After waiting a long time finally, AMD has deigned to tell us what it is the price of your Threadripper PRO 5000. Our impressions on seeing it? This has been a jug of cold water for us, as it confirms our fears that the desktop market is on the verge of near-term extinction. What is the motive?
The acronym HEDT stands for High End Desktop. By this he refers to what we traditionally call personal work places. Historically, these computers weren’t c onsidered personal computers, but gradually there was an upward shift into the lower ranges. It got to the point where PC processors were good enough to perform the tasks assigned to workstations. Let’s not forget that one of the consumer trends is that once the performance requirements have been met on a metric, people no longer pay for those extra features or power.
AMD’s HEDT line no longer makes sense
The AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 is a curious case to say the least, since it has been rumored for some time that this product line could disappear, along with this type of computer. After all, the platform uses the same IOD as its EPYC processors and the same CCDs as its Ryzen and server family of processors. At any time since the late 2022 release of Zen 3 I could have posted them, but interest from Lisa Su and her ilk has been nil.
And for some time now, as we mentioned a few days ago, AMD has decided that it will launch its Threadripper PRO 5000 for those who wish to set up their own HEDT system. Of course it doesn’t accept EPYC plug and Ryzen plug either, but one of its own called TXR40, which allows them to better control prices. The grace of it all? The PRO slogan offers the possibility of use 8 memory channels. This means more memory modules in the server, just like with the server processor.
Why not create single-socket SP3 motherboards for workstations and servers to universalize both processors? Let’s not forget that the original difference between Threadripper and EPYC was that the first had only 4 channels and the other 8. Now the figure is the same and therefore the number of memory sockets is the same.
The price issue in the Threadripper PRO 5000
We come to the elephant in the room, the price at which the transformers will be sold. And it is that obviously these must be more expensive than their desktop equivalents of the same generation. That we meet ? Just look at how much each of the Threadripper PRO 5000s will cost to see what the problem is.
| Processor | Cores/Threads | Basic speed | Increase | Price (in dollars) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRO 5995WX Wire Cutter | 64/128 | 2.7GHz | 4.5GHz | 6499 |
| PRO 3995WX Thread Cutter | 64/128 | 2.7GHz | 4.2GHz | 5489 |
| 3990X Wire Cutter | 64/128 | 2.9GHz | 4.3GHz | 3990 |
| PRO 5975WX Thread Cutter | 32/64 | 3.6GHz | 4.5GHz | 3299 |
| Thread cutter PRO 3975 WX | 32/64 | 3.5GHz | 4.2GHz | 2749 |
| 3970X Wire Cutter | 32/64 | 3.7GHz | 4.5GHz | 1999 |
| PRO 5965WX Thread Cutter | 24/48 | 3.8GHz | 4.5GHz | 2399 |
| Puller 3960X | 24/48 | 3.8GHz | 4.5GHz | 1399 |
As you can see from the chart, the PRO tagline was a significant price increase over the 3000 series. Where are the no-name Threadrippers among the 5000 series? They just don’t exist, AMD killed this line and with it extinguished any incentive to be able to set up a workstation for content creators at an acceptable price. In other words, those who owned a Threadripper 3000 have no incentive to upgrade at this price.
The key is not in the most expensive systems, but in the cheapest among the Threadrippers, since their price compared to Ryzen with more cores was low enough to consider such a system if you really needed it. What is not acceptable is that the cheapest AMD HEDT processor from generation to generation almost doubled its price. And yes, we know that they are professionals who end up paying for their work over the long term, but it seems that AMD itself is boycotting itself with the price of its Threadripper PRO 5000.
