Eight-Core CPUs Become the Most Popular Choice of PC Users, CPU-Z Stats Show

[AleksandarK]

CPU-Z's Q1 2025 validation data indicates a new trend in CPU core count preferences among PC users. Eight-core processors now account for 24.7% of all validations, a significant increase of 32.6% compared to previous data. In contrast, six-core processors have declined to 22.5% of validations, down by 6.9%. The higher core count of eight-core CPUs aligns with the increasing demand for multithreaded performance in various computing environments, from professional workstations to high-end gaming systems. Market share figures also reveal adjustments in consumer preferences regarding CPU manufacturers. Intel retains a majority of presence with 56.3% of the market. However, AMD's share has risen notably at 43.7%, representing a 16.6% increase from the previous year.

The shift in market shares suggests that users are increasingly drawn to AMD's offerings, which include competitive eight-core processors. A key contributor to the trend toward eight-core CPUs is the rising popularity of specific models. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D, for example, has significantly impacted this new statistic, becoming the most popular CPU according to the CPU-Z validations. This indicates that users are interested in eight-core offerings with 3D V-Cache technology for increased gaming performance. The shift away from six-core configurations, which now represent a smaller portion of the validation data, shows that eight cores are now a sweet spot for many gamers. For multitasking and gaming, it seems like a perfect choice.



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[Vayra86]

Who would've thunk it, with a market saturated with 8 core CPUs!

 

[JustBenching]

Helps that most laptops have at least 8 cores, especially the amd ones nowadays.

 

[bobsled]

The skew with this statistic is that these are CPU-Z validations. Most people don’t run those outside of overclocking runs, of which 8 core CPUs are going to dominate.

 

[RejZoR]

8 core is the new 4 core...

 

[Bloste]

The skew with this statistic is that these are CPU-Z validations. Most people don’t run those outside of overclocking runs, of which 8 core CPUs are going to dominate.

Yep, of all the gaming people I know, I'm almost sure I'm the only one with 8 cores. Also the only one I have installed CPU-Z, or even know what it is.

In that regard, steam statistics are more accurate.

 

[Bomby569]

So most machines have now as many cpu cores as GB's of vram

Not sure this was the progress people wanted when they complained about the old Intel cpu's, we were actually better of then.

 

[Quicks]

Don't need more than 6 core / 12 thread for gaming problem is AMD don't like making them in X3D 6 cores. So 8 cores it will be then... I bet if AMD release from the start 6 core X3D chips clocked the same or higher than the 8 core part with 75$ - 125$ discount. Many would rather get the 6 cores for cheaper.

So most machines have now as many cpu cores as GB's of vram

Not sure this was the progress people wanted when they complained about the old Intel cpu's, we were actually better of then.

Many new games are still leaning hard on 1 core. Almost like game programmers / game engines are useless at multi threading.

 

[Sithaer]

Don't need more than 6 core / 12 thread for gaming problem is AMD don't like making them in X3D 6 cores. So 8 cores it will be then... I bet if AMD release from the start 6 core X3D chips clocked the same or higher than the 8 core part with 75$ - 125$ discount. Many would rather get the 6 cores for cheaper.



Many new games are still leaning hard on 1 core. Almost like game programmers / game engines are useless at multi threading.

Yeah I think it will take quite some time for me to move away from my 12600KF, arguably its even overkill for most of the games I'm playing. 'even my previous 12100F was playing those games well enough'
In the more recent AAA games I'm GPU bound in the first place anyway..

 

[sudothelinuxwizard]

Extremely skewed by the fact that normies would never run this, I would bet a grand that the actual average is still 4c/8t, if not lower (Chromebooks and such skewing the stats)

 

[Bomby569]

Extremely skewed by the fact that normies would never run this, I would bet a grand that the actual average is still 4c/8t, if not lower (Chromebooks and such skewing the stats)

in steam survey there's a lot of really old pc's, crappy laptops, optiplex's and the 8 core crowd is a close second, 4 cores has long went for 3rd place.

 

[azrael]

It's been my preferred core count since 2020.

 

[RejZoR]

Extremely skewed by the fact that normies would never run this, I would bet a grand that the actual average is still 4c/8t, if not lower (Chromebooks and such skewing the stats)

Ryzen 5 series greatly popularized 6 cores 12 threads. Ryzen 5 1600X, 2600X, 3600X and 5600X were great options for mid end systems.

