The AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX is a server/workstation processor with 16 cores, launched in March 2022. It is part of the Ryzen Threadripper lineup, using the Zen 3 (Chagall) architecture with Socket WRX8. Thanks to AMD Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) the core-count is effectively doubled, to 32 threads. Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX has 64 MB of L3 cache and operates at 4 GHz by default, but can boost up to 4.5 GHz, depending on the workload. AMD is making the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX on a 7 nm production node using 16,600 million transistors. The silicon die of the chip is not fabricated at AMD, but at the foundry of TSMC. The multiplier is locked on Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 280 W, the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX is extremely power hungry, which means you need top-notch cooling. AMD’s processor supports DDR4 memory with an eight-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 3200 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. ECC memory is supported, too, which is an important capability for mission-critical systems, to avoid data corruption. For communication with other components in the system, Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX uses a PCI-Express Gen 4 connection. This processor lacks integrated graphics, you might need a graphics card.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, AMD is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.