 Well, that didn't take long. AMD's Threadripper lineup revitalized the high-end enthusiast desktop space when it first dropped. And now after a few short years, it no longer exists. That's right, AMD just announced their new Zen 3-based Threadripper Pro chips yesterday, and they look great. But note the Pro. These bad boys aren't gonna be on store shelves near you, they're OEM only, and they aren't going to be cheap. That's right. Now that they're on top, it seems like AMD is resting on their laurels just like Intel did. And this announcement demonstrates once again that AMD is not your friend. You know who is though? Actually, they're not your friend. They're just our sponsor, they're our friend. Build Redux offers competitive pricing compared to building a PC yourself. And their website makes it easy to configure your build alongside their helpful support guides. Head to buildredux.com slash Linus and start creating your PC today. Oh, here we go. Linus is ranting about evil corporations again, but hear me out. AMD's Threadripper Pro 5000 series CPUs are a Zen 3 refresh of the Threadripper Pro 3000 series and come with everything that Zen 3 implies. Higher core clocks, better memory controllers, more cache in the eight core CCX arrangement and AMD's shadow stack feature that protects against buffer overflows. They also come with increasingly enterprise focused features like more memory capacity and channels, more PCI express lanes and a bigger price tag, which is great. Awesome, love it. But I have one question. Where are the cheaper non-pro Threadrippers? What's that? There aren't any? Well, then what happened to socket STRX4? Oh, it's dead like X399 after only one generation? That is such a shame. Now look, AMD is a publicly traded company. And that means that they're actually legally obligated to do whatever they can to increase profits for their shareholders, legally. Like if they didn't do it, they could be sued by their shareholders. So when faced with the prospect of using those Zen 3 chiplets to power lower cost, consumer or enthusiast Threadripper processors compared to jacking up the price for Threadripper Pro and just not selling consumer chips anymore, you got a bet that they're gonna choose Threadripper Pro. After all, you gotta remember who it was that introduced the concept of a thousand dollar consumer CPU when they were on top back in the 2000s. Here's a hint, it wasn't Intel. Yes, they make good products. And yes, they've been an underdog for a long time. But when AMD can take advantage of their top dog position, they have and they will just like Intel. So why did they make Threadripper in the first place then? If you ask me, mind share. The OG Threadrippers, the 1000 series, if you believe the story, weren't even on AMD's roadmap and launching them supposedly provided AMD with just another piece of their product stack to put even more Zen chips and machines worldwide. Meanwhile, slapping Team Blue in yet another one of their traditional strongholds, the high-end desktop market. There's just one problem with that in today's world. And that's where this conversation takes a bit of a weird turn. The high-end desktop concept for enthusiasts is in my opinion, currently obsolete. Think about it. Intel hasn't released an HEDT platform since mid 2017, and they haven't released a chip for one since late 2019, which coincidentally is around the time that the last consumer Threadripper chip was announced. So what happened? Ryzen happened. The 16 core Ryzen 9 3950X also launched in late 2019. And for the first time, you were able to get truly HEDT core counts, 16 freaking cores on a desktop platform. Remember, the first gen Threadripper, the 1000 series, actually capped out at 16 cores. So near, we had a desktop platform now with PCIe Gen 4 for massive bandwidth and dropping at a time when late generation DDR4 modules with higher capacities were rolling off the production lines. So overnight, both Intel's X299 and AMD's Threadripper platforms became significantly less appealing for most users because their major selling points were now being cannibalized by the consumer desktop platform. The last consumer Threadripper chips that came out then in early 2020 tried to stay relevant with up to 64 cores, 256 gigs of RAM and 88 total PCIe Gen 4 lanes. But how many people made use of all of that but then didn't need much more memory capacity? How many prosumers were really building their own Threadripper rigs versus buying pre-built systems with enterprise features and support? That's the question AMD apparently asked themselves and the answer seems to have been very few. And honestly speaking, I don't like that HEDT is basically dead. I hate it, but I get it. Maybe what AMD is really doing here is creating a product