Highly anticipated: AMD has fully pulled back the curtain on its first Zen 6 CPU lineup. Debuting with Epyc server chips, the new architecture offers up to 256 cores and 512 threads at the top end, and AMD has promised substantial upgrades in AI, GPU hosting, and per-watt performance.
AMD's first Zen 6 Epyc processors, labeled the 9006 series and codenamed Venice, are now shipping to server clients, with SP7 systems arriving first and SP8 following in the first half of 2027. The company recently published the full technical specs for every SP7 and SP8 CPU in the lineup, mainly promoting their usefulness for AI workloads.
As expected, AMD's new flagship Epyc 9996 raises the maximum core count to 256, with 512 threads, clocked at up to 4.1GHz. With 1GB of L3 cache, it sits at a 2.55GHz base clock and defaults to 600W, though it can be configured down to 400W.
AMD's rack-density comparisons also reference a 400W, 256-core 9956, but that chip isn't on the published list. According to AMD's internal benchmarks, the 9996 at least doubles the Intel Xeon 6980P's performance in some tasks and more than triples it in others.
Early independent testing backs up the scale of the gains: Tom's Hardware measured a dual 9996 server at up to 93% faster than a dual Epyc 9965 in SPEC CPU 2026's intrate test. AMD lists the top-end chip at $14,904, but the lineup also scales all the way down to the eight-core, 16-thread Epyc 9016, at just $700.
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