Does setting MaxDOP on Database level restrict CPUs for that DB or for Queries ran in that DB?

Question

We have a CPU with 16 cores. The CPU is used only for SQL server with a single database. Currently, MaxDOP is set to 0.

We were considering changing the MAXDOP to 8 in an attempt to limit the max number of CPU's used by a query, however a consultant DBA is stating that this will limit the number of CPU's used by the database.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks

Answer 1

At the server level = all queries. This is the max degree of parallelism option

Per query, use the MAXDOP hint

Answer 2

You can always specify "OPTION (MAXDOP 1)" at the end of the query you want to limit. This will only affect that query.