After lots of rumor and speculation, AMD has finally announced their Threadripper 2000 series. This FAQ is your one-stop-shop for all the essential info about the new CPUs that we know so far, including release date, price, hardware specs and more.
What is Theadripper?
Threadripper is AMD's bleeding-edge line of desktop CPUs. These are the strongest AMD Ryzen CPUs available, featuring more cores and power than any other CPUs in AMD's arsenal.
What's new with Threadripper?
AMD's latest CPU series has just been announced, and it packs a punch. The Threadripper 2000 series is delivering four new processors, all of which are built for very high-end desktops. The two most powerful CPUs from the freshly announced series are the 2990WX and 2970WX. The 2990WX sports 32 cores, 64 threads and a 3.0-4.2GHz clock speed, and the 2970WX manages the same clock speed, albeit with "only" 24 cores and 48 threads. Then there's the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X and 2920X which sport 16 cores, 32 threads, 3.5-4.4GHz and 12 cores, 24 threads, 3.5-4.3GHz, respectively.
How much should I expect to pay?
All that power comes with a cost: the 2990WX will retail for $1,799 at launch, while the 2970WX will be a bit cheaper, coming in at a still-hefty $1,299. The 2950X and 2920X will ship at $849 and $649.
How does it perform so far?
While official breakdowns and benchmarks have yet to be disclosed, we've got some early insight as to just how powerful the Threadripper 2000 series is shaping up to be. According to a report from AMD France's webpage, the Threadripper 2990WX is up to 53% faster than the Intel Core i9-7980XE. These figures are based off both CPUs performances in the Cinebench R15 processor benchmark. If these results are anything to go by, the whole Threadripper 2000 line looks like it'll be a force to be reckoned with.
Are there mobile Threadripper chips?
Not yet. Threadripper chips are among AMD's current premier offerings for high-end desktop PC users, so their top-tier computing power has yet to be shrunk down for mobile devices.
When will they be available?
You can get your hands on the 2990WX, which comes out August 13 and is available for pre-order it on Newegg right now. The 2950X will follow shortly thereafter, releasing on August 31st. The 2970WX and 2920X are slated to release sometime in October.
Should I get a Threadripper? If you only use your high-end PC for gaming, the Threadripper CPUs won't be a smart investment, given that games typically don't utilize all that many cores and wouldn't be able to tap into the Threadrippers' full potential. However, for those who do a lot of intensive 3D rendering and heavily utilize other graphics-related programs that chew up CPU cores, AMD's latest and greatest central processing units are definitely worth looking into.
Depending on your rig, you might need an updated motherboard to handle the upcoming Threadripper 2000 CPUs, so factor that potential expenditure into your budget before considering whether to purchase one. We've got more info on the X399 motherboard situation over at Tom's Hardware.
If you want to see an unboxing of the Threadripper 2000 series' 2990WX, we've unpackaged our review kit so you can see what comes with AMD's latest and greatest CPU.
