I just read an article about mutli core gaming, tried, and somewhat disappointed...

http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7427&pageid=6287
In the tests, it shows having 4 cores compared to 3 does almost nothing! I tested it out myself, and sure enough, there was no peformance decrease from disabling one of my cores...

I have been skeptical ever since I built this rig. Makes me want to return everything lulz, but nah, thats Oks. I think Im just going to get a beefier video card for more FPS.

So, I think for gaming specifically, we really dont need a 4th core? Seems like 3 is good enough.
That AMD 720BE sure is looking good right about now. I went to go look at it on newegg, and the price went up $55 haha.

I build budget gaming rigs for people all the time ($500 we talking here). I have yet to build someone a quad rig, but now it seems like its not even necessary. Kinda relieved a little that even a cheap Athlon II X3 would be sufficient in a budget build with the video card being the more powerful and expensive component.

Thoughts?

 

What we all knew as

Yes some games supports quads

but wont used them fully.

 

Depends on what game you play sherlock Some do take advantage of them but most don't. Give it a couple more years I think and ya it will be in full swing.

 

And umm.........what about running stuff in the background while gaming?convert movies music there are plenty of tasks you can assign an extra core to do on its own. Some games only use 2 cores. Play L4d 1 or 2, grid,dirt 2 and many other games and they use all 4 cores.......if I shut down 2 cores I get about half the fps.

Also you can set the affinity in the task manager meaning you can assign certain cores certain duties. Basically you can start a game, set 2 cores to run only that game and shut them off for every other process in the task manager then leave the other 2 cores to do everything else.

If you only build budget gaming rigs its because you havent had a client that needs a cpu that does more than just game.

 

Dragon Age, GTA, Supreme Commander, are a few games that come to mind that enjoy four cores.

 

Don't forget that not too long ago, most games were using only a single core. Many forums were saying that dual cores were worthless for gamers for the same reasons as dual core is more appropriate now than quad.

As was already stated, quad is great for multitasking and video encoding/decoding (milage varies on GPU and software combo) and even a few modern games. Looking to 2010 and 11 you should see more games using these more efficiently. Dragon age can hit up to 85% usage of my 4 cores at some times.

When you think about it, though, how often is our hobby practical? How many games really need 2 hd5970's with a i7 OC'ed to 4.xGhz and 12GB ram?

 

lol, it's totally necessary! How could anyone put up with a pc that can't run Crysis in mega rez with 60+ fps!?

 

We probably need to start a support group for ourselves.

"Hi! My name is Bob and its been two weeks since I tightened my memory timings."

 

I said "some" :flip:

 

I will +1 this, just brought Dragon Age my self from steam. Excellent game so far, but indeed it does like a quad core. Even with my Core i7 920 at 3.6GHz HT/on it uses 70% of my CPU sometimes. Which is stupidly high as even with GTAIV it only uses around 65% at its peak. Though I believe that Dragon Age is coded much better than GTAIV as it utilises the power more efficiently.

 

Not surprising, it's been what we've all been saying. Quad cores isn't all too important but it's getting there where developers are starting to really utilize all 4 cores.

deltatux

 

I laughed out loud at this

 

Yeah I was about to say the same thing - it's not exactly news....:3eyes:

 

Theres still a lot of new games coming out that are NOT multi-core coded or optimized. Problem for developers when considering the added expense in man-hours for doing that (supposedly a long and tedious process) is that THEY KNOW they will not lose sales if the game is not multi-core coded or optimized. So not much incentive for them unless they're technologically altruistic and doing it for the interests of the gaming world as a whole rather than to save money and make a quick buck.

 

^Good point...

 

Fact is most game developers buy allready made 3d/2d engines which have the code for x1/2/3/4 cores etc so it's not a problem. Also remember the xbox 360 and ps3 are multicore so this is norm nowdays and will continue to be move valid as time goes on.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I run at least 2x EVE, Call Of Duty IV and some other things in the background. Then other times I run 5x EVE. My CPU often hits 80-100%. Then other times I run Boinc, my CPU doesn't go to waste and I love it.

Quad Cores aren't really necessary now but if you buy a QC and can reach decent speeds with it you're set for a few years, as long as you don't kill it... like I do :bonk:

 

Quad core is going through hell, let it keep going.