AMD EPYC Venice CPUs Stomp NVIDIA’s Vera With 20% Faster Single-Core & 2.2x Higher Throughput With Up to 256 “Zen 6” Cores, 203 Billion Transistors & Over 5 GHz+ Clocks

AMD has officially launched its EPYC Venice CPU family, spanning several chips, with performance leadership in Agentic AI with Zen 6 cores.

The Industry's First 2nm HPC CPU Is Here, Meet EPYC Venice Family, Packing Up To 256 "Zen 6" Cores & 203 Billion Transistors

One component that is really shaping up as the king of the Agentic AI era is the CPU. AMD is leveraging its brand new Zen 6 core architecture that will be used on its 6th Gen EPYC CPUs, codenamed Venice. AMD's EPYC Venice chips are the first HPC product to enter volume production on TSMC's 2nm process technology, and their readiness for Helios AI racks proves that AMD will always deliver the best of the best for its high-performance customers.

The TSMC 2nm process technology transitions from FinFET to Nanosheet transistors (GAA), and offers 10-15% higher performance at the same power, 25-30% lower power consumption at the same performance, and up to 15% higher transistor density. The EPYC Venice CPUs pack up to an insane 203 Billion Transistors while leveraging the 2nm process for the compute chiplet, and 6nm for the IO dies.

AMD's 6th Gen EPYC Venice CPUs were teased earlier this year at CES, offering up to 256 cores and 512 threads with eight massive compute dies and two even larger I/O dies. For this chip, AMD has promised over 80% performance & efficiency improvement with its EPYC Venice CPUs, with a >30% increase in thread density.

Once again, the requirement for high-performance CPUs has risen tenfold with Agentic AI workloads. And competitors are firing across all cylinders with CPUs that are optimized around agents. As such, AMD is introducing a full top-to-bottom CPU stack in its EPYC 9006 family, which includes chips for both SP7 and SP8 platforms. The full list of AMD EPYC 9006 family includes:

• AMD EPYC 9006 SP7: Built for high-density agent sandbox execution with up to 256 cores and 512 threads, it helps run more agents per watt, per dollar, and per rack. In high-frequency configurations, it also serves as an AI host node, with up to 5GHz frequency, PCIe® Gen 6, and impressive CPU-to-GPU improvement delivering the most agents per watt, per dollar, and per rack.
• AMD EPYC 9006 SP8: The processor is built for efficient, right-sized performance across critical enterprise workloads and agent sandbox execution where efficiency is top priority. With flexible 8- to 128-core options and low-power designs, it supports everything from edge sites and power-constrained racks to smaller clusters and general-purpose servers engineered to deliver leadership performance per system dollar.
• AMD EPYC 9006X SP7: The processor is built for HPC, technical computing, and data-intensive workloads that benefit from high cache and memory bandwidth. With some variants reaching frequencies up to 5.15GHz frequencies and 3x the L3 cache per core of AMD EPYC™ 9006 SP7, it helps accelerate simulation, modeling, large-scale analytics, retrieval, in-memory analytics, and other memory-sensitive work.
• AMD EPYC 9006 LP: Formerly codenamed “Verano,” the AMD EPYC 9006 LP processor is purpose-built as an AI host node CPU for next-generation rack-scale AI systems. The processor, leveraging LPDDR memory and up to 5GHz frequency, helps keep accelerators fed across dense, accelerator-rich racks, allowing system utilization to scale as deployments grow from single nodes to AI factories.

EPYC 9006 "SP7" Server CPU - Shipping Q4 2026

The first chip is the flagship with 256 "Zen 6" cores, 512 threads, a maximum bandwidth of 1.6 TB/s, and PCIe Gen6 support for up to 64 Gbps AIC speeds. The chip is designed to achieve very fast frequencies of up to 5.0 GHz with 96 operational cores.

