In 2020, AMD launched a brand new sequence of workstation-focused processors beneath its Threadripper umbrella, aptly named the Threadripper Professional sequence. These chips have been basically true workstation variations of AMD’s EPYC server processors, providing the identical huge core counts and excessive reminiscence bandwidth as AMD’s high-performance server platform. By introducing Threadripper Professional, AMD carved out an specific processor household for high-performance workstations, a activity that was beforehand awkwardly juggled by the older Threadripper and EPYC processors.
Now, just below two years because the launch of the unique Threadripper 3000 Professional sequence, AMD is upgrading that lineup with the announcement of the brand new Threadripper Professional 5000 sequence. Primarily based on AMD’s Zen 3 structure, the most recent Threadripper Professional chips are designed to up the ante as soon as extra by way of efficiency, benefiting from Zen 3’s larger IPC in addition to larger clockspeeds. Altogether AMD is releasing 5 new SKUs, starting from 12c/24t to 64c/128t, which mixed with help for 8 channels of DDR4 throughout the complete lineup, will provide a mixture of chips for each CPU-hungry and bandwidth-hungry compute duties.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Professional 5000 WX-Collection: What’s New?
Just like the earlier technology of TR 3000 Professional WX processors, the TR 5000 Professional WX sequence bridges the hole between AMD’s fashionable desktop Ryzen vary and its EPYC 7003 processors, providing highly effective configurations just like the EPYC, however in a chip/platform higher fitted to use in workstations. The largest draw of the TR 5000 Professional WX is after all the big variety of CPU cores – as much as 64 of them in a single chip – however reminiscence bandwidth can also be a significant factor, because the TR 5000 Professional WX sequence will get 8 channels of DDR4. Total that is equivalent to high-end EPYC chips, or 4 occasions as many cores and reminiscence channels as a top-end Ryzen chip.
With 8 reminiscence channels, the TR 5000 Professional can help as much as 2TB of DDR4-3200 DRAM – with ECC help included, after all. TR 5000 Professional is solely a single socket platform (LGA 4094), so twin socket EPYC setups do have a slight edge in whole reminiscence capability since they will amass 2TB per chip. The truth is, whole platform reminiscence capability stays one of many few notable characteristic differentiators between TR Professional and EPYC, as AMD intends for its server processor to be on the prime of its stack.
Consequently, AMD’s present crop of product households seems like the next:
- AMD Ryzen = Desktop
- AMD Threadripper = HEDT (& MIA)
- AMD Threadripper Professional WX = Workstation
- AMD EPYC = Server
Coming from the last-generation Threadripper Professional 3000 platform, essentially the most important change throughout the Ryzen TR 5000 Professional sequence is that its cores at the moment are based mostly on AMD’s extremely profitable and performance-focused Zen 3 structure, changing the older Zen 2 cores used within the authentic TR Professional 3000. As with the EPYC processors these elements are derived from, AMD is utilizing a mixture of Zen 3 chiplets (CCDs) constructed on TSMC’s 7nm course of, in addition to its acquainted I/O die which is constructed on World Foundries’ 12 nm course of.
Updating Threadripper Professional to make use of the Zen 3 structure yields a number of advantages, together with a notable enchancment in IPC and frequency as in comparison with its earlier Zen 2 microarchitecture. Within the case of clockspeeds, turbo frequencies have been elevated throughout the complete stack to 4.5 GHz, a 200 MHz improve over the earlier TR 3000 Professional chips.
