AMD’s dedicated workstation CPU available through retailers and system builders
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors are now available from global retailers and workstation system builders. Previously the only way to get hold of the high-end workstation CPU was inside a Lenovo ThinkStation P620, which we review in-depth here.
AMD is making three AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro models widely available – the 64-core 3995WX, 32-core 3975WX, and 16-core 3955WX. The 12-core 3945WX will remain exclusive to Lenovo.
Several workstation system builders have already announced Threadripper Pro workstations, including Scan, Chillblast, Supermicro, Workstation Specialists and Velocity Micro.
There have been no Threadripper Pro announcements from HP, Dell or Fujitsu but we expect at least one of these major workstation manufacturers will take on the AMD CPU this year.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro shares the same core silicon as Threadripper, but there are several features that set the workstation CPU apart from its ‘consumer’ sibling.
These include more memory channels (8 vs 4), higher memory capacity (2TB vs 256GB), additional PCIe Gen4 lanes (128 vs 64) and enterprise security features.
Despite these architectural advantages, consumer Threadripper should still have a slight performance lead, core for core, in workflows that tend to not be bottlenecked by memory bandwidth, such as ray trace rendering.
And in workflows like simulation, where memory bandwidth is important, large automotive, aerospace and engineering firms tend to buy their workstations from major workstation manufacturers like Lenovo, not least because it gives them global availability, support and certification.
With this in mind it will be interesting to see how well the smaller system builders do with their Threadripper Pro workstations.
Among the new Threadripper Pro workstations we’ve seen, the Supermicro SuperWorkstation 5014A-TT stands out for its ability to support up to four full-height, double-width GPUs, double that of the Lenovo ThinkStation P620, which has more of a mid-range chassis. The Workstation Specialists WS-1640A-PRO-G4 can also support four double width GPUs.
