According to a dependable source with AMD leaks, AMD won’t deliver its Ryzen Threadripper 7000WX “Storm Peak” workstation CPUs before September 2023. The decision to put Q3 back is likely due to AMD’s desire to deploy high-margin EPYC “Genoa” server CPUs first before turning its focus to the HEDT and workstation sectors.

All signs point to AMD giving the “Zen 4” Threadripper the same treatment as it did with the “Zen 3” this generation, relegating it to the workstation market with only Threadripper 7000WX SKUs that may be OEM-exclusives before making their way to the retail market; however, the source has an intriguing theory that the company may even target the client HEDT market with these chips. In addition, the business will properly segment the Threadripper 7000WX SKUs from EPYC “Genoa” chips.

To begin with, as opposed to the 12-channel (24 sub-channel) DDR5 interface of EPYC “Genoa,” the 7000WX “Storm Peak” series might arrive with a smaller 8-channel (16 sub-channel) DDR5 memory interface. As opposed to the Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” and 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake-S” processors, which have 2-channel (4 sub-channel) DDR5 interfaces, the rumoured client HEDT Threadripper 7000X series SKUs could have a 4-channel (8 sub-channel) DDR5 interface. Similar to this, it is said that the 7000WX chips receive a full 128-lane PCIe Gen 5 interface while the 7000X HEDT processors have a limited 64-lane PCIe Gen 5 interface.

What Intel does in this market will have a significant impact on whether AMD even introduces client HEDT SKUs. According to reports, the business may introduce HEDT SKUs based on a “Sapphire Rapids” variation with a smaller I/O feature set than Xeon Scalable CPUs (fewer PCIe Gen 5 lanes, no CXL, etc).