For the most part, AMD's existing high-end desktop (HEDT) Threadripper family is far less interesting now than it was prior to the recent launch of third-generation Ryzen CPUs. After all, the mainstream Ryzen lineup culminates in the Ryzen 9 3950X, which wields 16 cores and 32 threads of computing muscle. Most people would not view those specs as being mainstream. Even so, do not go writing Threadripper's obituary just yet.
We already knew this, of course, because AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su said in May that Threadripper will "definitely" live on for at least one more round. Following up on those comments, when asked about the status of Threadripper at the Hot Chips conference this week, Dr. Su initially said AMD will share more details "soon," then committed to a 2019 time frame.
That does not mean we will see any new Threadripper CPUs shipping by the end of the year, but if Dr. Su sticks to her word, we will at least know what to before 2020 rolls around.
The challenge AMD faces is building a line of Threadripper CPUs that offer enough extra oomph to warrant a presumably higher price tag than the latest Ryzen processors.
"If mainstream is moving up, then Threadripper will have to move up, up—and that's what we're working on," Dr. Su previously said.
Exactly what that entails, well, we can only wait and see what AMD has to say later this year. It could be more cores, additional features, or a combination of both. As it stands, AMD does offer a 32-core/64-thread Threadipper chip based on its previous generation Zen+ architecture.
While Threadripper is sticking around, Dr. Su provided a more ominous outlook for CrossFire, AMD's multi-GPU technology.
"To be honest, the software is going faster than the hardware, I would say that CrossFire isn't a significant focus," Dr. Su said in response to a question about the technology.
In other words, Threadripper is in, CrossFire is (proabably) down for the count.