 

[wNotyarD]

Ryzen 5 series greatly popularized 6 cores 12 threads. Ryzen 5 1600X, 2600X, 3600X and 5600X were great options for mid end systems.

Also 8th to 11th-gen i5's.

 

[Shihab]

Not sure this was the progress people wanted when they complained about the old Intel cpu's, we were actually better of then.

Two different issues (and not even comparable).
Some people use computers for things other than video games.

 

[dirtyferret]

Who would've thunk it, with a market saturated with 8 core CPUs!

although not al have equal performance and the most popular CPU in CPU-Z validations is a $500 CPU? I think that represents the vanguard of PC gamers as opposed to the entire PC gaming market.

 

[Scattergrunt]

8 core is the new 4 core...

We went from duo to quad to hexa to octo. We might be at ten cores next in half a decade (or more's) time.

 

[sudothelinuxwizard]

Ryzen 5 series greatly popularized 6 cores 12 threads. Ryzen 5 1600X, 2600X, 3600X and 5600X were great options for mid end systems.

Normies buy shitty prebuilts which thanks to Intels corrupt practices always come with 4c/8t i3s

 

[Macro Device]

Also 8th to 11th-gen i5's.

i5-12400F:

 

[Rover4444]

So most machines have now as many cpu cores as GB's of vram

Not sure this was the progress people wanted when they complained about the old Intel cpu's, we were actually better of then.

8GB of RAM is all you need!

We went from duo to quad to hexa to octo. We might be at ten cores next in half a decade (or more's) time.

Zen 6/6c will have 12/16 core CCDs, so yeah those averages are gonna get pulled up. Makes me feel bad for the 6 core AM4bros

 

[Easo]

No way, impossible!
/end_sarcasm

This should not be a suprise to anyone and as obvious as water being wet.

 

[RejZoR]

Also 8th to 11th-gen i5's.

Yeah, but mostly as response to Ryzen. If AMD didn't push 6 cores so aggressively Intel would still be insisting on 4 cores for low and mid end. Core i5 8600 series had no HT, only 8700 finally got that too. Meanwhile Ryzen 5 1600X was already with SMT.

 

[wNotyarD]

Yeah, but mostly as response to Ryzen. If AMD didn't push 6 cores so aggressively Intel would still be insisting on 4 cores for low and mid end. Core i5 8600 series had no HT, only 8700 finally got that too. Meanwhile Ryzen 5 1600X was already with SMT.

Sure, but even with SMT Zen(+) wasn't that fast and didn't fare that amazingly against the Coffees in gaming. I'd know, I had a R7-2700 and I still run a (desktop) i5-9400 in my laptop.

 

[Vayra86]

although not al have equal performance and the most popular CPU in CPU-Z validations is a $500 CPU? I think that represents the vanguard of PC gamers as opposed to the entire PC gaming market.

Well whatever it is... its just the natural course of events isn't it. After the quad core era, we had the hexacore blip and now its an 8-core normalized market. It was really just long overdue... 4C8T has been there for a while.

 

[_roman_]

I doubt I ever saw that software in any repository.

CPU-Z's Q1 2025 validation data indicates a new trend in CPU core count preferences among PC users.

• of Windows users?
• who download & run that particular piece of software?
• validation data ?

I did not use windows for at least 20 years. No license & too high hardware requirements in my youth & no windows software to use windows with. Windows Vista annoyed me so much that I had after 3 days ARCH & Gentoo installed since 2006. In the past few years I dual boot with Windows again (just for games) and use windows at work.

It seems some sort of fetish to run gpuz to see how many rops you have. Or do run cpu-z to see something else.

That rop & gpuz topic from last time motivated me a few days ago to run gpuz. I wanted to see the output from that programm. It was the first time after ~1.5 years for my 7800xt. I never run that on my 6800 non xt or 6600xt graphic card or 960 gtx.

I only run cpuinfo or cpuid2cpuflags when I have to determine which instructions my current platform supports for compiler optimisations.

This should not be a suprise to anyone and as obvious as water being wet.

off topic:

BBC -> podcast -> crowd science -> is water wet (very interesting as it is not that easy to answer)

--

Core count is not everything. My previous Ryzen 5800x (8 core) is similar as fast as my current ryzen 7600x (6 core).