AMD has launched its new series of Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs designed to power the fastest workstations on the market.
Based on the company's Zen 3 architecture, the AMD Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series processors come with up to 64 cores (and 128 threads), up to 128 PCIe Gen 4 lanes and 8 high-performance memory lanes.
During a presentation delivered by AMD, TechRadar Pro was told that the new processors also boast maximum frequencies of up to 4.5Ghz, which will help support the demands of 3D design use cases.
New AMD workstation processors
Although Intel returned to form with its Alder Lake series of mainstream processors, launched earlier this year, the company still lags behind AMD in the workstation CPU market.
In comparison to the Xeon W-3375, the most performant workstation processor from Intel, the Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series delivers almost twice the number of cores, twice the number of PCIe lanes, 500Mhz greater boost frequency and five times the cache capacity.
AMD claims these advantages make for a significant performance gap across both lightly-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, which is further compounded by the lack of “enterprise-class” management facilities on offer with the Intel chip.
In addition to improvements in raw performance, AMD was also eager to highlight the high levels of power efficiency on offer with its latest range of CPUs.
The company says the Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series consumes up to 67% less power per core in comparison to two Intel Xeon Platinum 8280 CPUs, while also delivering up to 39% faster rendering performance. This makes for a performance to power ratio that is up to two times greater, although it’s worth noting AMD has opted not to compare against the newer Xeon Platinum 8380 here.
In terms of the industries that stand to benefit most for the new Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series, AMD highlighted use cases ranging from video editing to CAD, software development and more.
The level of performance users are able to squeeze out of the new processors will also increase over time, the company says, as a result of software optimizations designed to harness the high frequencies and core counts on offer with this latest generation.
The first machine to feature the new processor will be the Lenovo ThinkStation P620, which will receive additional configurations powered by the Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series. The new models will be available from March 21.
- Also check out our list of the best mobile workstations and best video editing laptops
