Last month at Computex, AMD shared the first details on its second-generation Threadripper processors, noting they would launch to the public sometime in the third quarter of this year. We must be getting close to the release date because there are more leaks than a submarine with a screen door. One of them can be found on AMD's own website.
Reddit user excalibur_zd noticed that there are several 2nd-gen Threadripper placeholders on AMD's site, which can be found by adding previously leaked model numbers to the end of a specific URL.
"If you visit AMD's support page for a SKU that does not exist, such as 2990XYZ, by adding it to the end of the URL it'll return a 'Page not found'. The correct, legimiate SKU will return an empty page with the SKU's name as the title," excalibur_zd writes.
Here are direct links to the placeholder pages:
Note the "W" in the 2990WX and 2970WX entries. There has been a bit of speculation as to why AMD is using a W in the two higher end models. One theory is that they may require water cooling, with AMD perhaps releasing multiple SKUs. It might also refer to those SKUs being intended for workstations.
None of the placeholder pages offer any further information—they're essentially blank pages at this point. However, AMD also stated at Computex that the highest end chip will have 32 cores and 64 threads, presumably the Threadripper 2990WX. AMD again referenced the monstrous chip in a teaser video a couple of weeks later.
Three of the above SKUs also now appear on HWBot, one of the largest online communities dedicated to PC overclocking. They include some basic specs:
- AMD Threadripper 2990X: 32 cores / 64 threads, 3.4GHz base clock, 250W TDP
- AMD Threadripper 2970X: 24 cores / 48 threads, 3.5GHz base clock, 180W TDP
- AMD Threadripper 2950X: 16 cores / 32 threads, 3.1GHz base clock, 125W TDP
It's interesting that HWBot lists the 32-core/64-thread part as 2990X and not 2990WX. It also has a high TDP at 250W, further reinforcing the notion that it might require water cooling. And finally, there is no mention of boost clocks.
In yet another leak, Videocardz got its hands on a purported CPU-Z screenshot of a Threadripper 2990WX with a 4.1GHz Precision Boost clock. According to the source, it was running in an MSI X399 MEG Creation motherboard.
As we wait for AMD to formally introduce its 2nd-gen Threadripper lineup, current-generation Threadripper CPUs have fallen in price, hitting new lows. Not that it matters a whole lot for gaming, but if you use your PC for certain content creation activities and other heavily threaded workloads, Threadripper is worth keeping an eye on.
