AMD’s 24-core Ryzen Threadripper Rumored To Be Called 3960X

Both AMD and Intel are set to launch new CPUs next month, and while there have been no mysteries about what Intel’s next Core X-series chips are going to be bringing to the table, AMD has kept largely mum on its next Threadrippers. What we do know for sure is that the third-gen Threadripper series will start at 24-cores, a decision made based on the fact that the mainstream Ryzen series is soon going to get the 16-core 3950X.

VideoCardz is reporting that this 24-core model is going to be called Threadripper 3960X, a name that makes sense given how the rest of the stack is going to play out. The 3950X name has already been taken by the 16-core Ryzen, named similarly to the 16-core Ryzen Threadripper 2950X. With third-gen Threadripper starting at 16 cores, that x950X naming detaches itself from the TR series.

While AMD hasn’t confirmed it explicitly, it appears that the third-gen Threadripper series will have four models. VideoCardz throws its assumptions into the hat, stating that the 32-core could be called 3970X, while the 48- and 64-core models could be called 3980X and 3990X, respectively. We think that the top two models would include WX naming, but that is nothing more than an assumption on our part.

In some ways, these new Threadrippers compete against EPYC 2, but only so much. The EPYC series still offers CPUs with fewer than 24-cores, whereas AMD is catering only to the high-end enthusiast with Threadripper. It’s not clear at this point if all of these chips are going to support an 8-channel memory controller, but it seems likely that at least the top two models would.

As we’ve talked about before, we’re excited for Threadripper third-gen because the issues we experienced with the top-end second-gen chips should be a thing of the past. We’re of course talking about some performance issues that occurred in specific cases, something that AMD, Microsoft, and the community has focused on fixing over the course of the product’s life. Zen 2 has a much different design that will better cater to chips with many CCX modules under-the-hood.