The new AMD Ryzen 9 3850X: a 16C / 32T chip kills Threadripper

AMD will detail its new Zen 2 architecture and the processors of the Ryzen 3000 series at Computex in two weeks, with a major unveiling at E3 2019 alongside Radeon Navi and launch on 7/7 according to all the information we have up to now.

New rumors point to the flagship Ryzen 3000 processor with a 16-core design with slower clocks and a faster 12-core processor. It makes sense – to see a processor with fewer cores, but higher, with a processor with a lower number of cores, because it will superbly handle two different consumers.

We've been hearing about the Ryzen 9 3850X for a while now, as rumors last year suggested a $ 499 5.1GHz 16C / 32T chip. This completely erases the first-generation Ryzen Threadripper and clock frequencies from second-generation TR chips.

But … that would have the effect, at least for now, of killing Ryzen Threadripper. AMD lost James Prior, lead marketing executive behind Threadripper earlier this year, and most recently AMD has removed third-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors from their 2019 roadmap. Thus, the new processor Ryzen 3000 12/16-core makes me think that Threadripper could indeed be dead … for the moment.

AMD is selling more Ryzen 3000 series processors and new 500 Series motherboards than the Ryzen Threadripper 16C / 32T versions. Do not forget that there is still the second-generation 2990WX Ryzen Threadripper with 32C / 64T that will still be sold, but a higher-rate 16C / 32T chip in a new flagship processor in the Ryzen 3000 series would kill the first-generation Threadripper and would please customers.

AMD most likely wants all Zen 2 silicon with 7nm to be used for consumer-grade Ryzen processors and high-end EPYC offerings, because a new Threadripper processor should be somewhere between the supposedly new 16C / 32T processor and the 2990WX.

The much larger third-generation Ryzen Threadripper 3990WX (or nickname) could be expected later this year or early in 2020, once the new 7nm production of AMD will be in full swing.