5 Core cpu's

[Ryze of the Tomb Raider]

Why have cpu's an even number of cores. Why aren't there 3 or 5 core cpu's?

[themctipers]

not a really good cost saving measure, more confusion and price brackets is annoying to deal with

AMD used to do it but not anymore. usually it's not only 1 defective core, but maybe multiple, and that gets cut down to a lower tier processor.

[8uhbbhu8]

There are some technically. Some AMD Phenom IIs could have cores unlocked via ways to more. Most of the time they were 6 cores that weren't stable and then locked to 4. Some were then unlocked to 6 by consumers and then were found out to only be stable with 5 cores unlocked so that's what they had

[NMS]

Probably because of the layout. Since the way chips are made these days, they are sort of mirrored. So if you had 3 cores, on one side there would be 2, and the other side would have empty space where the fourth would go.

 

I could be wrong.

 

Edit: It's also good to increase core count by a factor of 2 to appeal more to a consumer.

Edited April 10, 2018 by NMS

[AskTJ]

I think the main reason for this is the physical layout of the cores on the processor chip. Having an odd number of cores would leave an unused physical slot in the chip.

[Ryze of the Tomb Raider]

Thanks guys!

[Sauron]

Because when you print them on a silicon wafer, having anything other than a grid layout results in wasted silicon space. Essentially producing a 6 core chip costs about the same as a 5 core chip, so why would they produce an odd core count chip? The only exception are chips with a single defective core that are then resold as, say, 3 core units but still have 4 physical cores on them (they don't do this right now).

[ProximaOfZeal]

...Well, my Phenom II 960T is technically a 5 core CPU as it can have the 5th core unlocked, while 6th core is bust and can't be unlocked

[RyzenDoctor]

You want people with OCD to itch?