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Storm Peak Threadripper CPU will have two motherboard platforms

by on20 December 2022


Getting a HEDT on Intel

Leaker @g01d3nm4ng0 has been telling the world+dog that AMD could release two motherboard platforms to support its next-gen Storm Peak Threadripper CPUs.

Normally there is a single platform at this point of the game, but this time there will be a workstation and an HEDT (High-End Desktop) platform for enthusiasts. Both platforms will reportedly get an upgrade to PCIe Gen 5 connectivity, with the HEDT platform supporting 64 lanes and the workstation platform getting 128 lanes. 

What makes this leak different is that it requires AMD to return to the HEDT after its speedy exit from the market after the introduction of its Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000WX CPUs, moving the entire platform to the 'Pro' branding for the workstation market. 

The HEDT market is in a sorry state since the glory days of the core-count wars of 2017 when mainstream consumer platforms saw unprecedented jumps in compute capabilities, with core counts matching and even outpacing previous-generation HEDT CPUs.  Even Intel gave up on it after Cascade Lake-X.

However, the dark satanic rumour mill suggests that Intel might be preparing to have another stab at HEDT by reconfiguring its Sapphire Rapids/Sapphire Rapids-WS to target the HEDT user base. This means that AMD might also be planning to have something in place to counter the rumours prove true, so this leak might be accurate. 

The leaker suggests there will be a lot of similarities between AMD's new and old HEDT platforms. CPU PCIe capacity is limited to 64 lanes, and the platform is limited to quad-channel memory support — the same as X399. However, the new platform would purportedly come with a few massive upgrades, including PCIe Gen 5 support across all CPU lanes and Gen 3 support for the chipset.

The workstation variant should behave similarly to AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 5000WX-supported motherboards, featuring the same 8-channel memory configuration. 

If the leak is correct, these two platforms will run AMD's next-generation Ryzen Threadripper CPUs, reportedly codenamed Storm Peak. We don't know much about the new chips, but AMD confirmed next-generation Threadripper is coming with the Zen 4 architecture and will launch somewhere around the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.

 

Last modified on 20 December 2022
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