Name	# of CPU Cores	# of Threads	Max. Boost Clock	Base Clock	L3 Cache	Default CPU Power
AMD EPYC 9996	256	512	Up to 4.1 GHz	2.55 GHz	1024 MB	600W
AMD EPYC 9966	192	384	Up to 4 GHz	2.9 GHz	768 MB	600W
AMD EPYC 9846	168	336	Up to 3.7 GHz	2.85 GHz	768 MB	500W
AMD EPYC 9756	128	256	Up to 4 GHz	3.15 GHz	512 MB	500W
AMD EPYC 9G76	96	192	Up to 4.8 GHz	3.4 GHz	384 MB	500W
AMD EPYC 9656	96	192	Up to 3.7 GHz	3.05 GHz	512 MB	400W
AMD EPYC 9686F	96	192	Up to 5 GHz	3.4 GHz	384 MB	500W
AMD EPYC 9556	64	128	Up to 4.3 GHz	2.75 GHz	384 MB	300W
AMD EPYC 9586F	64	128	Up to 5 GHz	3.75 GHz	384 MB	500W

EPYC 9006 "SP8" Server CPU - Shipping 1H 2027

The SP8 Venice "EPYC 9006" chips are designed for mainstream servers with 8 to 128 core configs. The chips will support 8 DDR5 channels with two DIMMs per Channel support, offering 128 PCIe Gen 6.0 lanes, and feature flexible deployments in 1P and 2P solutions.

Name	# of CPU Cores	# of Threads	Max. Boost Clock	Base Clock	L3 Cache	Default CPU Power
AMD EPYC 9746	128	256	Up to 4 GHz	2.9 GHz	512 MB	400W
AMD EPYC 9736P	128	256	Up to 3.7 GHz	2.7 GHz	256 MB	360W
AMD EPYC 9736	128	256	Up to 3.7 GHz	2.7 GHz	256 MB	360W
AMD EPYC 9676F	96	192	Up to 5 GHz	3.1 GHz	384 MB	400W
AMD EPYC 9646P	96	192	Up to 3.7 GHz	2.8 GHz	256 MB	300W
AMD EPYC 9646	96	192	Up to 3.7 GHz	2.8 GHz	256 MB	300W
AMD EPYC 9576F	64	128	Up to 5 GHz	3.55 GHz	384 MB	400W
AMD EPYC 9536P	64	128	Up to 4 GHz	3.25 GHz	256 MB	300W
AMD EPYC 9536	64	128	Up to 4 GHz	3.25 GHz	256 MB	300W
AMD EPYC 9526	64	128	Up to 3.7 GHz	2.75 GHz	256 MB	220W
AMD EPYC 9476F	48	96	Up to 5 GHz	3.65 GHz	192 MB	330W
AMD EPYC 9456P	48	96	Up to 3.7 GHz	3.2 GHz	256 MB	265W
AMD EPYC 9456	48	96	Up to 3.7 GHz	3.2 GHz	256 MB	265W
AMD EPYC 9376F	32	64	Up to 5 GHz	3.8 GHz	192 MB	285W
AMD EPYC 9356P	32	64	Up to 4.5 GHz	3.6 GHz	192 MB	250W
AMD EPYC 9356	32	64	Up to 4.5 GHz	3.6 GHz	192 MB	250W
AMD EPYC 9336	32	64	Up to 3.7 GHz	3.15 GHz	128 MB	195W
AMD EPYC 9276F	24	48	Up to 5 GHz	3.8 GHz	96 MB	230W
AMD EPYC 9256	24	48	Up to 4.5 GHz	2.85 GHz	96 MB	190W
AMD EPYC 9176F	16	32	Up to 5 GHz	3.9 GHz	192 MB	200W
AMD EPYC 9116	16	32	Up to 4.5 GHz	2.85 GHz	48 MB	160W
AMD EPYC 9016	8	16	Up to 4.8 GHz	3.05 GHz	48 MB	130W

Just like GPUs, NVIDIA is AMD's primary competitor in this space, which is leveraging Vera CPUs based on its custom Arm IP to power the Vera Rubin NVL72 racks. AMD's Helios AI racks powered by Zen 6 EPYC chips not only offer more cores, but faster performance and improved single-core capabilities, which is important for sustained throughput.

In benchmarks, AMD has shown that not only do its 5th Gen Turin "Zen 5" CPUs lead against Vera, but the 6th Gen Venice "Zen 6" chips lead massively, driving more performance & offering better TCOs at a similar power scale.

For example, in Agentic CPU servers "sandboxes", AMD is claiming up to 2.8x agents per watt versus Arm-based CPUs such as NVIDIA's Vera, and up to 3.3x performance per watt in General-Purpose CPU servers.

