Simply as we thought the variety of cores in your common gaming CPU had hit a plateau, it appears to be like as if next-generation Intel Core and AMD Ryzen desktop CPUs might characteristic many extra cores than the CPUs of at present. In reality, we might even be taking a look at 48-core Intel chips and 24-core AMD Ryzen chips, displaying a giant soar over the 24-core and 16-core threshold at present.
That’s unlikely to make a giant distinction in the event you solely use your PC for gaming, particularly seeing as the most effective gaming CPU you should purchase proper now solely has eight cores. Nonetheless, for desktop customers wanting a CPU that may do all the things, 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, possibly referred to as the Core Extremely 9 385K, might make an enormous distinction.
After all, AMD and Intel haven’t introduced any particulars in anyway in regards to the core counts of their next-gen CPUs, however we have 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 vital 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. Typically-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 may 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 present. 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 might be trying to enhance 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 point out 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 finished for the reason that Ryzen 3000 lineup, however a transfer to 12 cores per chiplet, maybe because of a smaller manufacturing course of, might 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 it is a truthful approach off but, if it’s even true. Nonetheless, the brand new chips are additionally rumored to work in current Socket AM5 boards, which means the most effective gaming motherboard you should purchase for an AMD CPU proper now ought to nonetheless work with one of many new Zen 6 chips.
After all, that is all hypothesis proper now, primarily based on a chat between two tech leakers, relatively than any stable claims, however it’s enjoyable to think about what could be coming sooner or later, and we’ve got 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 assessment to see how AMD’s newest CPU with 3D V-cache performs in our recreation benchmarks, in addition to our Core Extremely 7 265K assessment, the place we check certainly one of Intel’s newest Arrow Lake chips.
