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Any one gone from Quad core back to Dual core for gaming ?

Yeah I'm running out of stuff to get for my i7 setup and now I want to do a real world test by buying amd tri core black, and doing an amd budget build like the amd fans rave about and then putting them up head to head.
 
Whoever came up with the name Hybrid threading..... Applications are either threaded or not. If they are threaded they can be split into as many threads as there are tasks. Physics for example, could in theory have 1 thread for each object in the virtual world, the Havok engine is particularly suitable for multi threaded operation.

AI is another area where threading is easy, which is why Supreme Commander likes quad cores once tha games been running for a reasonable time. (SC's 3d engine on the other hand is pretty much a single thread, so if you start Supreme commander and benchmark before the AI's really got enough units to worry about it will be just as fast on a single core computer)

The hardest obstacle for game programmers is writing a threaded 3d engine, but they are slowely getting there.

Splitting the workload into threads is challenging for programmers, but if a programmer designs a program for a Hyperthreading i7 (8 active threads minimum), windows will still schedule the threads so the program will still work on a dual, or quad core processor just fine (just slower obviously). For a game, that implys its best to develop for the best multicore cpu available, and then include graphics options, so that owners of slower computers can scale down the options.

Windows' scheduler is pretty good, so even with a game designed for a quad core, a dual core as twice the MHz of a quad will still perform virtually the same if the program is designed so well it manages 100% cpu load on the quad. The less efficient the coding, the more the higher clocked dual will benifit, rapidly becoming the faster option.

However as both Intel, and AMD are both continueing down the multi core path, the day when all new games are making real use of all cores is getting closer all the time. Even with an application (game) that only uses 2 cores, that does mean than windows itself can schedule other background tasks (virus checking etc) in the background on spare cpu cores.

Also if you are a Hydra MMORPG player with only 1 PC (use more than 1 character at a time), the more CPU cores you have the smoother the multiple copies of the game will run.
 
no point since @ 3.6ghz your Q6600 is more than you actually need anyway. personally above 3ghz to 3.3ghz you will not see any gains in gaming. so changing to a e86oo would not be a gain, not until there are games that will need 4ghz, but none on the horizon afaik
 
no point since @ 3.6ghz your Q6600 is more than you actually need anyway. personally above 3ghz to 3.3ghz you will not see any gains in gaming. so changing to a e86oo would not be a gain, not until there are games that will need 4ghz, but none on the horizon afaik
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Firstly getting a q6600 to run at 3.6 Ghz is not a given.
Also quite a few MB's cant run them that high even if the chip can do it.

I have quite a few of them and the ones that can do 3.6Ghz with stability need quite a bit of vcore and have a huge thermal output.
A gaming rig will also have graphics cards pumping out a lot of heat so you quickly create a thermal nightmare.

With a single graphics card you don't really see any gains in performance with high clock speeds, but with multi GPU setups you do.

The CPU has to run the game engine and generate the data to feed the GPU.
At 3GHz a core 2 manages to do this for one GPU but will not be fast enough for 2 or more cards.

Having 4 cores doesn't help here as the game engines are in the main not programmed to use multiple cores.

This is where the fast duals come into there own.
The extra cache and the 45nm enhacements on the Wolfies help here also.

With the arrival now of the i7 the quad or dual for gaming argument will be moot as they are all multi core.

Will this encourage game programmers to take advantage of the available cores ?
I would like to think so but have to be realistic in my expectations.

We. that is folks on this forum have way above average PC specs, the rest of the populous do not generally have quads with GTX 280's

Commercial entities have to consider average Joe and as much as the programmers would like to make games that only work well on ninga PC's there management would not allow it.
 
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Zillio said:
Quad+ is the way forward, anyone looking to keep their CPU for gaming for more than a year would be bonkers not to go at least quad.
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hmm 2005 was the last time i upgraded my CPU. its still a X2 4400 which is on its last legs and needs replacing, which is why im lurking back in the hardware side of OCUK. to try and find the best Hardware to buy soon.

But theres a problem. During 2005 there was loads of ranting and raving about Dual vs Single core and i think this CPU cost me something stupid like £400 as it was one of the first batches to reach the UK. Now dont get me wrong, Dual core computing is much better than single because you can alt tab/multitask without things becoming unresponsive but guess how many games i play today that use multi cores? NONE.

so in 4 years of ownership ive STILL not got a game that uses 2 cores. Which is why im thinking really what is the point of getting a quad core now? Might as well get a dual core and overclock it more?

Getting a Quad core now would probably mean that it will sit there idle on 3 cores, and core0 will do all the work. Afterall, its Core0 on my X2 4400 which fails prime at even 1600mhz. Core1 is fine at 2200 (std).
 
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Definitely no, why would you want to handicap your pc not making it able to play games like GTA IV and supreme commander properly ?

I hated having a dual core temporarily when I borrowed my dad a q6600 a while back, with a quad you generally don't have to worry about background apps and you can do more things at once, encoding a few things while gaming is no problem :).
 
The latest updates to TF2 and Day Of Defeat make use of 4 cores... they've finally fixed the multi-core code, and I certainly get a nice boost using it with my dual core. As Valve have long stated a desire to utilise multiple cores I'm pretty sure I'm going to go for quad cores next.
 
Overlag said:
hmm 2005 was the last time i upgraded my CPU. its still a X2 4400 which is on its last legs and needs replacing, which is why im lurking back in the hardware side of OCUK. to try and find the best Hardware to buy soon.

But theres a problem. During 2005 there was loads of ranting and raving about Dual vs Single core and i think this CPU cost me something stupid like £400 as it was one of the first batches to reach the UK. Now dont get me wrong, Dual core computing is much better than single because you can alt tab/multitask without things becoming unresponsive but guess how many games i play today that use multi cores? NONE.
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I'm in the same boat upgrading from X2 4800 and not sure what to do for the best.

I was thinking of an i7 but that could be a blind alley if 32nm is coming along later this year needing new MB and who know what else by then.
I'm mostly into games so value for money it would make more sense to go Dual core and save some money.
It dosn't matter how many cores it has if there's virtually no games that use it.
 
I was tempted to switch from my Q6600 to a E8600 because all I play is Valve source game engines.. although im still very happy with my quad core.
 
I was tempted to switch from my current 3.8ghz q6600, to an E8600 dual core chip, just for benching, i realised it would be pointless in normal use. I normally run my cpu at 3.6ghz for daily use, coupled with a gtx 280, its a very nice gaming rig.
 
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