To many shoppers, it may seem peculiar to have a motherboard that can handle dual CPUs. However, these motherboards have been obtainable for a while, primarily for those who use servers and workstations.
However, with the emergence of inexpensive and user-friendly high-core CPUs such as the Intel i9-12900K and AMD Ryzen 5950X, dual CPU motherboards have begun appearing on the second-hand market for a more reasonable price.
We will elucidate all about using a dual CPU motherboard for gaming or work. This will help you decide if purchasing one is a wise idea.
Let’s dive straight into it!
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What Is A Dual CPU Motherboard?
The category of product is relatively easy to understand: a motherboard that has two sockets, meaning it supports two processors.
Certainly, there are a few restrictions on what you could accommodate within it. The processors should be the identical model; otherwise, individuals may encounter a myriad of issues.
Technically, it doesn’t have to be the identical CPU, but it needs the same number of physical and logical cores, the same TDP, and the equivalent RAM speed.
It’s sensible just not to mix and match processors.
What Are Dual CPU Motherboards Used For?
By placing two processors in one system, you are essentially combining the power of the two. You would obtain additional computing capability, extra cores/threads, supplementary RAM slots, further PCIe lanes, etc.
If you need a lot of space to store things, a motherboard with two CPUs is excellent. You can put in more than 10 hard drives or solid-state drives (SSDs). That means you could have hundreds of terabytes of storage.
Software making use of parallel processing (two CPUs) can additionally experience benefits. Areas such as research, scientific studies, healthcare, pharmaceutical innovation, visual/audio processing, and various other fields heavily rely on parallel computation.
Anyone in graphic design or video editing can utilize those abundant dozen cores to render images or videos in just a few minutes compared to several hours.
Can Dual CPU Motherboards Be Used For Gaming?
If combining two processors in one motherboard delivers so many benefits, can this power be used for gaming?
Yes! You can certainly use these things to game. But, you won’t get what you’re expecting out of it.
Should You?
The succinct answer is negative. You shouldn’t aim to purchase a dual CPU motherboard if you plan on using the system for gaming only.
Here’s a clip from Linus Tech Tips running a game on a dual-socket 16-core setup.
The principal cause for this is that video games are not designed to make use of all the additional cores and threads or for concurrent processing. Those extra PCIe slots, SATA connections, and RAM slots will have no benefit to you.
You won’t be getting any sort of extra performance from that second CPU. In fact, you might even face FPS loss or other issues such as stuttering, jittering, etc. To get a typical gaming experience, you would have to disable the second CPU to resolve your issues.
And even after that, the performance will be unremarkable.
Dual CPU Motherboards For Productivity Tasks
If, on the other hand, you are looking at these motherboards to enhance your productivity for work, this might not be such a dreadful idea. More cores can help you accelerate your video editing process.
However, you still have less expensive, faster, and more power-efficient options from AMD and Intel. Intel’s 12900K or AMD’s Ryzen 5950X and 3950X are superb options. Although these don’t go above 32 threads.
If you need more than that, you could go for Threadripper processors, which do get a bit expensive (up to $4000). In that case, you could try searching the used market to get a dual CPU motherboard with two processors and RAM.
You could probably acquire such a system for less than $1000.
Disadvantages
Even if you successfully discover an extraordinarily affordable two-CPU system, there are a few drawbacks you must take into account.
- No real advantage in processes that can’t utilize parallel processing
- Much higher power draw than a consumer PC
- If it’s cheap, it’s an old and outdated platform
- Worse performance in games
These drawbacks are not something to disregard. It can impede your overall PC experience.
Conclusion
Motherboards with two CPUs were beneficial in the past, and they offered a more cost-effective option than buying a processor with numerous cores that was priced at $10,000.
However, the purpose of these motherboards has declined considerably because CPUs like the Threadripper line have up to 128 threads and are significantly faster, simpler to set up, and consume less power.
In general, motherboards with two CPUs aren’t worthwhile and should only be considered if they’re exceedingly cheap.
Please note that these varieties of motherboards are still being produced for upgraded server processors such as the Epyc series. However, these processors, motherboards, and DDR4 LRDIMMs are substantially more costly compared to previous Xeon (now affordable) systems.
