AORUS TRX40 Xtreme For Next-Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper Teased

AORUS has once again teased their flagship TRX40 XTREME motherboard that is designed for the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor lineup. We already got a good look at the board but AORUS has decided to unveil its impressive power layout in the latest teaser.

TRX40 AORUS XTREME Motherboard Teased Again – Impressive 16 Phase Power Layout, 10G LAN and More

Something thing that can immediately be spotted in the latest teaser is the power delivery system. It looks like the TRX40 AORUS XTREME would be fitted with an outstanding 16 phase power layout which will be powered by a range of 8-pin CPU connectors (not shown yet). The motherboard socket looks very similar to the existing TR4 socket featured on X399 motherboards. Even the mounting mechanism is similar to the one featured on current TR4 motherboards. What we have heard is that the configuration for the pins will be different on the new socket hence it will be termed as TR4+. There are reports that have suggested that the socket wouldn’t support the previous-gen Threadripper CPUs, but those are just rumors and nothing is currently set in the stone.

Related AMD 4th Generation Ryzen APUs ‘Renoir’ Based on 7nm Zen 2 Cores Spotted Along With Their 3DMark Performance Benchmarks

One thing that I noticed is that the TRX40 AORUS XTREME motherboard carries the ‘*99’ naming scheme which may be due to an early production sample. There were rumors earlier that AMD could offer the X399 replacement with X499 / X599 branding but those have since been replaced by TRX40 and WRX80 naming schemes.

Moving on, we have eight DDR4 DIMM slots that will be able to support 32 GB modules for a total capacity of up to 256 GB. I can spot a large heatsink array featured on the top of the VRMs area along with a proper aluminum stacked-fin heatsink near the I/O slots and a regular heatsink with plastic cover on the right side of the motherboard. The heatsink cover on the right has a heat pipe running through it. The same Heatpipe runs through all four heatsinks and ends up in the main PCH heatsink which comes with active cooling.

A new PCH has been added to the motherboards which are an upgraded version of the X399 PCH that allows for PCIe Gen 4.0 support, more lanes and improved I/O features. This PCH, just like the X570 chipset, requires active cooling and we can definitely see it on this motherboard. Expect all of the TR4+ motherboards to feature active cooling just like their X570 brethren.

Related AMD’s 7nm EPYC, Ryzen, Radeon Family Leads To Highest Quarterly Revenue Since 2005

For expansion, there are four PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and triple M.2 slots (Gen 4.0) with full cover heatsinks. A total of either 8 or 10 SATA 3 ports are available along with USB 3.1 front panel headers. A debug LED can be spotted on the motherboard and an extensive Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 LED system can be seen running across the sides and on the PCH heatsink. The motherboard even comes with an extra 6-pin connector to pump juice to the expansion slots when running several add-in cards. There also seems to be an Aquantia 10G chip hidden beneath a small heatsink under the DDR4 slots to the left. This is definitely one high-end design that would easily end up being priced more than $500 US.

AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper Processor SKUs (Rumored):

CPU Name	CPU Cores	CPU Thread	CPU Predecessor	Base Clock	Boost Clock	Cache	TDP	Price	Launch
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X/WX	64 Core	128 Thread	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX (32 Core / 64 Thread)	TBD	TBD	TBD	~280W	$2399 US?	January 2020
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3980X/WX	48 Core	96 Thread	N/A	TBD	TBD	TBD	~280W	$1999 US?	January 2020
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X/WX	32 Core	64 Thread	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX (24 Core / 48 Thread)	TBD	TBD	TBD	~250W	$1499 US?	November 2019
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X	24 Core	48 Thread	N/A	TBD	TBD	TBD	~250W	$999 US?	November 2019

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Series CPUs – Here’s What To Expect In Terms of Price, Specs, and Performance

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3000 series family is internally known as “Castle Peak” and is stated to bring dominant leadership in the HEDT market. The family will prove to be a new watermark in performance and overall efficiency while new platform features will be introduced on the new and enhanced TR4+ motherboards which are rumored to feature a revised socket and a new chipset

Currently, reports state that there will be two separate platforms for enthusiasts and workstation chips, the TRX40 and WRX80. The details of these platforms are listed below.

