Digit-Life: Single core vs dual core gaming performance

[epsilon84]

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/dualcore.html

Digit-life tests the gaming performance on a single core A64 3800+ and a dual core X2 4600+. Most of these games are quite new and many are multithreaded, as you will find out.

In some games, the difference between SC and DC is almost non-existent. However, certain titles benefit greatly from DC, especially in the minimum framerates department, which is very important.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

I still think my X2 3800+ holds me back in games.

-mcg

 

[epsilon84]

I still think my X2 3800+ holds me back in games.

-mcg

I heard overclocking does wonders.

 

[Dade_0182]

I still think my X2 3800+ holds me back in games.

-mcg

Wanna trade for my 3500+ OC'd to 2.55 a.t.m. still running under 40 deg C...

 

[randomizer]

Its good that they included so many games, unlike THG (hint hint, nudge nudge).

 

[jitpublisher]

Yes sir! 6 years ago THG would have been the place you would expect to find something like this first.

 

[zornundo]

When Tom's has a gas prices article in the main articles section, you know the sh*t has hit the fan.

 

[dasickninja]

Okay we get it. Enough Toms bashing. It gets boring.

 

[r0ck]

These are the kinds of reviews that we should be seeing. Go Digit-Life.

 

[randomizer]

Okay we get it. Enough Toms bashing. It gets boring.

But bashing noobs never does, coz theyre all different. Never happened to me when I was a noob, doesnt mean I'm gonna pass on the favour tho. :twisted:

 

[dragonsprayer]

lol!!! never believe those test! They are never real world.

Do you ever ebay? do u have the ebay screen up while u play?
Do you ever listen to music while u play? Surely u listen to music?
Do do forums like THG while u play?

Do u run 2 screens - do u IM while u game?

You do run antivirus and antispyware? Don't you? Do you turn it off?

Those tests do not take in account any background programs - in all most all cases.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/dualcore.html

Digit-life tests the gaming performance on a single core A64 3800+ and a dual core X2 4600+. Most of these games are quite new and many are multithreaded, as you will find out.

In some games, the difference between SC and DC is almost non-existent. However, certain titles benefit greatly from DC, especially in the minimum framerates department, which is very important.

Many games are gpu intensive and use little cpu power - but having a good mutlicore cpu will be a necessity very soon - spysweeper shows 170,000+ threats from 30,000 a few years ago. Spysweeper is the best program to protect your system(start up menu, spyware, browswer hihack antivirus), but you need to run more then 1 - this program will use 50% of most single core cpu's.

 

[randomizer]

Well duh!!

They are purely testing the difference a dual core makes in games alone. It is titled: "Dual-Core Processors in 3D Games". And I never run that junk in the background, leave it off always. I only turn it on to do a scan and then exit it again.

 

[dragonsprayer]

thats why this is a useless thread - people read this and say wow i dont need a dual core - noobie!

 

[randomizer]

Well they dont, if they dont listen to music and run rubbish in the background. If they do run that stuff, then they can decide for themselves if they need one or not.

You calling me a noobie? Lets not get started on post count here lol

 

[angry_ducky]

Eye-opener. I feel like an @$$ for cheaping out and getting this "crappy" 3700+ a year ago (X2 3800+ was $300 at the time).

 

[randomizer]

Dont bag the 3700, just OC it!

 

[angry_ducky]

Dont bag the 3700, just OC it!

I know; I'll OC it so high that I'll need to get a new CPU!

But seriously, my graphics card is so crappy that I'll never need to worry about this performance difference :lol:

 

[randomizer]

What is your card again?

 

[epsilon84]

Dragonsprayer, I actually turn off any unnecessary programs before a gaming session.

 

[epsilon84]

thats why this is a useless thread - people read this and say wow i dont need a dual core - noobie!

The article clearly shows cases where dual core is MUCH better than single core. Stop making decisions for people, let them reach their own conclusions.

Only an idiot would conclude that there isn't much difference between a single core and dual core in gaming, especially in this multithreaded age of gaming.

 

[randomizer]

I havent quite reached the multi-threaded age yet :lol: My 3700 is still going strong.

 

[goonting]

If only dual cores are affordable here in Philippines..


Right now, we are just consuming most of the remaining stocks of Netburst.

 

[Major_Spittle]

thats why this is a useless thread - people read this and say wow i dont need a dual core - noobie!

The article clearly shows cases where dual core is MUCH better than single core. Stop making decisions for people, let them reach their own conclusions.

Only an idiot would conclude that there isn't much difference between a single core and dual core in gaming, especially in this multithreaded age of gaming.

I never turn of various background applications when gaming because it never makes any real difference. Running AntiVirus and some of the other small start up programs doesn't use enough CPU power to matter at all, not like I'm running Prime or Decoding videos while playing.

Any way, what I got from the article is that a couple more gigs of memory may help my system with some of the new games. I figure if my X6700 is gonna get loaded finally, I might as well make sure that I have the Memory avalible to keep it loaded. Also it looks like gamers will be getting a good upgrade cycle with the new games. Prepare to get a DX10 card, a Quad core, and 3 gigs of ram by 2008 if you want to be able to run the new games in all their glory. I just want to know about 64 bit code? Right now most people are limited to 3 gig of system memory, wouldn't a Quad core, especially an AMD w/IMC, benifit from 64 bit code so that more code could be loaded directly instead of having the games reload at points or swapping files to system memory during game play? What new games will be 64 bit and require a minimum of 2 gigs and be able to utilize more memory. Hell, right now BF2 requires 1.5 gig if you want to run it worth a crap, and it is no real CPU hog.

 

[Kurita]

The article doesnt take into account the cost difference between the dual-core processor and its single core counterpart though. For dedicated gamers its still often better for your money to simply buy a powerful single core unless you are running very CPU intensive games that are multithreaded enabled. The dual core versions are often double the price of their single-core sibling.

Really for reference they should have included a single core processor of equivelent cost to the dual core in addition to the single core version of the 4600+. That way it becomes far easier for the budget-aware gamer to choose single or dual core based on the games he intends to play.

When buying either a midrange dual core or high-end single core you have to accept that their performance will vary between games (based on whether they are multithreaded or not).

 

[randomizer]

The article doesnt take into account the cost difference between the dual-core processor and its single core counterpart though. For dedicated gamers its still often better for your money to simply buy a powerful single core unless you are running very CPU intensive games that are multithreaded enabled.

I disagree, unless the single core is really cheap. There is no point buying old tech now. For a budget build, they have their merit, but for mainstream and high-end builds, multi-core cpus are the go. A gamer with a decent budget should not invest in a single core, even if it means they can get a more powerful gfx card, simply because in newer multi-threaded games, the single core will bottleneck the card. Dual cores are relatively cheap now anyway (except for people like me).