QOTW: How many cores for your next desktop CPU?

by Parm Mann on 29 May 2020, 16:31

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

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The frequency race may have slowed to a crawl, but the multi-core wars are in full swing. Following years of stagnant quad-core computing, we've jumped into an era in which 16 cores on a mainstream platform is within reach of most enthusiasts.

Heck, there's no reason you can't run 64 cores in your home PC if you really want to push the boat out, and should you prefer to keep costs down to a more agreeable level, latest-generation hexa-core processors from either AMD or Intel are readily available for under £170.

Plenty of attraction when upgrading an ageing dual- or quad-core machine, but while the number of physical cores has soared, we're intrigued to know what core count our readers deem useful for their real-world usage scenarios. To find out, we're asking: how many cores for your next desktop CPU? We want to know what you consider to be the absolute minimum, as well as your reasons why, using the comments facility below.



HEXUS Forums :: 60 Comments

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As I will be staying with Ryzen 7, most likely 8 cores.
Well, the ‘trend-setters’ who generally pass their old stuff off onto me are all gunning for the 6-core 10600 CPUs these days.
I'm sure there are reasons, beyond being tired of faffing around with overclocking and never actually gaming any more, but those who have them seem positively delighted so far….

Me, I'm happy with my 8-core 5960X, as it seems to run just fine at 4.6GHz and you need HWInfo to know that it's even awake.
Can't see any point in upgrading my OC'd I7-8700K anytime soon. Don't need the extra cores and I'm not into willy waving these days.
Keeping my 5820K for a while longer so 6 cores 12 threads. It's a nice compromise; most of my work is AutoCAD so better to have a higher speed than lots of cores I think but they are good for occasional video editing and transcoding. Next investment will probably be a couple of 2TB SSDs to replace HDD rather than a new CPU.
i doubt I 'll buy another desktop.