AMD has officially launched two major hardware announcements tailored for the professional workstation market: the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9000 ´Shimada Peak´ CPUs and the Radeon AI PRO 9000 graphics cards. The new Threadripper series leverages the latest ´Zen 5´ microarchitecture, introducing workstation-centric capabilities through the ´Shimada Peak´ variant, which is derived from the ´Turin´ multi-chip module also powering AMD´s 5th generation EPYC server processors. On the graphics side, the Radeon AI PRO 9000 series brings the RDNA 4 architecture to professional use-cases, mirroring the core technology found in the Radeon RX 9000 consumer gaming GPUs.
The Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9000 CPUs offer configurations scaling up to 96 cores and 192 threads, a significant leap in compute density suitable for demanding workloads like rendering, simulation, and intensive artificial intelligence tasks. An upgraded instruction per cycle (IPC) count is one highlight of the shift from the previous ´Zen 4´-based Threadripper 7000 series, but equally important is the jump to a full 512-bit floating-point unit. This enables a marked performance boost for applications that depend on the AVX-512 instruction set, making these chips especially appealing to scientific and data analytics domains.
AMD has not only improved compute performance but also refined input/output functionality to meet workstation standards. The I/O die now allows for higher native memory speeds, specifically DDR5-6400, supports AMD EXPO memory profiles, and incorporates CKD, enhancing flexibility and throughput. With modest frequency increases on select models, AMD claims the new platform delivers a 16% overall uplift in workstation benchmarks compared to the prior generation, alongside a striking 25% improvement in SPEC Workstation artificial intelligence and machine learning tests when comparing like-for-like configurations. The newly introduced Radeon AI PRO 9000 series aims to address a continuum of professional GPU workloads, from edge artificial intelligence deployment to advanced visualization, positioning AMD as a comprehensive solutions provider for modern workstations.
