When deciding on a CPU, there are a lot of different factors to consider. Do you need one of the best CPUs, or do you need one of the one of the best for gaming? Does your motherboard support your chip of choice, and what's the best thermal paste? If you're looking to do productivity work, though, what matters most is core count, so you'll need to know which CPU has the most cores. Luckily, we're here to answer that question.
Consumer CPU or professional chip?
Core counts in CPUs span a massive range. A bargain bin chip might only have a few cores, but a CPU designed for a data center can have hundreds of cores, like Intel's 288-core Sierra Forrest CPU the company announced earlier this year. In a professional environment, you can have machines with multiple high-core-count CPUs, too. Workstations like these can cost tens of thousands of dollars, though, and they aren't designed for personal use.
As a consumer, if you're hungry for a CPU with lots of cores, you're likely a video editor, a digital artist or animator, or perhaps looking to run a home server. Regardless of what you're personally looking to do with your CPU, you won't need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on the best of the best to enjoy excellent performance at home.
AMD or Intel?
In recent years, AMD has become known for its multi-core performance, while Intel has historically been associated with blazing fast single-core performance. But in reality, the situation is much more complicated than this general reputation. Depending on the chip in question, you might get better multi-core performance and more cores out of Intel. It just depends on what kind of chip you're looking for and your budget.
Intel's flagship consumer chips, the Core i9 range, go up to 24 cores with the i9-14900K CPU, while AMD's flagship consumer chips, the Ryzen 7000 line, go up to 16 cores with the 7950X CPU. Both of these chips excel in multi-core workloads, like video editing, and they cost under $1,000. However, if you step outside of Intel and AMD's most mainstream product lines, you can get even more cores.
What CPU has the most cores?
Before we get to chips you might find in a server farm or a data center, there are a lot of options for high-core-count, professional-grade CPUs that won't cost as much as a car. You can consider Intel's Xeon line of chips, but if you're looking for significantly more cores than what you get with an i9-14900K, you will likely be spending near that $10,000 mark on a computer with a beefy Xeon CPU.
However, AMD has a more "affordable" option for a high-core-count CPU. The Threadripper line of CPUs goes up to 96 cores with the 7995WX, which will cost you a princely $10,000. Although, you can opt for cheaper Threadripper CPUs that still have tons of cores. Take, for example, the recently announced Threadripper 7000 Series, which includes the 32-core 7970X, which retails for $2,500, and the 64-core 7980X, which costs $5,000.
You don't have to buy the latest and greatest Threadripper chips to get a high core count, though. With a little luck and extra work, you can likely find older 32-core and 64-core Threadripper chips for even cheaper than their latest-gen counterparts, which arrive by the end of 2023.
Which CPU should you buy?
This entirely depends on what you want out of a CPU alongside your budget, of course. However, just keep in mind that when buying a CPU with lots of cores, very few tasks scale well up to 32+ cores. Some definitely do, and there are many reasons why these kinds of chips exist, but most people will be better off with a lower core count. For example, if you're a video editor, even if you're working with 8K footage, a chip like Intel's Core i9-14900K or Core i9-13900K is a great choice.
If all you care about is cores, though, it's tough to beat the price-to-performance ratio of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper series. The 32-core 5975X has more cores than an Intel chip like the Core i9-1400K, and the same goes for the 64-core 5995X. Until the 7000 Series of Threadripper chips releases, the 5000 Series is a great option if you're looking for a 32-core or 64-core chip.
Intel Core i9-14900K
- Brand
- Intel
- Cores
- 8 P-cores, 16 E-cores
- Threads
- 32
- Architecture
- Raptor Lake Refresh
- Process
- Intel 7 (10 nm)
- Socket
- LGA 1700
The Intel Core i9-14900K is the high-end refresh of the older Raptor Lake process that intends to succeed the i9-13900k. This is just a refresh model, however, and the gains in performance aren't huge enough to warrant an upgrade.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5975WX
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5795WX lands in the middle of the Threadripper 5000 Pro series with its 32 cores, 64 threads, and large 128MB L3 cache. It comes with 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes and support for eight-channel memory, putting it on par with even the fastest server CPUs for data centers.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX
- Brand
- AMD
- Cores
- 64
- Threads
- 128
- Architecture
- Zen 3
- Process
- TSMC 7nm
- Socket
- sWRX8
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX with 64 cores is effectively an overclocked EPYC server CPU, making it the fastest workstation CPU in the world and ideal for any multi-core workload that needs to be finished as soon as possible.