15 hours ago
AMD: 256-Core Epyc CPUs Are Coming in 2026
The next generation of AMD's Epyc data center CPUs is on track and slated for 2026. The processors didn't get as much love at AMD's recent 2025 Advancing AI event as, say, the new Instinct MI350X and MI355X AI GPUs, but AMD made clear that Epyc is also a priority. The company pointed to 2026 for the launch of Epyc Venice and noted that the upcoming CPU will have 256 Zen 6 cores, along with significant bandwidth for AI workloads.
AMD's current 5th Gen Epyc Turin CPUs are capable processors that are powering a growing number of data centers. But the 6th generation sounds like it will dwarf the current CPUs when it comes to performance. At least, that's how things look for now, before the public gets its hands on the processors. AMD says that the new Venice Epycs can provide up to a 70% performance increase over Turin CPUs. But, as Tom's Hardware notes, AMD hasn't provided much information about how the testing was done.
Credit: AMD
Venice will support 1.6TBps in bandwidth, up from Turin's 614GBps. The processors will also have twice the CPU-to-GPU bandwidth.
AMD announced in April that its 6th-generation Epyc CPU had been taped out, meaning that the processor is ready for manufacturing. TSMC will produce them using its new N2 (2nm-class) node in Taiwan. The foundry's growing fab cluster in Arizona, known as Fab 21, isn't yet capable of producing chips with the N2 process, though it likely will be down the road.
Dr. Lisa Su holding the current "Turin" Epyc server CPU. Credit: AMD
As we covered recently, the success of Epyc CPUs has helped drive AMD's stunning success in pulling server CPU market share away from Intel. In 2017, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su started AMD on a path that led from 0% server CPU market share to nearly 40% at the end of Q1 this year. As its competitor, Intel, struggled to get aboard the AI train and saw its CEO exit at the end of 2024, AMD has worked with foundry TSMC to produce several generations of powerful Epyc processors.
It's worth noting, though, that Intel has a new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, and it's not just sitting around while AMD scores wins. Intel recently dropped the prices on its Xeon 6 CPUs. In some cases, the company dropped the MSRPs by as much as 30%—which is downright stunning and a direct challenge to AMD's Epyc chips.
