8 core Gaming

[thehiddenlotus]

I'm in the process of building my first PC that I will use for gaming. I've done my research and found that most games are only utilizing 4cores so i was pretty set on getting the AMD FX 6300 but after seeing some specs of the next generation consoles I am reconsidering. It looks like both the PS4 and new Xbox will have 8 core AMD cpus. Do you think games are going to start being developed to utilize more than 4 cores? Just want to see what everyone thinks...

 

[adamv1]

Graphics cards have allot of cores. The PS3 was considered revolutionary in it's time because it had 16 cores. Now we see graphics cards with over 3000k cores.

CPU cores are different, but many games can utilize more than 4 cores. Affinity mask allows many games to use all cores available in games like FSX an ARMA2. However these games are limited in what they give those other cores to process. Usually using all those cores makes cores 4-7 (because core 1 is actually 0) run at very low capacity. With a 0-3 config you will see higher capacity or usage but rarely will you see a 100% spike except on core 0. The lower usage on the individual cores will lead to more stable frame rates so a multi core solution is best.

It does look like games of the future, specifically GTA-V and ARMA 3 will utilize all you can give them. So get more cores if you are worried about the games of the future.

 

[iceclock]

games barely use 4cores. 6cores is fine for gaming

 

[jaguarskx]

Most games... <ahem>... the vast majority of games only use 2 cores, there are some games that can use 3 cores, fewer still that can actually use 4 cores effectively and maybe 2 or 3 games that can actually use more than 4 cores.

The total numbers of games that can use more than 2 cores is a fraction of the games that only uses up to 2 cores.

There is no confirmation about how many cores will be in "Liverpool" (the codename for AMD's console CPU), but it is possible that it will have 8 cores. How well will console games be capable of utilizing multiple cores? Initially probably not that well since there is a learning curve involved. Fortunately for developers the hardware in consoles are pretty much static until the release of a next generation console. This gives them time to learn.

Will more PC games come out that supports more than 2 cores? Yes, but I think that it will be a very, very long time when the number of games produced every year that can use more than 2 cores will exceed the number of games that can only use 2 cores. Why? CPU processing power continues to increase. A dual core i3 CPU can keep up or surpass a Core 2 Quad CPU in many tasks.

 

[iceclock]

im saying games barely use 4. i dint say they all use 4

 

[jaguarskx]

im saying games barely use 4. i dint say they all use 4

My post was to shed some light on this matter for the OP. It wasn't a response / argument against you post...

... besides, I usually ignore your posts....

J/K

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

One game can use 8 cores for certain...BF3 ....

I run an AMD 1100T (6 Core) and it uses all 6 of mine...

More will definitely come in time...

All the best Brett

 

[iceclock]

lol thanks jaguar, love you too.

oh i agree. just not for a while,

 

[adamv1]

Games that have sophisticated AI or many objects on screen tend to use the CPU to generate locations and actions for those objects. Games like Battlefield 3 with lots of objects on screen that have associated physics use the CPU in order to accomplish the needed task or to give the object an x,y coordinate in space. If you play allot of open world games, expect to see an advantage with multiple cores over a single or dual core set-up.

I do disagree and agree with jaguar. Most game don't take advantage of multiple cores. But good ones take advantage of as many cores as you can throw at it. For example Flight sim x has the capability of supporting over 256 cores! ARMA 2 supports over 32 cores, but you won't see much more than 25% usage of each additional core. ARMA 2 uses the cores to process AI actions, so if you want to battle it out with 1,000 plus units on the field a multi core solution is necessary.

 

[iceclock]

yes sir.

 

[thehiddenlotus]

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