AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen rumours put Threadripper’s future in question

There is no doubt that so far, Ryzen has been a huge success for AMD. Not only has competition been restored to the mainstream and high-end gaming segments of the CPU market, but Threadripper also posed a huge challenge to Intel’s HEDT line up. We are closing in on the launch of 3rd Gen Ryzen processors now and the specs being touted are very impressive, but it does look like there is little room left for Threadripper, which was quietly removed from AMD’s 2019 roadmap.

As part of AMD’s investors relations presentation for May 2019, the upcoming product roadmap was updated, with 3rd Gen Ryzen desktop processors pinned for a mid-year launch. Curiously though, Threadripper has been left off the list. This could simply mean that next-gen Threadripper is now a 2020 product, but when you take a look at reported leaks for Ryzen 3000, it looks like there might not actually be much need for Threadripper this time around, as we may see ‘Ryzen 9’ introduced as a replacement.

According to AdoredTV, AMD is going to have Ryzen 9, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 this generation. This move would fundamentally change the line-up, with Ryzen 9 adopting Threadripper’s monstrous 16-cores and 32-threads while also boosting clock speeds to 4.3/5.1GHz base/boost. Ryzen 7 would then move up to 12C/24T, Ryzen 5 would be 8C/16T and finally, Ryzen 3 would be 6C/12T.

More recently, serial leaker TUM_APISAK, has said online that he has received a Zen 2 engineering sample, featuring 16-cores running on an X570 motherboard, rather than a board with a TR4 socket. Beyond that, we also know that James Prior, who formerly championed Threadripper, is no longer working at AMD.

Of course, much of this is rumour and speculation for now. Threadripper could return in 2020 with EPYC levels of cores/threads. The Threadripper 2990WX did start moving in this direction, offering up 32 cores and 64 threads. However, it could end up being a less appealing option compared to Ryzen 9 if the ultra high core/thread count is only useful in a limited number of scenarios.

Either way, Computex is coming up at the end of the month, so hopefully we will have this all straightened out then.

KitGuru Says: If the current leaks are accurate, then 3rd Gen Ryzen is going to be a very exciting launch, even if it does end up leaving Threadripper in the dust. Are many of you holding off on upgrading for next-gen Ryzen?

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