dual cores suck for gaming?

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Theoretically if a game does not support dual core processing it will use one half of the dual processor to run the game thus you will be running much more slowly. Am i right? maybe i should have bought a single core.
 
Not quite, game developers are following the curve toward SMP aware coding due to the hardware industry pushing dual cores to the mainstream market, even now, some titles and even video drivers do feature crude yet effective SMP optimizations.

You also need to consider that the "unused" core will be taking care of background and OS related tasks while the other core will be focused on running the game uninterrupted.

Take benchmarks with a grain of salt, those are performed in "lab like" conditions where background tasks are reduced to a minimum.
 
Games that do not take advantage of dual core do generally take a small performance hit. But for the few games out right now that are dual core capable, there will be a performance gain.

The following are games that I know of which do support dual cores:

Doom 3
Quake 4
Far Cry
Oblivion (not positive)

There are a few more, but I don't play many games.

Dual cores are the future and games will be produced for them. Single core CPUs will be the budget CPU in the near future as Intel and AMD will devote more production capacity to dual cores and quad cores (mainly for servers).
 
Call of Duty 2 (1.2) ROCKS on dual core! Got into a vicious furball just a couple of nights ago with no sign of letup.

I did, however run into problems with Need for Speed (Unleashed?). The game was very jerky. Microsoft has a patch for games which take such a hit on Dual Core platforms.

For AMD AND Intel

Windows XP SP2 Dual Core Performance Hot Fix

Runs fine now. :wink:
 
Games that do not take advantage of dual core do generally take a small performance hit. But for the few games out right now that are dual core capable, there will be a performance gain.
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I disagree somewhat... If Games do not take advantage of dual core they get a small performance boost around 1 to 2% due mostly in part to the multi-threaded o/s using second core for background tasks.

Following are some games that have dual core support...

Age of Empires III

Battlefield 2

Battlefield 2: Special Forces

Black & White 2

Call of Duty 2

City of Villains by NCSoft

F.E.A.R. by Vivendi (allegedly enabled, but real world no real performance increase to FPS, tho it still performs)

Peter Jackson’s King Kong

Quake 4

Quake 5 (promised when released)

Serious Sam 2 by Croteam

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (on pre-order)

The Movies

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3

Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland

Vangauard Saga of Heros

World of Warcraft

Probably every game released in 2006 and on will support dual core to some extent.

and I believe quite a bunch more are supported or fixing to get support via patch... so the list is growing, and any popular game in the planning is sure to have dual-core support.

Not to mention ATI's and nVidia's graphic drivers are multi-threaded giving an additional boost to dual core performance.

If you run anti-virus or software firewalls as a service, this is not an as much of a negative impact on speed, since they are multi-threaded and also benifit from dual core by running background services on the second processor...

this is good news to dual core buyers and fluid motion like gaming with all the effects on high.
 
Send me some links... I did this to gain a better understanding and the research I did was searching online...

If it is incorrect, I will correct it... So hit me a link :wink:

and I know I was overpaid for this project, but I don't mind. :lol: :lol:
 
EvE-Online should be added to the list :

dual core cpu support
reported by kieron | 2006.02.13 16:20:03

CCP Games is keeping up with the advances in computer technology and we are taking advantage of PCs running dual core CPUs. Players with AMD dual core processors need to update their CPU drivers in order to receive the full benefit of client-side load balancing. CPU drivers can be found in the appropriate 'Downloads and Support' section at the AMD home page.

This patch, in conjunction with recent and forthcoming client side optimization changes, should improve EVE's CPU load balancing, thus eliminating the jerky gameplay some dual core owners have been experiencing.

Update:
It appears that some of the information that was given to me was incorrect. Intel has yet to release a driver update for their Dualcore series. However, AMD has done so. The AMD patch does not dispense with the video issues on its own, but will do so in conjunction with the Bloodlines patch.
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Believe me, those optimisations do work !
 
I personally wouldn't use a dual core chip for gaming alone but that doesn't mean its a bad idea since more games are getting more effeciently coded to support things such as multiple cores.