According to its newest Zen 3 based mostly EPYC 7003 processors for the server market, TR 5000 Professional WX additionally contains AMD’s hardware-level Shadow Stack safety. AMD Shadow Stack is designed to negate control-flow assaults, with extra hardware-level help from Microsoft {Hardware}-enforced stack safety which types one in all AMD’s Shadow Stacks key securities. AMD’s safety stack is multi-layered, with help for OEM-enabled safety features on the prime, whereas Shadow Stack sits among the many core complicated for stringent cryptographic safety.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Professional 5000 WX-Collection For Workstations: The Stack
In whole, AMD plans to incorporate 5 totally different TR 5000 Professional SKUs. This consists of the highest chip, the TR Professional 5995WX, which consists of 64 cores/128 threads. This chip has a base frequency of two.7 GHz and might turbo as much as 4.5 GHz throughout the whole thing of its cores.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 5000 Professional (Zen 3 “Chagall”) | ||||||||
AnandTech | Cores | Base Freq |
Turbo Freq |
PCIe (Gen 4) |
Chiplet (CCD/IO) |
Cache (L3) |
TDP | DRAM |
5995WX | 64 / 128 | 2700 | 4500 | 128 | 8+1 | 256 MB | 280 W | 8 x DDR4-3200 |
5975WX | 32 / 64 | 3600 | 4500 | 128 | 4+1 | 128 MB | 280 W | 8 x DDR4-3200 |
5965WX | 24 / 48 | 3800 | 4500 | 128 | 4+1 | 128 MB | 280 W | 8 x DDR4-3200 |
5955WX | 16 / 32 | 4000 | 4500 | 128 | 2+1 | 64 MB | 280 W | 8 x DDR4-3200 |
5945WX | 12 / 24 | 4100 | 4500 | 128 | 2+1 | 64 MB |
280 W | 8 x DDR4-3200 |
Shifting down the stack is the TR Professional 5975WX, with 32 cores/64 threads and a base core frequency of three.6 GHz. Additional down is probably some of the attention-grabbing inclusions, the TR Professional 5965WX, which has 24 cores/48 threads and bridges the hole between the 32-core/64-thread TR Professional 5975WX, and the 16-core/32-thread TR Professional 5955WX. The addition of the TR Professional 5965WX is one thing many customers have been asking for, because it affords a extra direct aggressive angle in opposition to Intel’s 24-core Xeon workstation-focused processor, the Intel Xeon W-3345.
And for customers who want the TR Professional platform’s reminiscence bandwidth greater than they want the cores, AMD additionally has a 12-core variant, the TR Professional 5945WX. This chip has a base core frequency of 4.1 GHz, and extra importantly the identical 8-channels of DDR4-3200 reminiscence as the opposite TR Professional chips.
The entire new TR 5000 Professional chips additionally profit from a reorganized L3 cache. In comparison with the final technology TR 3000 Professional chips, AMD has elevated the multi-core L3 cache cluster from 4-core x 16 MB to a bigger 8-core x 32 MB cluster. It is price mentioning that every CCD has 64 MB of cache related to it, so the TR Professional 5995WX has 256 GB, whereas the decrease 12-core 5945WX has simply 64 MB of L3 cache obtainable to it.
AMD has additionally expanded PCIe help on its TR 5000 Professional processors to 128 x PCIe 4.0 lanes, up from 120 x PCIe 4.0 lanes on the TR 3000 Professional. It needs to be famous that AMD hasn’t specified whether or not or not the extra 8 x PCIe 4.0 lanes are embedded on the I/O die of the processor itself, or this comes from the chipset.
Lastly, AMD has confirmed to us that the brand new TR 5000 Professional chips will use the identical WRX80 platform because the earlier technology. So together with reusing the present sWRX8 socket, current WRX80 motherboards will solely want a firmware replace to be suitable with the brand new chips.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Professional 5000 WX-Collection: OEM Solely
It needs to be famous that these new processors shall be OEM-only, at the least for now. Because of this anybody trying to leverage AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Professional 5000 WX-series processors might want to flip to Lenovo (or finally, different relevant distributors) to acquire a whole system.
Whereas AMD and distributors did finally open up pathways for different system integrators through AMD WRX80 motherboards to make the most of TR 3000 Professional, it stays unclear whether or not AMD will go the identical route with TR 5000 Professional processors. For now, Lenovo is as soon as once more AMD’s key launch associate, and to that finish Lenovo is releasing an up to date model of the ThinkStation P620 to coincide with at present’s announcement.
Whereas we do not have a full checklist of specs of the most recent ThinkStation P620, we all know it should provide an 8-memory slot motherboard to capitalize on the 8-channel reminiscence bandwidth, which is undoubtedly some of the outstanding options of the WRX80 platform. Judging from the design of the TR 3000 Professional model, it should possible have a transposed socket to permit Lenovo to suit a big cooler higher suited to supporting the 280 W TDP. On the identical time, it must also provide customizability, albeit what choices customers can alter stays unclear.
Lastly, it is price noting that AMD is not providing any pricing steering right here. Since TR 5000 Professional is OEM-only – and thus, you possibly can’t purchase a chip straight from AMD ot its distributors – AMD has little must publish pricing info. As an alternative, pricing shall be as much as the OEMs, who shall be designing and pricing their workstations as they see match.
