AMD finally announced the availability of its 3rd Generation Ryzen Threadripper processors recently, but there were only two processors included, topping out with the 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970WX – but we may have just seen another peeking out from a leak.
MSI put out a video advertising its TRX40 Creator motherboard, and while by and large it was just another motherboard ad, there was apparently a nice little tidbit spotted by Wccftech. In the video, there apparently was originally an image of someone looking at Windows Task Manager, which showed a processor with 128 logical processors – or 128 threads.
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The current top end of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation lineup is the Threadripper 3970WX, which will retail for $1,999 (about £1,550, AU$2,900) when it hits store shelves on November 25. Now, this processor is 'just' a 32-core, 64-thread part, so it can't be the processor shown off in the video. It would have to be a new part altogether.
Now, we should be clear: MSI has since taken down this video and replaced it with an edited version without that task manager shot. But, on the other hand, we have previously heard that AMD is saving its biggest processor yet for January 2020 – just in time for CES.
Connecting the dots
Even without this leak, we were pretty sure that AMD had a juicier chunk of silicon lying around the corner, based entirely on how it's been handling product launches this year.
Back at Computex 2019, it announced its 3rd Generation Ryzen processors, headed up by the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X. However, a couple of weeks later at E3 2019, AMD announced the heavyweight Ryzen 9 3950X alongside its Navi graphics cards. We think AMD is going to take a similar approach with the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X.
If nothing else, Zen 2 processors have been marked by rapidly increasing core counts, so it doesn't make much sense for AMD to be so conservative with its most powerful hardware. The Threadripper 2990WX was a 32-core, 64-thread chip, so we're pretty sure AMD is going to top that.
A massive 64-thread, 128-core Threadripper processor would make for a perfect announcement for CES 2020, as we don't think Team Red will have much else for that conference – at least not as far as processors are concerned – and a Threadripper announcement alongside a flagship-level graphics card would be a dream come true. But, as always, we'll see a bigger Threadripper processor if and when AMD deigns to show us a bigger Threadripper processor.
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