AMD Slashes Prices of First-Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs: Starting at $300
by Anton Shilov on August 27, 2018 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- AMD
- Ryzen
- ThreadRipper
- Threadripper 2
Following the launch of its second-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors earlier this month, AMD quietly began to slash prices of its first-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs. Right now, the most affordable Threadripper (1900X) costs around $300, whereas the former flagship 16-core processor is available for $720. However, there is a catch. Platforms featuring AMD’s X399 chipset and the TR4 socket are not cheap. Besides, if demand for processors increases spontaneously, so will the prices of motherboards.
Now that some of AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 2000-series processors are available for purchase, the original Ryzen Threadripper 1000-series look less attractive for the target audience and while there is no direct competition between the two product lines right now, it is in AMD’s best interests to sell off the remaining stock of the first-gen HEDT chips as soon as possible. In a bid to speed up the process, AMD recently slashed SRPs (suggested retail prices) of its first-gen Ryzen Threadripper processors to levels significantly below those set earlier this year, though not considerably below campaign prices.
As a result of the price cut, the eight-core Ryzen Threadripper 1900X will cost around $300, the twelve-core Ryzen Threadripper 1920X will be priced at circa $400, whereas the former flagship Ryzen Threadripper 1950X will be available for $799. A quick check with Amazon indicates that retail prices of the said CPUs are very close to their SRPs, or even below them. For example, the octa-core 1900X is now available for $308, whereas the 16-core 1950X can be purchased for $720. The 1900X has more memory channels and PCIe lanes than any regular Ryzen processor, so the chip makes sense for those who need a lot of DRAM bandwidth and/or plans to use multiple high-end SSDs and/or graphics cards.
| AMD's High-Performance Desktop CPUs | ||||||||
| Cores/ Threads |
Base/ Turbo |
L3 | DRAM 1DPC |
PCIe | TDP | SRP | Retail Price |
|
| TR 2990WX | 32/64 | 3.0/4.2 | 64 MB | 4x2933 | 60 | 250 W | $1799 | $1799 |
| TR 2970WX | 24/48 | 3.0/4.2 | $1299 | - | ||||
| TR 2950X | 16/32 | 3.5/4.4 | 32 MB | 180 W | $899 | - | ||
| TR 1950X | 3.4/4.0 | 4x2667 | $799 | $720 | ||||
| TR 2920X | 12/24 | 3.5/4.3 | 4x2933 | $649 | - | |||
| TR 1920X | 3.5/4.0 | 4x2667 | $399 | $449 | ||||
| TR 1900X | 8/16 | 3.8/4.0 | 16 MB | $299 | $308 | |||
| Ryzen 7 2700X | 8/16 | 3.7/4.3 | 16 MB | 2x2933 | 16 | 105 W | $329 | $319 |
| Ryzen 7 1800X | 8/16 | 3.6/4.0 | 16 MB | 2x2667 | 95 W | ? | $244 | |
Evidently, Threadrippers need an AMD X399-based motherboard with the TR4 socket, which are usually more expensive than platforms for AMD’s mainstream Ryzen CPUs. MSI’s X399 SLI Plus — one of the more affordable TR4 mainboards — is currently available for $310, which is significantly higher than enthusiast-class motherboards for regular Ryzen processors (priced at $200 – $270). Furthermore, if demand for such platforms skyrockets because of affordable CPUs, retailers will hike their prices.
It is unknown how many Ryzen Threadripper 1000-series CPUs are still in stocks of retailers and AMD as well as how long these stocks will last. AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 2950X is set to be released on August 31, whereas the model 2920X is due in October. Obviously, AMD is inclined to get rid of the first-gen Ryzen Threadripper chips as soon as possible so to avoid any internal competition.
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Samus - Thursday, August 30, 2018 - link
You won't save much in the power budget but you will certainly gain some performance. The problem I ran into with my Sandy\Ivy bridge PC last year was the IPC is just so out of date, it lacks a lot of the microarchitecture optimizations (especially for video encoding\decoding) that a surprising number of things use now. Windows 10, as an OS, also has a lot of optimizations for post-Haswell era CPU's.It's surprising how much the OS matters on newer architectures. Intel has dropped (and kind of re-added) support for Windows 7, and obviously Microsoft stopped updating Windows 7 kernel for microarchitecture optimizations after Sandy\Ivy...I mean it doesn't even have AVX support enabled out of the box but in March Microsoft published a way to enable it.
This all affects overall response and experience. If you are running Windows 10 on your 3930K, you'd notice a huge improvement with TR in just basic tasks, that might not be as obviousif you were running Windows 7.
Samus - Thursday, August 30, 2018 - link
The TR 1920X is where it's at. The 1900 is just hard to justify over a R2700X unless you actually need the PCIe lanes...I'm building a TR 1920X as a surveillance server at a client, to record 24 video H265 8MP video feeds. It's a little overkill because we don't need to PCIe lanes, but we do need the threads and didn't want to go dual CPU because of the NUMA penalty. The only external PCIe devices we are installing is a 10GBe card in addition to using the onboard AQC107 10GBe to another switch of 12 cameras, and an Areca SAS controller for 3x10TB Hitachi He10's to record 14 days of video. Boot drive is just a Micron SATA SSD...and all this is on Windows 10, no server OS.
PeachNCream - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Minor error at the end of the article:"...how fast these stocks will last."
Maybe "...how long these stocks will last," or "...how fast these stocks will deplete."
jcc5169 - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Correcting english grammar for writers .... I see a horrendous inability on these sites to use the english language properly ...jimjamjamie - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Are you going to cancel your subscription?bji - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
That was a great comeback!Arbie - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
And it would be "English", not "english". Sorry, I can't help it either...But it would be sensible to look at the author's background... The web world benefits so much from the skills of those who by chance are not native speakers of English, and don't have time for an academic education in the language. They simply can't get everything right. So make allowances for that. You can lament that Anandtech can't or won't pay for a dedicated copy editor, but don't blame the writers. Especially one of Mr. Shilov's excellence, please.
Alexvrb - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Cancel *and* demand a refund!imaheadcase - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Lots of sites are not actual writers anymore, its just bots who write articles for sites. I am not kidding. They even register sites on behalf of others, all those sites that are named stupid like top10reviews/printers onestopshoptop10/monitors, etc are just owned by a single person trying to get as much revenue as possible.It is especially true for phone numbers. You think "i don't know this number i will google it". Every website that shows up in google is registered by same company to do background checks and stuff.
Trixanity - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Perhaps English is not their first language...