Thank you for this summary article.
My hope as a 3960X user: INTEL will eventually be able to put more than 8 performance cores in one package and be competitive again in HEDT so that AMD feels the need to release a non-PRO version of a Threadripper 7000 series. I need the cores, the PCIe lanes and the memory channels
I think the chance of AMD bringing back TR as an HEDT part is close to zero. First, I think the amount of people who are hobbyists that can use TR is very small. It just so happens most visit tech sites so you think it's a larger group than it really is.
Second, probably most people who need TR need it for work. In which case AMD probably feels you should be using a Pro part.
Third, people who are buying these even when they DID have TR HEDT probably needed support part of the time, which is why AMD feels you need to be buying a Pro part and get AMD's full support.
Forth, Nvidia and Intel have left the room, so no major company making parts for PC are supporting HEDT anymore and I think it's all for the same reason, not enough sales and having to provide too much support.
Fifth, while a typical desktop part is never going to give you the memory bandwidth you would get with something like quad DDR5, DDR5 offers memory access that can take advantage of the dual channel per DIMM from what I understand. To get a full 64 bit data word yes you need to treat a DIMM as single channel, but I'm pretty sure in all that ISA for X86-64 you have 32 bit access and BYTE access, in which case the system I believe can treat a single DIMM as dual channel.
Sixth, with the move to PCIe gen5 and the addition of 4 additional lanes that some if not most X670E MBs take to the 2nd chipset and NOT to a second NVMe, which is why you have the possibility of double the I/O with USB ports, SATA, etc..........., this removes the need for various adapters people would plug into all those PCIe slots with a TR MB. This reduces the need for so many lane going to slots, where in most cases I'm guessing most people never used who bought TR HEDT. Then add in that the MBs can have 4 NVMe ports and you can put them in RAID, and more than just RAID 0 and 1.
Seventh, you can put 3 GPUs on the slots, if there is the physical space on X670E and get X8/X8/X4 where the minimal is PCIe gen4 and one slot is gen5. Even gen4 X4 is more bandwidth than most GPUs use, but it is at the border, but gen4 X8 is WAY more than enough bandwidth. So, the point is because of the move to gen5, adding 4 more lanes, adding a 2nd chipset and building in a lot more IO into the MB including LOTS of USB 10Gbps ports along with a couple 20Gbps ports, and you can use a USB port for a plug in 10Gbps ethernet connection, you can have all the conductivity that MOST people who would buy TR as HEDT would need. Yes I know it won't meet EVERY use case, but most. Yes I know to take advantage of the slots for multiple GPUs your GPUs need to be running at least PCe gen4.
Eighth, AMD is going to add more cores with Zen 5 and when they do, Ryzen with a top end MB is HEDT in almost every regard except memory.
Lastly, people who make money off their systems who would buy HEDT to do their work should really be using a Pro part and get the full support, IF they need so much resources that you need all those memory channels and all those PCIe slots, ALL those cores, etc..... which is to say if you can't do it with X670E which can do a HELL of a lot, more than Intel MBs with Alder Lake or Raptor Lake, you're probably making money with your system and should be using a Pro system.
I figure the chance of AMD ever bringing back TR to HEDT is about zero. But you never know.
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