AMD Commits to the sTRX4 Threadripper Socket as ‘Long Term’

Last week AMD finally confirmed the upcoming release of their latest 3rd-generation Threadripper processors. Unlike the 2nd-generation, however, (that stuck with the socket platform from the original launch), the new processors would be moving to the sTRX4 platform via TRX40 motherboards. Why did they do this? Well, in simple terms, it’s because the latest Threadrippers operate at a bandwidth well in excess of the original platform.

Yes, socket changes can be frustrating, but AMD rarely does it without a good reason!

Following an official post on Reddit, however, for those rather frustrated to see a new socket being required, AMD has (on the bright side) officially confirmed that they have no plans to change it again any time soon.

AMD Commits to sTRX4 Socket Platform

In the post (which you can read in full here) AMD has categorically stated that they are committed to the latest Threadripper socket platform for the ‘long-term’.

“There are two essential reasons for this:

We wanted to drive maximum performance for the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors and sTRX4 helps us do exactly that. The 3rd Gen Threadripper will have 88 total PCIe Gen 4 lanes with 72 usable (CPU+motherboard). The net of total versus usable is because we’re also increasing the CPU<->chipset link from 4x Gen4 to 8x Gen4—quadruple the bandwidth vs. 2nd Gen TR. Extra data pins between the chipset and CPU make this possible, so you’ll be able to hang more I/O off the motherboard at full performance.

The socket change also sets us up nicely for future development and scalability of the Threadripper platform, both on a near- and long-term basis.”

What Do We Think?

Well, ‘long-term’ is always a subjective choice of words. I daresay that when they originally launched the Threadripper back in 2017 they didn’t expect that changes would be required as early as 2019. That being said, however, is there is one thing to be said about AMD, it’s that they don’t apply socket changes that often. At least, not when compared to Intel.

For example, the 3rd-generation desktop Ryzen range has remained on the AM4 platform and, presuming that the 4th-generation will release next year, there’s no indication that they have plans to move away from that any time soon. Although AM4+ is certainly a possibility.

For the moment, however, if you are thinking of moving to the 3rd-generation Threadripper processors it seems that AMD is at least happy to confirm that your motherboard has a decent lifespan for future releases.

To check out one of Aorus’ TRX40 motherboards, you can have a sneaky peak via the link here!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!