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AMD released Threadripper CPUs in 2017, built on the same 14nm Zen architecture as Ryzen, but with up to 16 cores and 32 threads. Threadripper was widely believed to have pushed Intel to respond with the release of enthusiast-class Skylake-X chips with up to 18 cores. AMD also released Epyc-branded server chips with up to 32 cores.
This week at Computex 2018, Intel showed off a 28-core CPU intended for enthusiasts and high end desktop users. While the part was overclocked to 5 GHz, it required a one-horsepower water chiller to do so. The demonstration seemed to be timed to steal the thunder from AMD's own news.
Now, AMD has announced two Threadripper 2 CPUs: one with 24 cores, and another with 32 cores. They use the "12nm LP" GlobalFoundries process instead of "14nm", which could improve performance, but are currently clocked lower than previous Threadripper parts. The TDP has been pushed up to 250 W from the 180 W TDP of Threadripper 1950X. Although these new chips match the core counts of top Epyc CPUs, there are some differences:
At the AMD press event at Computex, it was revealed that these new processors would have up to 32 cores in total, mirroring the 32-core versions of EPYC. On EPYC, those processors have four active dies, with eight active cores on each die (four for each CCX). On EPYC however, there are eight memory channels, and AMD's X399 platform only has support for four channels. For the first generation this meant that each of the two active die would have two memory channels attached – in the second generation Threadripper this is still the case: the two now 'active' parts of the chip do not have direct memory access.
This also means that the number of PCIe lanes remains at 64 for Threadripper 2, rather than the 128 of Epyc.
Threadripper 1 had a "game mode" that disabled one of the two active dies, so it will be interesting to see if users of the new chips will be forced to disable even more cores in some scenarios.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday June 07 2018, @08:16PM (3 children)
The AMD one is certainly not marketed to gamers. The "game mode" on Threadripper cripples the processor which is somehow supposed to improve game performance. If all you are doing is playing games, you don't want Threadripper at all.
I am considering Threadripper for my next video / photography processing workstation. Though I don't know if any software can really make use of this many cores yet.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 07 2018, @08:40PM (1 child)
Only certain games, like DiRT Rally, require the Threadripper "game mode". In my quick search I didn't see any lists that show which games require game mode, don't require game mode, or can use all 16 (soon 32) cores. But maybe those lists are floating around somewhere.
Game developers know that Intel and AMD are putting out non-Xeon/Epyc CPUs with a lot more cores. The 16-core TR 1950X, 18-core Core i9-7980XE. Now shooting up to 28 or 32 cores, and maybe continuing to 48 or 64 in the near future. So newer game engines should be able to handle running on these, or even use all of the cores in some cases.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:20AM
Well, they are going to have to make better use of multi core and gpu based systems and faster memory busses. The Ghz wars have ended, and Moore's law has expanded in to multi core processors. The coming generations of ships are going to add performance with more cores, not more Ghz.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @06:22PM
i suspect kedenlive could.