[Still no useful answer] 2 hyperthreading vs 8 core non-hyperthreading

[alejandromnavarro]

Ok so, here's the thing. I'm doing my first build ever and it's mostly for an online game called netplay melee.

I read somewhere that it only uses 1 core and that having more cores only helps in preventing background processes to use that core that the game is using. So I'm deciding between the Pentium G4560 which has 2 cores with hyperthreading or 8th gen i5 which has 8 cores with no hyperthreading.

I'm wondering if because of the running with 1 core only thing, would the Pentium make the game run better than the i5 because it has hyperthreading or am I confused on how all this work?

Note: I know the i5 is generally better, I'm just wondering if for this particular game would the Pentium run it better do to the facts a pointed out.

Note 2: Still no answer to my question. Ok so I'll paraphrase it. Is a single core from dual core Pentium g4560 better than a single core from the 8 core i5 8400? Also, I don't care about long term regarding other uses or what's good enough. I'm wondering which cpu would literally run better a 1 core consuming game.

 

[Gam3r01]

If you have the budget for a modern i5 I would recommend getting that instead. You could probably get by with the pentium, but having an i5 is a much better thing in the long run.

 

[InvalidError]

8th-gen i5 (ex.: 8400) is hex-core, not quad, so the performance difference is somewhere between double and triple in heavily threaded workloads.

If your supposedly single-threaded game is all you will ever do with that PC, then the Pentium should be fine. If you plan to use the PC for more elaborate games or productivity, then an i3 or i5 would be considerably safer longer-term bets.

 

[k1114]

Hyperthreading doesn't increase performance like that. A normal cpu core processes 1 thread at a time. When someone says a game only uses 1 core, they actually mean 1 thread. This has to do with how software is programmed to separate work or not. If it's programmed one way, it can't be changed without a complete overhaul. Hyperthreading allows a single core to process 2 threads but the game only uses 1 thread so it makes no difference. It's a similar benefit to more cores but since 2 threads are being stuffed into 1 core, the performance increase isn't as much as more cores. The i5 would clock higher with turbo so it would have a higher single core performance although it won't make any difference for the game.

 

[TerryLaze]

Note 2: Still no answer to my question. Ok so I'll paraphrase it. Is a single core from dual core Pentium g4560 better than a single core from the 8 core i5 8400? Also, I don't care about long term regarding other uses or what's good enough. I'm wondering which cpu would literally run better a 1 core consuming game.

The i5-8400 can boost one or more cores to 4Ghz while the g4560 only has a locked clock speed of 3.5Ghz,that's all (well the most important thing) that matters in running a game that only has one thread.
Basically you want the newest generation core at the highest clock you can get,the amount of cores is not that important.
The i3-8350k would be best because you could overclock it to about 5Ghz.

Also hyperthreading is very good but real cores are even better at preventing background stuff from taking away speed from your single thread,this depends on your background workload though you would have to run a lot of stuff for it to take effect.