Physical Processor Limit of Windows 8

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nvw

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Jan 16, 2012
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Hi all,

do anyone know what the physical processor (not core) limit of Windows 8 is?

I beleive Windows 7 is limited to 2 physical processor...

Thank you.
 
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das_stig

das_stig

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Jul 24, 2009
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The maximum total number of logical processors in a PC that Windows 7 supports is: 32 for 32-bit, 256 for 64-bit. A sigle processor with multiple cores is still treated as logical processors.

The maximum number of physical processors in a PC that Windows 7 supports is: 2 for Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate; 1 for Starter and Home Basic.

I believe the current version W8 supports 640 logical cpu's, which in theory means it could support 40 16 core Bulldozers, but not on a single motherboard.
 
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nvw

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Hi MrMotion,
Want to use it in a workstation, with CFD software that scales good over multiple cores. So want to put in the most cores I can, like 4X opteron 16-core chips.
GPGPU computing would have been better (faster) but the software (ANSYS CFD) doesnt support GPU computing yet. Quite a number of four cpu motherboards available already. Other option I have is to use Windows Server 2008, standard version does support 4 cpu's but is limited to 32GB RAM, Enterprise will do the job, but is very expensive. So well, I'm hoping windows 8 will support at least 4 physical processors. Windows 7 (64-bit) has a memory limit of 192GB RAM, which should be sufficient, but hopefully they increase that to at least 256GB aswell.
Having something like this in mind:
http://www.supermicro.nl/Aplus/motherboard/Opteron6000/SR56x0/H8QGL-6F.cfm
Rgds,
nvw
 
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Shadow703793

Shadow703793

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Feb 3, 2007
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Incorrect. Windows Home Premium and below only supports ONE PHYSICAL CPU.

Commercial servers, workstations, and other high-end PCs may have more than one physical processor. Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate allow for two physical processors, providing the best performance on these computers. Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium will recognize only one physical processor.
Click to expand...

Source: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements

This will be the case for Windows 8 too (at least from what I've heard). You will need Pro, Enterprise, Ultimate for a 2P system. For >2P you will need a Server OS. Your typical person won't be running more than 2 physical CPUs, if ever. The only people who *may* run a 2P board are people doing CFD/3D work and should have the money for a Server version of the OS. Microsoft has no reason to increase this cap since first, very few people run 2P and second, they will be cutting in to their own market. I mean, if you sell a $200 Pro license that can do 4P why would they get the $500 Server version?


edit:

Note about Server: Up to 4 (Standard) or 8 (Enterprise) sockets/CPUs. For more than this, you need Datacenter edition. The max physical CPU count is 64 CPUs PER Datacenter edition license, you can run more than 64 CPUs (by creating CPU groups, see dev docs) but you will need more licenses AND your software must be specifically written for something like this.
 
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alpha754293

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What kind of CFD do you do if you don't mind me asking? Are you using Ansys CFX or Ansys Fluent?

I'm looking into my next build as well although I'm limiting it to dual-socket systems only because I've found that quad-socket Opteron still can't necessarily beat a single Intel processor (in some cases). (Tested a quad Opteron 6174 against a single Intel Core i7 990X and the 990X was able to complete the job FASTER than the quad Opteron.)
 
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