AMD is about to change the game for top-end desktops with their new Ryzen Threadripper 9000 series CPUs. Shown first at Computex, these "Shimada Peak" chips use the latest Zen 5 core design and are showing great test scores. They reportedly do over two times better than Intel's Xeon chips in some jobs.
AMD has long been strong in the workstation area, and they expect big growth, seeing a rise of 9 million workstation units by 2029. The need is wide, covering Cloud tech, Health care, Cars, AI, and arts. Since the first Threadripper in 2017, AMD has greatly upped core counts, memory speed, and PCIe skills on this platform.
The new Threadripper 9000 CPUs make big moves in two key areas: the advanced Zen 5 core design and a better System-on-Chip (SOC) setup.
Zen 5 Core Power: The Zen 5 design itself lifts instructions per clock by about 16%. For Threadripper, this means each 8-core Zen 5 CCD gives a lot of cache, leading to a big total system cache. This means an average 16% more power over the old Threadripper 7000 series at the same speed in workstation jobs, and up to 26% in AI and Machine Learning tasks.
SOC Boosts: These CPUs also use fast DDR5-6400 memory over 8 channels, with room for even faster speeds via overclocking (past DDR5 7000 MT/s). Users can still set up memory in 2, 4, 6, or 8 channel forms and use RDIMMs for up to 2TB of memory space.
Advanced I/O: Each CPU holds up to 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes. Internal SOC tweaks also lift PCIe total bandwidth. These chips fit into the current sTR5 socket motherboards and have AMD PRO Manageability.
Top Setups: Look for up to 8 Zen 5 CCDs, each with 8 cores and 32MB of L3 cache. The CPUs also handle AVX-512 tasks with a full 512-bit data path for hard computing tasks.
AMD shared exciting benchmark data:
Big Leap: The top Threadripper PRO 9995WX shows up to a 26% power rise (near 20% on average) over the last gen Threadripper PRO 7995WX.
Against Intel Xeon W-3500: Compared to Intel's best Xeon W-3500, the Threadripper 9995WX shows much better results:
- More than 2x better in Design & Manufacturing.
- Up to 2.5x better in Media & Entertainment.
- Up to 2.18x better in Architecture, Engineering & Construction.
- Up to 75% better in Software & Sciences.
- Up to 49% better in AI tasks.
64-Core Face-Off: The 64-core Threadripper 9980X shows up to 108% more power (66% lift on average) against Intel's 60-core Xeon-3595X.
This range has six models, from the 12-core 9945WX to the huge 96-core/192-thread 9995WX. The top 9995WX boosts up to 5.45 GHz, has 384MB of L3 cache, 128 PCIe Gen5 lanes, and a 350W TDP. These PRO CPUs use 8-channel DDR5-6400 ECC memory.
Here, three models are up for grabs: the 24-core 9960X, 32-core 9970X, and the 64-core/128-thread 9980X. The best 9980X meets the PRO 64-core model's clock speeds (up to 5.4 GHz boost), has 256MB of L3 cache, and uses 4-channel DDR5-6400 memory. All these CPUs also have a 350W TDP.
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9000 "Zen 5" HEDT CPUs are set to launch in July, sold in boxes and through OEM system makers. Stay tuned for more info soon.
