Skip to main content

AMD’s powerful Threadripper 5000 chips may have been delayed again

AMD Threadripper 5000 is getting delayed again, at least according to information from AMD leaker Gremon55. The upcoming but announced generation of high-end desktop (HEDT) processors was originally rumored to launch in August but was reportedly delayed into the fall. Now, it looks like they won’t arrive until 2022.

The most straightforward explanation for the delay is the chip shortage. As the world of processors and graphics cards continues to feel the strain of a weakened supply chain, it’s possible that AMD can’t produce enough chips to meet demand. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for Ryzen 5000 processors, though, leading some to speculate that AMD is resting on its competitive advantage.

Then @AMD might as well just wait for Chagall 3D.

I get why AMD may not feel threatened by Intel right now, especially if Zen 3D launches on AM4 ahead of schedule & above performance expectations.

But…the longer you wait to make a splash, the bigger the splash needs to be… https://t.co/0Lh6bDO8MW

— Moore's Law Is Dead (@mooreslawisdead) October 1, 2021

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

Although AMD is pressing ahead in the consumer desktop space, it has cornered the HEDT crowd. Intel simply doesn’t offer an alternative to the massive core counts available on Threadripper 3000 chips. In our testing of the Lenovo P620 with a Threadripper 3995WX, we found it decimated any other desktop processor currently available.

Still, enthusiasts have been left wanting for next-generation Threadripper chips. Threadripper 3000 was released in late 2019, and the Threadripper Pro release came only a few months later in mid-2020. A November 2021 release for Threadripper 5000 made sense, but it seems AMD isn’t ready to launch the new generation just yet.

Threadripper is the only range of processors AMD hasn’t updated with its Zen 3 architecture. Ryzen 5000 brought the architecture to desktop, and there are AMD Epyc server CPUs with it, too. AMD recently released Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 APUs as well.

On the other hand, Threadripper 3000 is stuck with Zen 2. By the time AMD launches Threadripper 5000, it seems that Ryzen 5000 chips will already be available with the upcoming Zen 3D architecture. These processors are built on the same underlying Zen 3 architecture, but they come with AMD’s new 3D V-Cache, which stacks cache on top of the chip for much higher capacity. According to AMD, this can result in as much as a 1.25 times improvement in games.

Although it seems Threadripper 5000 will arrive late to the Zen 3 party, it should still offer a significant performance improvement. Leaked photogrammetry benchmarks show over a 20% improvement over Threadripper 3000 Pro on the back of the updated architecture. The flagship chip is rumored to launch with 64 cores and 128 threads, just like the flagship Threadripper 3990X chip.

Threadripper 5000 is rumored to be identical to Threadripper 3000 otherwise. The next-gen chips are said to support PCIe 4.0 and DDR4 memory, and they’ll reportedly use the TRX4 socket. AMD will likely release a new chipset alongside the processors, though rumors suggest the company is sticking with the same socket design.

As it stands now, it appears we’ll see Threadripper 5000 next year. When next year remains a mystery. Assuming AMD is still pressing forward with manufacturing, we hope to see them within the first few months of 2022.

Editors' Recommendations

Jacob Roach
Senior Staff Writer, Computing
Jacob Roach is a writer covering computing and gaming at Digital Trends. After realizing Crysis wouldn't run on a laptop, he…
AMD’s latest V-Cache chip proves to be cheap, fast, and perfect for gaming
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D box.

AMD's surprise launch of the Ryzen 5 5600X3D is upon us -- the CPUs are hitting the shelves starting tomorrow. However, it's a very exclusive set of shelves, seeing as the CPU will only be available at Micro Center for a limited amount of time.

Based on AMD's aging AM4 platform, is this CPU a worthy contender at a time when there are newer Ryzen 7000 parts readily available? The first reviews are in, and we pretty much know the answer.
Specs and architecture

Read more
AMD may be sticking to a controversial choice with Ryzen 8000
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D held between fingertips.

Zen 4 still feels quite new, but AMD is already preparing to launch its Zen 5 architecture in 2024, with AMD Ryzen 8000 processors now on the horizon.

New leaks shed some light on the upcoming chips, and while a lot is still uncertain, one thing is clear -- AMD is sticking to a somewhat controversial design choice that sets it apart from Intel: keeping the same core counts.

Read more
Between AMD’s Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 9 7950X3D, there’s no contest
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D sitting on a motherboard.

It's no secret that AMD's 3D V-Cache CPUs top the list of the best gaming processors, but the new Ryzen 7 7800X3D puts AMD shoppers in a precarious position. As you can read in our Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, it tops the charts in gaming performance even if it takes a backseat in productivity power. Is that gap enough to justify spending more on the Ryzen 9 7950X3D?

Even with around $300 separating the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 9 7950X3D, the performance gap between them is much closer than their prices would suggest. I threw them both on my test bench to see if spending up is worth it, and there's a clear answer -- the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the CPU to buy.
Two different tiers

Read more