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No. AMD’s flagship Turin processor, the EPYC 9965, has 192 cores and a 500W thermal design power (TDP), according to AMD. The 256-core, 600W specification being reported belongs to the later-generation EPYC 9996, a Venice model—not a Turin Zen 5 CPU.

Turin’s flagship is the 192-core EPYC 9965

Turin is the codename for AMD’s 5th Gen EPYC 9005 processor family, based on Zen 5. In its October 10, 2024 launch announcement, AMD described the family as spanning 8 to 192 cores per processor and identified the EPYC 9965 as a 192-core, 500W TDP model. AMD’s 5th Gen EPYC launch announcement

That makes the 9965 the relevant Turin flagship for the claim in the headline: it is not a 256-core chip, and AMD’s listed TDP is not 600W.

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Why a 256-core Turin figure may appear

AMD’s official EPYC 9755 product information includes a configuration with 256 cores across two processors. That is a two-socket system total—128 cores per processor—not a single 256-core Turin CPU. AMD’s 5th Generation EPYC product page

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  • One EPYC 9965: 192 cores; 500W TDP, as specified by AMD.
  • Two EPYC 9755 processors: 256 cores combined in the two-processor configuration documented by AMD.

These figures describe different models and configurations. A system’s combined core count should not be presented as the core count of one processor.

The 256-core, 600W report is about Venice

Venice is AMD’s next EPYC generation after Turin. AMD announced a production ramp for Venice on TSMC’s 2nm process on May 21, 2026. AMD’s Venice production-ramp announcement On September 18, 2026, AMD described its 9006 portfolio as including processors with up to 256 cores. AMD’s 9006 portfolio announcement

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TechRadar Pro reported on October 1, 2026, that the EPYC 9996 is a Venice processor with 256 Zen 6c cores and a 600W TDP. The exact 9996-and-600W pairing is from that secondary report; it should not be attributed to Turin or Zen 5. TechRadar Pro’s EPYC 9996 report

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Turin and Venice at a glance

Generation Family and architecture Core count Power figure
Turin 5th Gen EPYC 9005; Zen 5 Up to 192 cores per processor, per AMD EPYC 9965: 500W TDP, per AMD
Venice 6th Gen EPYC 9006; later generation Up to 256 cores, per AMD EPYC 9996: 600W TDP, as reported by TechRadar Pro

The figures are not a like-for-like performance comparison: they identify product generations, core counts and reported power specifications. They do not establish how the processors perform under a particular workload.

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AMD EPYC (2nd Gen) 7702P Tetrahexaconta-core (64 Core) 2 GHz Processor - 256 MB Cache - 3.35 GHz Overclocking Speed - Socket SP3-200 W - 128 Threads
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