Will Fallout 4 Feature Hyperthreading?

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sterlin22

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May 17, 2012
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In case no one noticed, Fallout 4's min and recommended specs have been posted.

Minimum

Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent

Recommended

Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent

Does the fact that they recommend an i7 support the idea that the game will utilize hyperthreading?
 
Solution


The chart is not really helpful without CPU usage. Even though neither the i5 nor the i7 are bottlenecking, you could say that maybe the i5 has four threads at 90% load, while the i7 has 8 threads at 45% load, so to speak. Obviously in the real world it won't be that big a difference. But, look at the FX-6350 vs the FX-8350. 100 MHz difference is not enough to explain the increase in performance the FX-8 CPU gets. The FX-8370e at 3.3 GHz also almost keeps up with the FX-6350. More than six threads are definitely being used for this to be...


The chart is not really helpful without CPU usage. Even though neither the i5 nor the i7 are bottlenecking, you could say that maybe the i5 has four threads at 90% load, while the i7 has 8 threads at 45% load, so to speak. Obviously in the real world it won't be that big a difference. But, look at the FX-6350 vs the FX-8350. 100 MHz difference is not enough to explain the increase in performance the FX-8 CPU gets. The FX-8370e at 3.3 GHz also almost keeps up with the FX-6350. More than six threads are definitely being used for this to be achieved. To top it off also, Eurogamer noticed this;

What is worth pointing out is that CD Projekt Red's CPU usage is quite remarkable. Usually we see one or two main threads overseeing most of the processing, hiving off tasks to other threads, which have much lower utilisation. Not so with The Witcher 3: whether we're running on Intel or AMD CPUs, we're seeing something very close to level utilisation across all cores. This is fundamentally good news for AMD - while the Core i3 and i5 we tested tend to outperform the FX 6300 and FX 8350, AMD is much more competitive in CPU-intensive areas. The six core FX 6300 outperforms the i3 here, while the FX 8350 holds its own against the more expensive Core i5 4690K.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-the-best-pc-hardware-for-the-witcher-3

WCCFtech also used Digital Foundry's video to pinpoint the same thing with a bit more detail;
But once we hit 01:12 – a tour of Novigrad City on horseback… well, then we see some big changes. This area can hit 80% utilisation across all eight threads on a Core i7 4790K! The less powerful the CPU here, the more CPU stutter you encounter. The G3258 – overclocked to 4.5GHz – doesn’t work out too well.
Also, check out the performance of the FX-6300 and FX-8350 starting from 02:26. In the initial cut-scenes they fall a little short of the Core i3 and i5, but once we hit the heavy Novigrad area, they compete very nicely – the FX 6300 moves ahead of the i3, while the FX 8350 is very close to the 4690K.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/witcher-3-cpu-benchmarks-fx-63008350-i7-4790ki5-4690ki3-4130g3258-oc/#ixzz3oro5FO6v


Of course this doesn't prove that Fallout 4 will do this in the slightest. But the trend is on its way. If you can afford an i7 over an i5, go for it. If it's out of your league, it's better to go with the FX-6300 than with an i3.
 
Solution