Simply as we thought the variety of cores in your common gaming CPU had hit a plateau, it seems to be as if next-generation Intel Core and AMD Ryzen desktop CPUs may function many extra cores than the CPUs of at this time. In actual fact, we may even be taking a look at 48-core Intel chips and 24-core AMD Ryzen chips, exhibiting a giant soar over the 24-core and 16-core threshold at this time.
That’s unlikely to make a giant distinction should you solely use your PC for gaming, particularly seeing as one of the best gaming CPU you should purchase proper now solely has eight cores. Nevertheless, for desktop customers wanting a CPU that may do the whole lot, from gaming to rendering, a brand new 24-core AMD chip, maybe referred to as the Ryzen 9 10950X, or a 48-core Intel chip, perhaps referred to as the Core Extremely 9 385K, may make an enormous distinction.
In fact, AMD and Intel haven’t introduced any particulars by any means concerning the core counts of their next-gen CPUs, however we had been drawn to a chat between two common tech leakers in a thread on X (previously Twitter), which seems to recommend that each corporations are engaged on important will increase in core counts.
It began with this publish from Everest (Olrak29_), which merely outlines two units of numbers with a “vs” between them and a query mark on the finish. Usually-reliable tech leaker kopite7kimi then chimes in with “NVL vs Zen6” as a follow-up, referring to Intel’s forthcoming Nova Lake structure and AMD’s next-gen Zen 6 structure.
The highest quantity – “2 * (8+16)” – seems to recommend {that a} top-end Nova Lake CPU can have a pair of compute tiles in its bundle, every containing eight P-Cores and 16 E-Cores, doubling the quantity present in top-end Intel Arrow Lake CPUs at this time. Intel has been caught with eight P-Cores and 16 P-Cores since its Thirteenth-gen Raptor Lake CPUs on the high finish, and it may very well be seeking to improve the variety of cores by shifting to a smaller manufacturing course of and including a second compute tile to the bundle.
The dialog follows a number of latest feedback by a consumer referred to as Exist50 on a Reddit thread about Intel’s monetary outcomes, which means that Nova Lake will certainly provide two compute dies, doubling the variety of cores in comparison with Arrow Lake.
In the meantime, the ostensible Zen 6 determine seems to indicate that AMD is engaged on a 24-core CPU primarily based on a pair of 12-core chiplets. At present, AMD’s chiplets have a most of eight cores, and have executed for the reason that Ryzen 3000 lineup, however a transfer to 12 cores per chiplet, maybe due to a smaller manufacturing course of, may very well be on the playing cards.
Earlier AMD Zen 6 rumors have pointed to the brand new chips launching in late 2026 or early 2027, so this can be a honest approach off but, if it’s even true. Nevertheless, the brand new chips are additionally rumored to work in present Socket AM5 boards, which means one of the best gaming motherboard you should purchase for an AMD CPU proper now ought to nonetheless work with one of many new Zen 6 chips.
In fact, that is all hypothesis proper now, primarily based on a chat between two tech leakers, relatively than any strong claims, however it’s enjoyable to think about what could be coming sooner or later, and now we have been caught with the identical core counts for a number of generations now – it’s about time we had a change.
Within the meantime, take a look at our Ryzen 7 9800X3D overview to see how AMD’s newest CPU with 3D V-cache performs in our sport benchmarks, in addition to our Core Extremely 7 265K overview, the place we take a look at considered one of Intel’s newest Arrow Lake chips.
