AMD Pushes Back 3rd Gen Threadripper & Ryzen 9 3950X Until November

[ermo]

During the launch of the Zen gen 1 and gen 1+ (2xxx) chips, AMD launched the ((top end) - 1) part first to cash in on the "oooh shiny!"-crowd's excitement at a higher price ($499 in the case of the 1800X if memory serves me correctly). In the case of the 2xxx, the 2700X was a somewhat cheaper gateway drug to the improved ThreadRippers which had higher-binned CCX clock speeds (again, a brilliant move by AMD's marketers -- "High End Desktop" really is exactly that).

In the case of the Zen gen 3 chips, the 3900X is clearly there to rake in the profits from chips that didn't quite meet EPYC criteria. And they still sell like hotcakes and make people feel like they got the performance bargain of the year. I wouldn't be surprised if AMD deliberately pair a (top bin - 1) chip with a (top bin - 2) chip on dual-chip consumer Ryzen chips -- think 3600X + 3600 on a 3900X and 3800X + 3700X on the upcoming 3950X.

Given all the hubbub about BIOS and AGESA issues + full Windows and Linux support lagging behind somewhat, I think I'll wait 6 more months before I jump on the 3xxx bandwagon as most of the early issues ought to be ironed out by then and intel will likely have introduced more competitive offerings putting price pressure on the 3900X I'm gunning for.

FWIW, it seems AMD took the same approach with the recent Navi (5700 series) launch -- I expect a more fully featured Navi 58xx/59xx part to land in the coming months, once AMD and its board partners have milked the 5700 series excitement for all it's worth.

And since I currently rock an R7 2700X w/2x16GB Samsung B-die and 2 undervolted and underclocked RX Vega 64s, I figure I can bide my time for now.

[numacross]

And there goes my plan for building a system this month... I've been wanting to a build a system since July, and I thought September I can finally do it. Now it's November... now the 9900KS is looking rather attractive for October.

Yeah it will heat up your home nicely with that 127W TDP at base clock

On a serious note why not 3700X instead? You can't buy a 16-core so you're settling for a 8-core with known I/O penalties due to mitigations?

[Zoll]

And there goes my plan for building a system this month... I've been wanting to a build a system since July, and I thought September I can finally do it. Now it's November... now the 9900KS is looking rather attractive for October.

[theriddick]

My guess: the Chinese are scrambling to get their own chips fabbed, so that Trump can no longer threaten them with blocks on US chips & associated services.

Actually its probably mostly Apple and other mobile chip makers/users, as per reports. 6 month lead time now vs 2.

[coder]

Somebody eating up that 7nm wafer I guess..

My guess: the Chinese are scrambling to get their own chips fabbed, so that Trump can no longer threaten them with blocks on US chips & associated services.

[coder]

My birthday is in November...hint, hint

Then why don't you setup a gofundme page? I'll chip in $0.05.

[ThoreauHD]

I get the feeling that they dumped all their 8 core chiplets into Epyc, because, why not. Higher margins.

[theriddick]

Somebody eating up that 7nm wafer I guess..

[cb88]

It's hard to fix stuff you don't understand.

The Windows scheduler won't be as broken on TR3 as TR1 and TR2 anyway since the memory all connects through the IO chip...

[lem79]

I expect AMD is cashing in on EPYC orders.. 3950X and TR can wait.