AMD is also bringing up to 1.8x tokens/s, 1.7x agents/watt, and 1.4x performance/watt versus its 5th Gen EPYC "Turin" CPUs.

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AMD EPYC CPU Families:

Family Name	AMD EPYC Verano	AMD EPYC Venice-Dense	AMD EPYC Venice	AMD EPYC Turin-X	AMD EPYC Turin-Dense	AMD EPYC Turin	AMD EPYC Siena	AMD EPYC Bergamo	AMD EPYC Genoa-X	AMD EPYC Genoa	AMD EPYC Milan-X	AMD EPYC Milan	AMD EPYC Rome	AMD EPYC Naples
Family Branding	EPYC 9007	EPYC 9006	EPYC 9006	EPYC 9005	EPYC 9005	EPYC 9005	EPYC 8004	EPYC 9004	EPYC 9004	EPYC 9004	EPYC 7004	EPYC 7003	EPYC 7002	EPYC 7001
Family Launch	2027	2026	2026	2025	2025	2024	2023	2023	2023	2022	2022	2021	2019	2017
CPU Architecture	Zen 6+	Zen 6C	Zen 6	Zen 5	Zen 5C	Zen 5	Zen 4	Zen 4C	Zen 4 V-Cache	Zen 4	Zen 3	Zen 3	Zen 2	Zen 1
Process Node	TBD	2nm TSMC	2nm TSMC	4nm TSMC	3nm TSMC	4nm TSMC	5nm TSMC	4nm TSMC	5nm TSMC	5nm TSMC	7nm TSMC	7nm TSMC	7nm TSMC	14nm GloFo
Platform Name	SP7	SP7	SP7	SP5	SP5	SP5	SP6	SP5	SP5	SP5	SP3	SP3	SP3	SP3
Socket	TBD	TBD	TBD	LGA 6096 (SP5)	LGA 6096 (SP5)	LGA 6096	LGA 4844	LGA 6096	LGA 6096	LGA 6096	LGA 4094	LGA 4094	LGA 4094	LGA 4094
Max Core Count	TBD	256	96	128	192	128	64	128	96	96	64	64	64	32
Max Thread Count	TBD	512	192	256	384	256	128	256	192	192	128	128	128	64
Max L3 Cache	TBD	1024 MB? (128 MB /CCD)	384 MB? (48 MB/CCD)	1536 MB	384 MB	384 MB	256 MB	256 MB	1152 MB	384 MB	768 MB	256 MB	256 MB	64 MB
Chiplet Design	TBD	8 CCD's (1 CCX per CCD) + 2 IOD?	8 CCD's (1 CCX per CCD) + 2 IOD	16 CCD's (1CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	12 CCD's (1CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	16 CCD's (1CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	8 CCD's (1CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	12 CCD's (1 CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	12 CCD's (1 CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	12 CCD's (1 CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	8 CCD's (1 CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	8 CCD's (1 CCX per CCD) + 1 IOD	8 CCD's (2 CCX's per CCD) + 1 IOD	4 CCD's (2 CCX's per CCD)
Memory Support	TBD	DDR5-8000+	DDR5-8000+	DDR5-6400	DDR5-6400	DDR5-6400	DDR5-5200	DDR5-5600	DDR5-4800	DDR5-4800	DDR4-3200	DDR4-3200	DDR4-3200	DDR4-2666
Memory Channels	TBD	16-Channel (SP7)	16-Channel (SP7)	12 Channel (SP5)	12 Channel	12 Channel	6-Channel	12 Channel	12 Channel	12 Channel	8 Channel	8 Channel	8 Channel	8 Channel
PCIe Gen Support	TBD	128-192 PCIe Gen 6	128-192 PCIe Gen 6	TBD	128 PCIe Gen 5	128 PCIe Gen 5	96 Gen 5	128 Gen 5	128 Gen 5	128 Gen 5	128 Gen 4	128 Gen 4	128 Gen 4	64 Gen 3
TDP (Max)	TBD	~600W	~600W	500W (cTDP 600W)	500W (cTDP 450-500W)	400W (cDP 320-400W)	70-225W	320W (cTDP 400W)	400W	400W	280W	280W	280W	200W

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