AMD TRX40 ‘Enthusiast’ Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Processors

The TRX4 HEDT platform would feature quad-channel memory, UDIMM memory support with 2 DIMMs per channel and up to 256 GB of capacity per channel. This means that the platform will support up to 1 TB of memory. There would also be support for 64 Gen 4 PCIe lanes with 16 lanes switchable with the SATA interface. There also seems to be info regarding TDPs and we can also notice the segmentation here too. The Group ‘A’ series processors, which are the HEDT lineup for the TRX40 platform with 280W TDP, Tcase Max temperature of 60C and Tctl Max of 100C.

AMD WRX80  ‘Workstation’ Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Processors

Now coming to the WRX80 series, we are looking at a pure workstation lineup. Even the processors built around this platform are spec’d similar to the EPYC 7002 variants, featuring 8-channel DDR4-3200 support in UDIMM, RDIMM, LRDIMM flavors. The platform would support 1 DIMM/channel featuring support for up to 2 TB of memory. There wouldn’t be any OC support like the TRX40 series but you get 96-128 Gen4 PCIe lanes with 32 switchable lanes to SATA. The Group ‘B’ series processors which are the workstation lineup for the WRX80 platform will also feature a 280W TDP but different temperature range of Tcase Max temperature of 81C and Tctl Max of 100C.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Generation Comparison:

Family Name	AMD 1st Gen Ryzen Threadripper	AMD 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper	AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper
CPU Architecture	Zen 1	Zen+	Zen 2
Process Node	14nm	12nm	7nm
Max CPU Cores	16	32	64?
Max CPU Threads	32	64	128?
PCIe Support	PCIe Gen 3.0	PCIe Gen 3.0	PCIe Gen 4.0
Max PCIe Lanes	64	64	128?
Max L2 Cache	8 MB	16 MB	32 MB?
Max L3 Cache	32 MB	64 MB	256 MB?
Socket	TR4	TR4	TBD
Chipset	X399	X399	TRX40, TRX80, WRX80
Launch	2017	2018	2019

Considering that AMD would want to remain in a dominant position with the Threadripper 3000 series, we will be looking at some spectacular amounts of multi-threaded performance numbers which will only get better with the added clock speeds thanks to the 7nm process node. The CPUs will also be getting major core bumps, but AMD would like to keep prices close to current levels.

Some of the leaker performance benchmarks that we have seen so far (#1, #2, #3) put the 32 core variants up to 70% faster than the existing Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX 32 core chip with an average bump of 35% in performance.

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su:

“You know. it’s very interesting, some of the things that circulate on the Internet—I don’t think we ever said that Threadripper was not going to continue—it somehow took on a life of its own on the Internet,” Su said, speaking to a small group of reporters following her keynote. “You will see more [Threadripper] from us; you will definitely see more.

If mainstream is moving up, then Threadripper will have to move up, up—and that’s what we’re working on.”

via PCWorld

If we look at the trend with AMD’s jump from Ryzen Threadripper 1000 to Ryzen Threadripper 2000, we saw that the new processors with core parity of the previous generation were priced around the same with a $200-$300 shaved off from their previous price tag. The 1950X became 2950X and cost $200 US less. The higher core count parts were at a different market tier entirely, costing north of $1200 US but at the same time, much cheaper than their Core-X competitors.

In terms of raw performance output, the new die layout remains to be tested, but since it is more refined over the previous two generations with a stronger interconnect between them, the cache and latency performance may end up giving a bigger boost to total system responsiveness. AMD will definitely be aiming for both LGA 2066 and LGA 3647 lines with their new chips. Intel has said that their upcoming Core-X series will offer a much better value proposition with 2x better perf per dollar compared to Skylake-X, but that remains to be seen in real-world benchmarks and reviews.

Share
Tweet
Submit