lineup that better reflects what their customers are actually buying and it's kind of a smart move. As consumer platforms start rolling out with PCIe Gen 5, the need for additional lanes is going to be seriously reduced. There's even talk already of reducing SSDs to just two lanes once Gen 5 hits the data center because the bandwidth is already there and it makes no sense to tie up the extra lanes and the associated pins and design complexity that come with them. And while it's not quite the same thing as quad channel memory, DDR5's double burst length with two sub channels per module effectively means that memory transfers get similar latency benefits. And quite frankly, at risk of being quoted out of context cause I'm all about that more power. Well, 16 cores ought to be enough for anybody today. If you don't find that comforting, maybe pick up a Swack It from lttstore.com. Unlike Threadripper, they are not discontinued. And I know that kind of thing might upset you as an enthusiast, but think about it. What workloads need 16 cores right now? We're in the middle of a software design paradigm shift like when we went from single to dual core and dual to quad core. It took and is taking a while for developers to figure out the best way to utilize these extra cores. And quad core turned out to be enough as recently as five years ago, because well, damn it, Intel said it was enough. And also because utilizing those extra cores really is a struggle. And going all the way to 16, even power users are having a hard time imagining how to fully utilize them. It's true. I've got a 12 core 3900X at home and honestly, I don't use all those cores most of the time. If I didn't dabble with running multiple virtual machines, I'd be just as well off with an eight core or even a six core CPU, especially if all I wanted to do was game. In fact, six cores is what I went with for my VR rig. Sure, there's stuff like compiling code and non-GPU rendering, but the reality is that anybody serious enough about coding or graphics to be looking at a Threadripper would probably also be looking at a separate build or render box so their workstation isn't unusable while the job's being done. If say I ran a Plex instance, a personal web server, and maybe mess around with a Windows or Mac OS virtual machine, that'd be roughly half my dozen cores and I'd probably be more pressured on memory and storage at that point. Now, would I complain if I had 16 cores to play with? No, but I don't need them either. I don't even need what I have now. By the time I do, pricing for those extra cores, not to mention platform features like PCI Express Gen 5 and DDR5 will come down and it'll all be more mature to boot. The only times I've personally gone for like the top end consumer processors were the Core i7-3770K I got with Intel Retail Edge on the cheap and the Core i7-6700K near the tail end of the quad core is all you need years. So I'd had the extra threads to work with. And that's just me comparing my 12 cores to 16, let alone Threadripper with up to 64. Now you could argue that Threadripper would stay relevant for way longer than any desktop chip would, but you'd be wrong about that. The 16 core Threadripper 1950X workstation that I used to type this script is slow as balls. And I have never once used all the cores. I desperately want more IPC and faster memory. I'd happily trade for a 5800X or even a 5600X and some fast memory. I'm not even using more PCI Express lanes than a modern Ryzen desktop can handle. And I'm Anthony. All of that said, the workstation experience is still there and Threadripper Pro is here to stay and makes more sense to more customers looking for something that's in between Ryzen and Epic compared to the OG Threadripper. And don't worry, we will definitely be doing a deeper dive on these Zen 3 behemoths, so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it. For now, I don't like that they've hung Threadripper customers out to dry and neither do you, in fact, I'd encourage you to be angry about it because quite frankly, proving that there's still a market is the only way that AMD might listen and reverse course here. But I would also encourage you to reassess your needs and consider whether you might be just as well served by the coming generation of consumer CPUs. It's not as glamorous and it doesn't look as great on your Instagram feed, but it's gonna have wider support and a lot more versatile form factors and your wallet will probably thank you too. 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If you guys enjoyed this, go check out our recent video on AMD's Pro Series Ryzen processors and their platform locking function. It's more evidence that maybe AMD doesn't always have the consumer's best interests top of mind.