High-End Desktop CPUs Disappearing from the Market — Puget Systems

AMD
(Image credit: AMD)

High-end desktop (HEDT) processors first emerged in 2003 when competition between AMD and Intel intensified as a result of the Athlon 64 launch. Ironically, HEDT CPUs are now disappearing from the market as competition between AMD and Intel is more intense than ever, according to Puget Systems, a boutique workstation maker. 

The situation may change in the coming months, but for now many HEDT users have to get regular desktop CPUs or pay extra for top-of-the-range workstation offerings as AMD does not seem to produce Ryzen Threadripper 3000X-series products any longer.

HEDT Origins

Historically, HEDT processors from AMD and Intel were aimed at demanding gamers as well as professionals and, to meet their needs, they used silicon and packaging originally designed for server-grade CPUs, which is why they could offer not only higher performance, but also additional features (extra PCIe lanes, higher memory capacity). Unlike server chips, these processors featured considerably higher frequencies yet carried lower price tags because they lacked symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support. After all, all that gamers needed was single-thread performance and high clocks along with large caches did the job, not SMP. 

Following AMD's unexpected release of its first Ryzen Threadripper CPUs with up to 32 cores in 2017, classification and positioning of HEDT chips changed drastically as gamers demanded processors with high clocks and maximum single-thread performance, whereas professionals wanted CPUs with as many cores as possible as well as rich I/O capabilities.

Oxymoron: Outdated HEDT Platforms

Nowadays there are formally several types of CPUs for high-end desktops and workstations from AMD and Intel. 

AMD offers Ryzen Threadripper for the so-called extreme workstations that need loads of cores at frequencies above and beyond default clocks and Ryzen Threadripper Pro for machines that need up to 2TB of memory and are not designed for overclocking. 

At present, AMD is the only one to offer 64-core CPUs for extreme and traditional workstations, which is perhaps why its platform for extreme HEDTs is still based around Ryzen Threadripper 3000X-series CPUs that are powered by its Zen 2 microarchitecture from 2019. Meanwhile, these CPUs are currently the most popular workstation/HEDT processors among buyers of Puget Systems.

(Image credit: Puget Systems)

With Intel, the situation is more complicated. For the highest-end dual-socket workstation the company offers its very expensive Xeon Scalable processors that support plenty of memory and have many PCIe lanes. For single-socket machines, the company has Xeon W-3300 series CPUs that top at 38 cores and are based on the Ice Lake microarchitecture from 2019. 

For enthusiast-grade workstations/desktops Intel has its Core X (Core Extreme) lineup that was released in 2019 and belongs to the Cascade Lake family of CPUs. For now, Intel has nothing to offer against AMD's Ryzen Threadripper series as far as core count is concerned.

As surprising as it may sound, of all HEDT platforms available today, only AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000WX-series is based on an up-to-date microarchitecture (Zen 3), whereas the remaining platforms are all powered by outdated microarchitectures and, in some cases, lack modern I/O support. To make the matters even stranger, Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000WX is currently only available from Lenovo.

AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 3000X: The Departing Workstation King

While AMD's Zen 2-based Ryzen Threadripper 3000X-series CPUs are not single-thread performance champions, their 64 Zen 2 cores coupled with 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes offer incredible value for workstation users, which is why they have been the most popular workstation-grade processors at Puget since mid-2020. 

(Image credit: Puget Systems)

There is a problem with these CPUs though: there is a major shortage of AMD's Ryzen Threadripper processors on the market in general as it looks like AMD is winding down production of its Threadripper 3000X/ Pro 3000WX products, and it is nearly impossible for system makers to get them directly from the company. Meanwhile, third-party resellers sell AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 3970X and 3990X CPUs with a $1,000 - $4,000+ markup over list prices, which makes workstations based on them uncompetitive.

"Crazy-high listings like that indicate to me that there are only a small number of these chips left on the market, and so those who have remaining stock are driving up prices to maximize their profits before they are gone," wrote William George, a product development specialist for Puget Systems. "Since the market price of Threadripper chips is rising, not lowering, I feel pretty confident in suggesting that they are no longer being manufactured." 

To make the matters worse for Puget, prices of Intel's Xeon W-3300 are high, whereas their performance and value proposition are not as high as those of AMD's platform (when chips are bought directly from the company), which is why the share of Xeon W-based machines in Puget's sales is only about 4.3%.

Desktop CPUs Challenge HEDT Parts

But in addition to HEDT processors for workstations, both AMD and Intel offer advanced desktop CPUs with up to 16 cores based on their contemporary microarchitectures and up to 128GB of memory support. These CPUs are good enough for the vast majority of games (as they can barely use more than 16 cores) and many workstation workloads (after all, not everyone does final rendering every day, but fast storage and modern I/O are required all the time). To that end, many traditional workstation clients opt for parts like AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X or Intel's Core i9-12900KS. 

Both AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X or Intel's Core i9-12900KS are essentially cherry-picked desktop parts that are relatively easy to make and bin. They are still expensive enough to bring substantial profits to their respective suppliers and they are sold in very high volumes to different audiences.  

By contrast, HEDT parts use server-grade silicon that can be sold at a higher price once qualified for AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon products, so making HEDT CPUs when demand for server-class hardware is skyrocketing and manufacturing capacity is limited is not particularly logical from earnings and profitability points of view. Furthermore, even Ryzen Threadripper Pro parts are sold with a considerable markup. As a result, in some cases AMD and Intel may be more inclined to sell cherry-picked unlocked desktop parts or Xeon/Pro parts instead of HEDT processors.

No Way Out?

