As they say: it depends :) . Practically speaking, think of it this way... Total computer power - Cost of maintaining sockets = Available computer power to u

As they say: it depends :) . Practically speaking, think of it this way... Total computer power - Cost of maintaining sockets = Available computer power to use sockets. If total computer power - cost of maintaining sockets is close to 0, there's nothing one can really do with those sockets. If the system has 65K sockets open is it's barely breaking a sweat, you can still do plenty of work!