AMD EPYC 9006 Venice reaches 256 Zen 6c cores, PCIe 6.0 and 16-channel DDR5-8000
AMD has announced its 6th Gen EPYC 9006 server processor family based on Zen 6 and Zen 6c architectures. The first EPYC 9006 SP7 systems are scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter of 2026, although AMD has not released the individual processor specifications or prices.
The maximum core count increases from 192 cores on EPYC 9005 Turin to 256 Zen 6c cores and 512 threads per socket. Full-size Zen 6 models will offer up to 96 cores and 192 threads, while selected 96-core processors will reach 5.0 GHz.
Four EPYC 9006 platforms
The EPYC 9006 family will cover four platforms. These include the main SP7 series, a lower-core-count SP8 platform, EPYC 9006X processors with AMD 3D V-Cache and an LPDDR5X-based EPYC 9006 LP series.
© AMD 
© AMD 
© AMD 
© AMD The main SP7 platform supports up to 16 memory channels and a claimed maximum bandwidth of 1.6 TB/s. AMD lists DDR5 speeds of up to 8,000 MT/s and second-generation MRDIMMs operating at up to 12,800 MT/s. The platform also adds PCIe 6.0 at 64 Gbps per lane, CXL 3.1 and processors with power limits of up to 600W.
EPYC 9006X is aimed at workloads that benefit from a larger last-level cache. These processors will include up to 1,152MB of L3 cache through AMD 3D V-Cache. EPYC 9006 LP instead uses field-replaceable SOCAMM2 modules with LPDDR5X memory for GPU host systems.
© AMD AMD publishes selected performance results
AMD compared the 256-core EPYC 9996 against the 128-core Intel Xeon 6980P in several normalized tests. The company reports up to 3.7 times the NGINX performance, 3.5 times the MongoDB performance and 3.1 times the performance in GROMACS and NAMD.
These results come from AMD’s own test systems and do not represent independent testing. AMD says EPYC 9006 SP7 processors are already in production, but server availability will begin in Q4 2026. The complete product stack will follow throughout 2027.
AMD also confirms that 6th Gen EPYC processors will serve as host CPUs for its Helios rack-scale systems.
| AMD EPYC 9006 server processor variants | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz | Platform | CPU configuration | Memory and I/O | Availability |
| EPYC 9006 SP7 | Venice SP7 | Up to 256 Zen 6c cores and 512 threads Up to 96 Zen 6 cores at 5.0 GHz | Up to 16 memory channels DDR5-8000 or MRDIMM-12800 PCIe 6.0 | Q4 2026 |
| EPYC 9006 SP8 | Venice SP8 | 8 to 128 cores 1P and 2P support | 8 memory channels with 2DPC 128 PCIe 6.0 lanes | First half of 2027 |
| EPYC 9006X SP7 | Venice-X | Up to 96 cores Up to approximately 5.15 GHz | Up to 1,152MB L3 cache 16-channel MRDIMM-12800 or DDR5 | Second half of 2027 |
| EPYC 9006 LP | Verano | Up to 72 cores Up to 5.0 GHz | 24-channel LPDDR5X Enhanced xGMI at 112 Gbps | Second half of 2027 |
Source: AMD, Phoronix