While, for some workloads, the 24 threads or 32 threads offered by regular desktop parts is enough, many workstation workloads need those 64 cores/128 threads and 256GB of memory, so workstation users have to opt for far more expensive AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3000WX/5000WX or Intel Xeon W-3300-series processors. 

Puget Systems hopes that once AMD starts volume shipments of its Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000WX processors, prices of these parts may stabilize and/or get lower. Of course, it would have been better for system integrators and users if AMD released its Ryzen Threadripper 5000X or 6000X non-Pro parts, but now AMD is comfortable with its 64-core workstation-bound AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX parts that are sold with a considerably larger margin. 

In general, the situation with HEDT processors will likely change when Intel rolls-out its Alder Lake-X/Sapphire Rapids-X platform later in 2022 or in 2023, but now that there is essentially a monopoly on the market of workstation and high-end desktop CPUs, prices of such CPUs will hardly get any lower, which is why many people will opt for 'regular' 16-core desktop-grade CPUs.

  

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • escksu
    Hmm, its not surprising. Given the demand for server/workstation CPUs, there is really no point in making threadripper, AMD would rather devote the resources to Ryzen and threadripper Pro. Demand for HEDT is also very low to begin with compared (compared to other end user CPUs)

    There is also no point in having threadripper and threadripper Pro (2 lines), so AMD now only have threadripper Pro which still works on existing boards
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    Or could it be that AMD wants to not be stuck with any of these high margin yet narrow market CPUs that they can't shift without taking a loss when the next generation version featuring DDR5 and PCIe 5, among other things, come to market?

    It's the same thing we see with the 5950X. Retailers are struggling to keep it in stock, with it having gone out of stock for at least a week at Newegg, Amazon, and B&H concurrently not long ago (still out of stock at B&H and BestBuy), and AMD has not reduced pricing on it, with them happy to still charge $800 for it on their storefront even though it's a year and half old.

    Yes it sucks, yes the customer loses, and yes I hate AMD for doing it and hope their stock price crashes, but it's a logical business decision.
    Reply
  • The mainstream CPUs are not challenging the HEDT CPUs!
    HEDT comes with loads more PCIe lanes and often that is the deciding factor.
    Indeed, the only reason I buy HEDT is because of the extremely low number of PCIe lanes on mainstream CPUs. If they came with 28+ lanes I'd never have bought HEDT, which might have saved me 10's of thousands of Adollars.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    At this moment it is better to start going for Zen4 based threathrippers!
    In productivity ddr5 makes much more sense than in gaming, so dropping old ddr4 based model makes much more sense in threathrippers than in normal consumer products.
    Reply
  • Paul Connell
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    Or could it be that AMD wants to not be stuck with any of these high margin yet narrow market CPUs that they can't shift without taking a loss when the next generation version…

    Could be, but they’ve been essentially unavailable for a longer period than would make sense if that were the case. I had made up my mind to build my nest system around a 3990 at least a year and a half ago. Never saw one in stock anywhere near MSRP, they were all either listed as backordered or marked up to nearly double. With Zen4 still not out, it would seem unlikely they’d end production leaving 2 years worth of sales on the table.

    I get that it’s a small market, but between the scalper pricing and then AMD staying they’ll only be making the Pro versions going forward, and only provifing them to OEMs leaves a really bad taste in my mouth and makes me unlikely to consider AMD in the future. Not an Intel fanboy by any means, but at least they’re actually interested in selling me their products.
    Reply
  • XaveT
    I'm still hoping for more PCIe lanes... 16/20 is just not enough. 32/36 should at least be an available option. If I could get a Threadripper 1900X but in a modern series I would take that too.
    Reply
  • edzieba
    The HEDT market is rapidly shrinking because the HEDT use-case itself is rapidly shrinking. There are very few workloads that both benefit from more than the (already excessive, but that cat isn't going back in the bag again) number of cores that current desktop CPUs possess, but simultaneously do not scale enough to benefit from the number of cores that GPGPU offers, and simultaneously need to run locally rather than remotely on a shard of a hyperscale compute provider.
    Reply
  • Joe from Corgitech
    Yeah I can confirm this anecdotally via some of my distributors. They have either flagged them as "no allocation Q2", "discontinued", or backordered with no units on order. Some integrators have some still but are requiring it to be incorporated into a workstation order or purchased with a bundle of products they're trying to clear out that don't sell.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    edzieba said:

    The HEDT market is rapidly shrinking because the HEDT use-case itself is rapidly shrinking.
    There are very few workloads that both benefit from more than the (already excessive, but that cat isn't going back in the bag again) number of cores that current desktop CPUs possess, but simultaneously do not scale enough to benefit from the number of cores that GPGPU offers, and simultaneously need to run locally rather than remotely on a shard of a hyperscale compute provider.

    This makes sense to me. HEDT is getting squeezed between a much more capable mainstream desktop and cloud-based solutions. Software to use the power is always running behind the hardware.

    Add to that limited wafer starts that force (allow) the producers to focus on their most profitable products (Enterprise).
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    Co BIY said:
    This makes sense to me. HEDT is getting squeezed between a much more capable mainstream desktop and cloud-based solutions. Software to use the power is always running behind the hardware.
    In certain situations sure, but there aren't that many use cases where a problem is embarrassingly parallel. The only one off the top of my head that a given consumer would have any interest in is video editing or non-realtime 3D rendering. Maybe super high resolution photo editing can fall into that as well. Everything else hit its diminishing returns because the problem can't be parallelized further and/or there were already a plethora of optimizations done in the pipeline.
    Reply