AMD’s leaked Threadripper CPU has 96 cores, but don’t get too excited

A few years ago, “Threadripper” was synonymous with the absolute top end of home-built PCs. The extra sub-brand of Ryzen processors, like “Stingray” to the Corvette, pushed AMD’s hardware to the limit. But there hasn’t been a Threadripper chip on a high-end consumer socket as since the 3000 series in 2019. And while rumors of a new Threadripper with a jaw-dropping 96 processor cores are exciting, they come with the sting of knowing that you won’t be able to stick it into a regular gaming PC.

But down to brass tacks. According to prolific and reliable Twitter leaker Momomo, new Dell Precision desktops will come with two variations of a Ryzen 7000-based Threadripper CPU. The Threadripper Pro 7975WX will have 32 cores, with a maximum clock speed of 4GHz. And the Threadripper Pro 7995WX will allegedly boast an astonishing 96 cores and a maximum clock of 5.1GHz. The processors will be available on the Dell Precision 7875 workstation, and presumably other, similar high-end desktops for corporate clients. Both listings were spotted on the SiSoftware Official Benchmark Ranker results database.

Other hardware details for the 7995WX include the obvious 192 virtual threads, 96 megabytes of L2 cache and 384MB of L3 cache. But as PCGamer notes, there’s been no indication that AMD is developing a successor to the TRX4 socket, the last High-End Desktop (HEDT) build made with consumers in mind. Dell’s Precision line is made more or less exclusively for demanding corporate and academic applications, even though these benchmarked machines are being paired with an RTX 4090 graphics cards. Without some motherboard designs tweaked specifically for gamers or content producers, they’d be a poor choice (both in terms of performance and economics) for even the most demanding home setup.

It’s not all bad for high-end builders. AMD’s Ryzen X3D chips, with their extra dedicated 3D cache, are arguably the most powerful CPUs ever made specifically for gamers and other high-end graphics applications. But builders with the most dedication — and the deepest pockets — would probably love to be able to build a current setup with a Threadripper at its heart.