In recent years, the HEDT market has been in a dismal state. Intel has allowed its high-end customers to languish on the Cascade Lake-X platform, which still utilizes the Skylake core design at its core, while AMD’s Threadrippers are exclusive to the professional market. The blue team will soon release new workstation processors, but so will AMD, according to the most recent leak, though there will be a delay.
This information comes via a tweet from the reputable leaker chi11eddog (@g01d3nm4ng0 on Twitter), who tweets infrequently but is usually accurate. The leaker gets right to the point by stating that both the HEDT and Workstation versions of AMD’s Storm Peak platform will debut in September 2023. If true, this is good news for fans of multicore CPUs and high-speed I/O.
Chagall is the codename for the current generation of AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors, which are only available in PRO form. This means that until recently, you had to contact an OEM or system integrator that sells complete Threadripper systems to purchase one. Given that they are essentially EPYC CPUs housed in a desktop chassis, their exorbitant price tag is probably not unexpected.
Storm Peak is the codename for AMD’s next-generation Threadripper processors, which are rumored to share the same general architecture as the company’s most recent EPYC CPUs, Genoa. As with Genoa, they employ AMD’s extremely fast Zen 4 CPU core. According to the leak, AMD will release a new series of Threadripper PRO CPUs aimed at workstation users that are essentially EPYC-in-a-box: eight-channel DDR5 memory, 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes, and no overclocking.
However, the leak also reveals that Threadripper for non-professional HEDT is returning. Such processors have not existed since the Zen 2 and Ryzen 3000 series eras. Threadripper HEDT will reportedly have half as many memory channels and PCIe lanes as the full-fat version, the same as older chips. It will also support overclocking, which is somewhat terrifying given the Ryzen 9 7950X’s already high power consumption.
Given the specifications of EPYC Genoa and the lack of information about the processors themselves, it is reasonable to assume that the full “workstation” version could include as many as 96 CPU cores. Considering that the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X exists, it’s possible that the HEDT version could have the same peak core count, but we wouldn’t bet on it.
Fans of the red team who desire a more robust player than Raphael will have to wait quite a while. As previously mentioned, the leaker claims that these chips will debut in September of next year. Don’t hold your breath if you’re waiting for Zen 4 HEDT; it’s still over nine months away.