Competitors within the Workstation Area: AMD Versus Intel
Within the workstation section of the market, AMD’s greatest competitor for the second is Intel’s W-3300 sequence of processors. Intel launched its Xeon W-3300 household again in July 2021, which is its third technology of workstation-focused Xeon merchandise. Intel Xeon W-3300 relies on Intel’s Ice Lake scalable platform, which is constructed on their authentic 10nm manufacturing course of.
Nevertheless, the dynamic of AMD’s competitors will change barely when Intel launches its extremely anticipated Sapphire Rapids Xeon Scalable platform, constructed upon the Intel 7 manufacturing course of. Like its Alder Lake processors for desktop, Sapphire Rapids will characteristic the Golden Cove core structure throughout its cores. One other important change for Sapphire Rapids is that Intel makes use of on-package HBM2E, which provides “graphics-like” reminiscence bandwidth (roughly x4) on to the CPU workloads.
Specializing in the now and never the long run, AMD has printed a set of in-house attained efficiency knowledge, one thing each Intel and AMD do surrounding their product launches. Evaluating the highest SKU from AMD, the TR 5995 WX, to Intel’s present flagship workstation processor, the Xeon W-3375, AMD believes they’ve a definite benefit in each core/thread depend, PCIe lanes, L3 Cache, and core frequency. The important thing variations between each the flagship workstation processors from AMD and Intel are famous beneath:
- TR Professional 5995 WX has 26 extra cores and 52 extra threads than the Xeon W-3375 (68% extra)
- TR Professional 5995 WX has roughly 350% extra L3 cache (256 MB versus 57 MB)
- TR Professional 5995 WX has 100% extra PCIe lanes than the Xeon W-3375 (128 versus 64)
Primarily based on its in-house testing evaluating every TR Professional 5000 processor to the aligned Intel Xeon W-3300 sequence processor, AMD is claiming a number of wins in efficiency. This contains as much as 40% sooner efficiency in Unreal Engine efficiency, which is a extremely multi-threaded workload – though that is anticipated given the TR Professional 5995 WX has 40% extra cores/threads than the Xeon W-3375.
Specializing in the comparisons with equal core and thread counts such because the TR Professional 5975X to the Xeon W-3365, which each characteristic 32-cores and 64-threads, AMD is claiming as much as 32% higher efficiency in Unreal Engine, in addition to as much as 55% further efficiency in Adobe After Results.
Throughout the board, AMD is claiming between 25% and 42% higher efficiency on its 12-core and 16-core comparisons throughout Unreal Engine, After Results, and in Chaos V-Ray efficiency, which is a notable leap in efficiency if the real-world efficiency enhancements match.
Shifting again to AMD’s flagship TR Professional 5995 WX processor for workstations, AMD claims extra wins than straight in opposition to 2 x Intel Xeon Platinum 8280 server processors. Because of this the figures within the above slide have been achieved utilizing a 64-core/128-thread TR Professional 5995 WX processor in opposition to 2 x Xeon Platinum 8280 processors with a mixed whole of 56-cores and 112-threads.
AMD states within the small print that it’s evaluating all of its figures in opposition to ‘equally configured’ BOXX APEXX4 workstations. Nonetheless, sadly, AMD would not checklist the specs or configurations of those techniques.
Abstract
AMD is launching its Ryzen Threadripper 5000 Professional sequence with Lenovo through the ThinkStation P620 workstations. That is much like its launch of the earlier TR 3000 Professional processors. On the time of writing, AMD hasn’t supplied info as to once we can anticipate TR 5000 Professional WX to hit the market or when the most recent Lenovo ThinkStation P620 workstation shall be launched or introduced.
On AMD’s efficiency claims, it seems as if TR 5000 Professional will additional enhance upon its present grasp on modern workstation options, particularly with the generational improve that Zen 3 brings in general IPC efficiency when in comparison with Zen 2 (TR 3000 Professional).
It stays to be seen how the rising battle within the workstation section of the market will intensify as Intel rolls out Sapphire Rapids-SP processors with Intel’s EMIB interconnect and HBM2e reminiscence. These chips are anticipated to be launched someday in 2022, however it’s famous that Sapphire Rapids has already been delayed earlier than, as they have been beforehand anticipated in Q2 2022.
The important thing focus of at present’s announcement is that techniques based mostly on AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Professional 5000 WX-series processors shall be obtainable to buy from March twenty first, with Lenovo and the ThinkStation P620 workstation being the discharge platform of selection. AMD did inform us that they anticipate to have extra companions on board within the second half of 2022, which suggests the same ramp-up to what we noticed with the earlier technology of Threadripper Professional.