I think dual core chips are good for like, say studio-type work like a game studio. You can work on art models and maybe encode sound files or something. This would be using the processor at 100% longer.

I own an Athlon XP 2600+ but would go for 64 FX for gaming.
 
I personally wouldn't use a dual core chip for gaming alone but that doesn't mean its a bad idea since more games are getting more effeciently coded to support things such as multiple cores.

I think dual core chips are good for like, say studio-type work like a game studio. You can work on art models and maybe encode sound files or something. This would be using the processor at 100% longer.
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Thrust me, the benefits of a dual core CPU are not as situational as you think, we're talking about weilding computing power that was previously reserved to servers and workstations with multiple sockets.

I own an Athlon XP 2600+ but would go for 64 FX for gaming.
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Thing is, an FX is just a factory overclocked CPU, only the unlocked multipliers really set it apart. Considering how much those sell for, you could build a complete computer with that kind of money and then overclock your CPU to match the clockspeed (and performance) of that very same FX.
 
Theoretically if a game does not support dual core processing it will use one half of the dual processor to run the game thus you will be running much more slowly. Am i right? maybe i should have bought a single core.
Click to expand...

One thing about dual cores and dual cpu machines is that you can set the affinity for each application that is running. WinXP supports dual core/dual cpu machines and has some OS defaults for setting the affinity, but you can also use 3rd party apps to set the affinity. The point of that is, with 2 physical cores/cpus, even if the specific app is not multi-threaded, you can determine which apps use which cpu/core. You can set the the affiity with all background apps/services running on one core/cpu, leaving the 2nd core/cpu to run nothoing but the game your're playing.

Dual core is the way to go. You made the right choice. I built an Athlon MP workstation a number of years ago, now I'm running a dual opteron machine. Haven't since and will never run a single core/cpu machine again.I just picked up The Godfather after completing CoD2 and both games run like butter (smooth enough for me at least) on my 8x AGP BFG 6800GT OC.

If you haven't already, get at least 2GB memory.

Good luck!

Leave the gun, bring the cannolis...
 
I personally wouldn't use a dual core chip for gaming alone but that doesn't mean its a bad idea since more games are getting more effeciently coded to support things such as multiple cores.

I think dual core chips are good for like, say studio-type work like a game studio. You can work on art models and maybe encode sound files or something. This would be using the processor at 100% longer.
Click to expand...

Thrust me, the benefits of a dual core CPU are not as situational as you think, we're talking about weilding computing power that was previously reserved to servers and workstations with multiple sockets.

I own an Athlon XP 2600+ but would go for 64 FX for gaming.
Click to expand...

Thing is, an FX is just a factory overclocked CPU, only the unlocked multipliers really set it apart. Considering how much those sell for, you could build a complete computer with that kind of money and then overclock your CPU to match the clockspeed (and performance) of that very same FX.

Exactly, because things like that werent really avilable before then the game developers and the like need to adjust to it which might take a bit of time.

On the issue of the FX I have heard the same things, getting a decent Athlon 64 chip is much more worth the investment.
 
I went from a 3500+ AMD 64 (2.2ghz) to a 3800+ X2 AMD64 (2.0ghz)

I noticed the difference straight away - windows just "seemed" a lot more smoother and snappier , I also noticed that in the Benchmarks I ran too compare the 2 CPU's the minimum frame rate on the 3800+ X2 was slightly higher than it was on the single core 3500+.

I am presuming that is because background tasks were now being handled between the 2 cores.

I feel that it will just get better for dual core cpu's in the next coming months as games / apps and Vista are released too take advantage of the capabilities of a dual core setup.
 
Following are some games that have dual core support...

.......
.......
.......

World of Warcraft
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World of Warcraft does NOT have dual-core support.
Most people who have dual-core and play WoW(including me) get the FPS capped at 64 and jerky character movment. It is a dual-core problem with WoW and they are working on fixing it. Blizzard even stated WoW is not dual-core supported. It is neither SLI supported.
 
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