After what feels like an eternity, in part due to a lengthy build-up to an official announcement, the brand new AMD third-generation Ryzen Threadripper-ready TRX40 motherboards are now out in the wild for everyone and their uncle to purchase at will.
In celebration, let’s take a quick look at what all the fuss is all about. We’ve also compiled a handy guide to where you can pick up one of the new boards.
Overview
As the name suggests, the new motherboards are designed to work with AMD’s sTRX4 chipset and the new family of third-generation Threadripper processors.
AMD says the chipset is geared towards users who habitually throw heavy workloads as their machines like content creators, creatives, professionals, and enthusiasts.
As for the CPUs themselves, we first have the Threadripper 3960x with 24 cores, 48 threads, quad-channel DDR4 memory, a base clock speed of 3.8 GHz, a boost up to 4.5 GHz, 140 MB of combined cache, 88 PCIe lanes, and 280 W TDP.
Next up, we have the Threadripper 3970X with 32 cores, 64 threads, quad-channel DDR4 memory, 3.7 GHz base speed, up to 4.5 GHz boot, 144 MB of combined cache, 88 PCIe lanes, and 280 W TDP.
Beyond support for the new Threadripper chips, the sTRX4 chipset also offers up to PCIe 4.0 connectivity, 12 native USB 3.2 Gen2 Ports, up to 2 x4 NVMe ports, up to 20 SATA ports, multi-GPU support through CrossFire and SLI, overclocking, ECC support, and SATA RAID 0, 1, 10.
TRX40 Motherboards Line-Up
As of writing MSI, ASUS, GIGABYTE, and ASRock have thrown their respective hats into the rink and launched TRX40 motherboard models. With no less than eleven models to choose from and presumably more on the way, we are pretty spoiled for choice.
MSI has the Creator TRX40, TRX40 PRO WiFi, and TRX40 PRO 10G.
ASUS is shipping three models; ROG Strix TRX40-E, Prime TRX40-PRO, and ROG Zenith II Extreme.
GIGABYTE is offering the TRX40 Aorus Xtreme, TRX40 Aorus Master, and TRX40 Aorus Pro Wifi.
And, finally, ASRock is flogging the TRX40 Creator and the TRX40 Taichi.