Windows 8 Hardware Limitations

[Tiger Minecraft]

Technically speaking (find Microsoft docs to back yourself up please, because I've found sooooo many unsourced numbers out there), what is the maximum amount of CPUs and GPUs that Windows 8.1 can see? Thanks, Tiger.

<<all caps note removed by moderator>>

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Physical CPUs, cores or threads? There's a substantial difference.

This thread implies that it supports 2 physical CPU packages for the standard version, and 64 (physical?) for Server 2012: http://forum.techinferno.com/microsoft-windows/5607-windows-8-1-physical-processor-limit.html

GPUs is harder.

EDIT: Here it's 1 physical CPU for 8, 2 for 8 Pro.

From here, Win7 x64 supports up to 256 cores, though I'm not sure if MS is counting threads or actual cores. 8 shouldn't be a step down.

The new Windows 8 task manager was shown being tested with 160 threads, though I'm not sure how they got this - I'm assuming it's being shown under Server 2012, and thus can use more than 2xCPUs.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi


Home /Pro /Enterprise/ RT etc have different restrictions on max physical CPU & RAM

restriction is physical CPU sockets not cores

some may be put in to separate Win 8 from Server 2012

this site gives a lot of detail of the differences for various versions with some sources


http://superuser.com/questions/495105/how-many-physical-processors-does-windows-8-support

Win 8 Pro two physical CPU lower spec Win 8 one physical cpu

I have not found the answer for GPU
It seems the upper limit is probably set by hardware and number of PCI-e lanes available
and drivers rather than Windows 8

regards
Mike Barnes

 

[napster100]

I don't think theres official MS documentation on this but I found this which may help.

32-bit versions of Windows 8 support up to 4 GB of RAM. The 64-bit version of Windows 8 Pro supports up to 512 GB while the 64-bit version of Windows 8 (standard) supports up to 128 GB.

Windows 8 Pro supports a maximum of 2 physical CPUs and the standard version of Windows 8 just one. In total, up to 32 logical processors are supported in 32-bit versions of Windows 8, while up to 256 logical processors are supported in 64-bit versions.

No hardware limitations were changed in the Windows 8.1 update.

And the link to the source of this info: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/windows-8.htm

 

[USAFRet]

Per MS:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/131c4771-0a9b-46ec-ae52-cfa1965c9b34/processor-limits-of-microsoft-windows-8?forum=w8itprogeneral

Windows 8 - 1 physical processor
Windows 8 Pro - 2 physical processors

The EULA and actual physical specs may be different.

NOTE: Don't shout.

 

[Tiger Minecraft]

Physical CPUs, cores or threads? There's a substantial difference.

This thread implies that it supports 2 physical CPU packages for the standard version, and 64 (physical?) for Server 2012: http://forum.techinferno.com/microsoft-windows/5607-windows-8-1-physical-processor-limit.html

GPUs is harder.

EDIT: Here it's 1 physical CPU for 8, 2 for 8 Pro.

From here, Win7 x64 supports up to 256 cores, though I'm not sure if MS is counting threads or actual cores. 8 shouldn't be a step down.

The new Windows 8 task manager was shown being tested with 160 threads, though I'm not sure how they got this - I'm assuming it's being shown under Server 2012, and thus can use more than 2xCPUs.

Thanks for the answer! Yes, I had read that 64 physical processors would be the max on an official Microsoft website, though I asked this because that website omitted Windows 8. Now I am wondering if the GPU limit actually interacts with the CPU limit (i.e. 2 processors 0 GPUs, or 1 processor 1 GPU) or if they are separate caps.

EDIT: To the bit about the new Windows 8 Task Manager, I will just quote part of the title of the article: "64+ logical processors". To narrow that down: "logical". Thanks again!

 

[Someone Somewhere]

There are tons of people using more than one GPU on Win8 - you'd break CF/SLI otherwise. I believe the only limits on GPUs are how many PCIe slots you can get, as there are mining rigs out there with 8+ GPUs in them.

I think that how the task manager displays the graphs changes ones you get above 64 threads. Nothing to do with a limit, just a change in reporting.

They tested it with 160 threads, which is basically as many as you can currently get in a system, being 8x10-core chips with HT.