Are 4 cores really enough?

[Vecca]

ok so im really keen on the 7700k, but because of Ryzen, will games be better optimized for more cores?

i should point out im planning to game at 1440p 144hz, i really dont want a bottleneck

 

[harrisjb78]

It's really up to the game designers on how many cores they use. Simulators are the ones that benefit most from it (XPlane) while most others do not.
6-8 core is especially good for things such as AutoCAD and music/video production.

 

[RCFProd]

True cores are better than virtual threads, so true 8-cores can be better in gaming, yeah.

That being said, are 4 cores / 8 threads enough for gaming? Ofcourse.

 

[Sm0k]

Well time will tell. so far most games are design to work with 4 cores, I guess that in a near future games developers will optimize games and make them use more than 4 cores BUT, Intel just realize the new Sky Lake CPU line up and I don’t think that a change in game optimizations and the use of more cores will affect the mid-high end CPU from Intel, at least not in the next 2-4 years.

 

[RCFProd]

Watch Dogs 2, The Witcher 3, Battlefield 1 all use 8 threads/cores. Multi-core time is already here.

 

[Hazle]

ok so im really keen on the 7700k, but because of Ryzen, will games be better optimized for more cores?

y'know, we've been having this discussion since AMD gave us a rather affordable 6-core CPU in the form of the Phenom II x6 series years ago, dreaming of the day games will fully gain from more than a quad core.

it's been a long while now since those times, so it's probably best not to get our hopes up. you can argue how consoles now are running 8 core CPUs, and how many console games are also available on the PC, but I reckon developers will find it easier to make games optimized for a weak 8 core CPU and/or a strong quad core CPU, rather than further spend time and resources optimizing it for more cores = more performance.

not to say there are no games that benefit from more cores, but for a majority of them, 4 is plenty and good enough. maybe in the next console gen or two when the hardware improves, prompting developers to utilize more cores?

 

[jeffredo]

4 cores/8 threads is more than enough and is going to be more than enough for the foreseeable future. That fact hasn't changed in years. If you want an i7-7700k go for it - especially considering its better for that purpose than a Ryzen 8 core.

 

[mahanddeem]

4 cores/8 threads is what you want for gaming currently. 7700K is the best gaming CPU for the moment.

 

[das_stig]

At the moment 4 cores are suitable, but as Ryzen takes off and Intel are forced to compete, along with the new Windows 10 gaming mode that can start targetting cores for specific tasks and games become more optimised for more cores, they soon may be looking obsolete.