someone who 'hates' it. So much emotional language with all this. :D Fact is, nobody has been forced to buy an Intel CPU for their gaming PC or whatever, they made a free choice to do that.
This is more to do with the expression of in-group preference, people feeling like they're with one gang or the other, or the need to defend their purchasing decisions.
If you don't like some product strategy that Intel uses, then don't buy their products, or if you still need something better and AMD has nothing to offer, then look at the 2nd-hand market, eg. there's often good value in used XEONs, and even today, old X79 can often hold its own rather well (especially for gaming above 1080p).
Ian.
Fujikoma - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
In the U.S., the courts have determined that a business can have beliefs with which to avoid laws and discriminate. Hobby Lobby decision. Citizens United decision. Not disagreeing with what you're saying, but the U.S. has some issues when classifying people and for-profit entities.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
Certain people have been determined, as usual, to have fewer rights than others. Protected classes can't be discriminated against.PeachNCream - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
The new Threadrippers are interesting products, but I'm not really that concerned either way about how they actually perform since they're not practical products for any of my computing needs. They're too hot to cool passively, too big for a laptop chassis, and far too expensive for web browsing or watching a few videos. It's a shame Anandtech doesn't review much mid- to low-end hardware anymore since things like a 32-core x86 CPU are interesting, such processors are going to end up in a very tiny portion of even Anandtech's readers' enthusiast class PCs.Sttm - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
What do you feel is not getting covered? I remember them covering mainstream Ryzen 2, and APU low end Ryzen 2, and the new Core 8086 and a lot of other consumer focused cpus before that.So more laptop stuff?
PeachNCream - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Right off the cuff, without thinking much about it, the 1050 and 1030 weren't reviewed. There were a couple of lower end AMD GPUs that were omitted as well. There are few to no networking benchmarks and the first complete desktop review done in a long time was for a relatively high end system. It's sort of sad to go to Anandtech to read a review about upper tier stuff I'll never purchase, but then have to go spelunking with a search engine to find multiple lesser quality reviews for things I'll actually purchase and yes that certainly includes laptops and more I'll toss in reasonably priced phones there too.Cooe - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
Complete desktop reviews & similar are not AnandTech's target market, never have have been so I wouldn't hold out too much hope for that to change. It's always been a site about ala-carte PC building hardware 1st & foremost; dunno why you'd expect anything different all the sudden tbh.PeachNCream - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
At the top of Anandtech's website, check the bar under the site logo for the word "SYSTEMS" and hover your mouse over it to view the subcategories and browse a few links within. Also check the "SMARTPHONES & TABLETS" category.Sttm - Monday, August 6, 2018 - link
This is so cool. Though I don't think I'd recommend any non business owners from buying it. As with 7nm Zen 2 based TR coming next year, I cannot imagine your $1800 expenditure won't feel incredibly foolish in 12 months. If they can fit 32 at 12nm, how many can they are 7nm, and superior cores as well!