Python multiprocessing's Pool process limit

Question

In using the Pool object from the multiprocessing module, is the number of processes limited by the number of CPU cores? E.g. if I have 4 cores, even if I create a Pool with

Answer 1

That is correct. If you have 4 cores then 4 processes can be running at once. Remember that you have system stuff that needs to go on, and it would be nice for you to define the process number to be number_of_cores - 1. This is a preference and not mandatory. For each process that you create there is overhead, so you are actually using more memory to do this. But if RAM isn't a problem then go for it. If you are running Cuda or some other GPU based library then you have a different paradigm, but that's for another question.