Famed overclocker Der8auer released a new video of him delidding AMD’s new Threadripper CPU, and what he found was surprising. As per the video (below), the delidding revealed that Threadripper contains four Ryzen dies, not the expected two. Incidentally, Threadripper contains the same number of dies as AMD’s Epyc server processor. Two of those dies, however, are not functional. Sadly, the complex delidding process rendered the CPU unusable.
Four Dies – What Does This Mean?
AMD assures Der8auer that Threadripper uses only two of the four dies, meaning the extra pair are disabled. We’re able to divine that anyway, since Threadripper only has 64 PCIe lanes. In other words, two eight-core dies equals 64 PCIe lanes. Four such dies – at 32-core – would equal 128 PCIe lanes. So, why the extra (redundant) dies? One theory is that the Threadripper and Epyc chipsets use the same chips, which are later customised for their respective uses. If true, this would certainly simplify (and hence cheapen) the manufacturing process. It is even possible that Threadripper processors are a result of Epyc fabrication errors, though this seems unlikely.
Another possibility could be that AMD is planning for future 32-core Threadripper CPUs. There could be some merit to this speculation, though don’t expect it to happen for a while.
Are Threadripper’s extra dies unlockable? We don’t know yet, but expect to find out soon. Whether that news comes from AMD or from experimental overclockers, though, remains to be seen.
