For those who came in late, some Linux users reported a segmentation fault problem that would occur under very heavy workloads. Now the replacements have been shipped, Phoronix has been able to test the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X under the same heavy loads which caused it to go tits up.

The performance marginality problem is exclusive to certain workloads such as running many Linux compilation tasks in parallel. Compiling most software was fine unless really hammering the system hardware.

Under select conditions, the compiler might produce a segmentation fault. Under normal Linux desktop workloads, gaming, etc, all Ryzen processors should work just fine. AMD has confirmed this issue doesn't affect EPYC or Threadripper processors.

However, it appears that the Threadripper 1950X on Linux is unaffected by any issues unless you count the lack of a thermal reporting driver. With the 32 threads under Linux they have been able to build the Linux kernel in just about a half minute.

AMD never provided an official public explanation of the fundamental problem, but it appeared to affect Ryzen CPUs manufactured prior to week 25, so the problem really was as rare as AMD claimed it was.