Games, how many cores do you need?

[Phil2008]

Late 2020 is whats rumored. They do usually come out just before the christmas period.

Damn,, over a year yet then.

 

[4K8KW10]

Apparently Zen 2 cores, should be interesting.

By end 2020, Zen 4 design will have been finished... Zen 2 will be old technology..

 

[Martini1991]

Great thread @humbug and I agree with what you're saying. In 2019, if you are looking to build a new PC and you're on a budget, the minimum you should be going for is 6 cores. Preferably from a chip thats no more than 2 years old.

As the next gen consoles get released, and they are said to have 8 cores, I believe that game developers will for sure start developing games that take into account all 8 cores and their full power. This will naturally trickle down to PC and 8 cores will pretty much be the standard. Of course a small indie game is not going to need that many cores, but the majority of major titles will.

If consoles have 8c/16t its only natural for a PC to have that as a minimum, and for the majority have more than 8 cores. Would not be surprised at all if within 3 years time that 12 core PC's were almost the standard and mainstream

Current consoles are already 8 core and have been since launch in 2013? There was no massive adoption of 8 cores because of that.

Heading into 2020 it's certainly going to be the case that I'd want an 8 core minimum (I have a 3900X myself) though.

 

[4K8KW10]

Current consoles are already 8 core and have been since launch in 2013? There was no massive adoption of 8 cores because of that.

Heading into 2020 it's certainly going to be the case that I'd want an 8 core minimum (I have a 3900X myself) though.

Very contradictory information is given about Jaguar:

• Jaguar does not feature clustered multi-thread (CMT), meaning that execution resources are not shared between cores
• Up to four CPU cores
• 2 modules with 4 cores each

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_(microarchitecture)#Successor

In any case, those Jaguar cores are tiny and quite weak, any Zen 3 or Zen 4 cores will have at least 60% IPC uplift.

So, an 8-core next-gen console will be quite different to any Jaguar-based console.

 

[humbug]

I think the whole Jaguar CPU in that Console is weaker that just one of my cores.

 

[MartinPrince]

Its the 4'th highest selling CPU out of AMD's product stack, that's not bad, also, AMD sold more 3900X's than Intel sold 9900K's.

Plus that figure would be quite a bit higher if they had enough stock to satisfy all the orders.

 

[4K8KW10]

Plus that figure would be quite a bit higher if they had enough stock to satisfy all the orders.

Yes, looks like everyone is sick of the stagnation for a decade - quad cores and nothing more.
But why don't they respect all the incoming purchases and grow the production in order to send CPU for every order ? ?

I won't buy anything that I am not told when I will get.

 

[opethdisciple]

Just spotted this:

 

[humbug]

Just spotted this:

Read the OP

****Snip****

His results.

BFV:
4 cores: 96 FPS
6 cores: 149 FPS
8 cores: 167 FPS
10 Cores: 173 FPS
12 cores: 174 FPS

Rainbow Six:
4 cores: 269 FPS
6 cores: 315 FPS
8 cores: 329 FPS
10 Cores: 334 FPS
12 cores: 337 FPS

Assassin's Creed Odyssey
4 cores: 62 FPS
6 cores: 87 FPS
8 cores: 109 FPS
10 Cores: 116 FPS
12 cores: 119 FPS

HITMAN 2
4 cores: 93 FPS
6 cores: 108 FPS
8 cores: 113 FPS
10 Cores: 116 FPS
12 cores: 119 FPS

The Witcher 3
4 cores: 101 FPS
6 cores: 137 FPS
8 cores: 151 FPS
10 Cores: 154 FPS
12 cores: 158 FPS

 

[arc@css]

8 looks to be the sweet spot, though 6 clearly do just fine. In fact, jumping from 4 to 6 appears to yield great benefits. Can't wait until I get a CPU with more cores/processing power.

 

[MartinPrince]

... I won't buy anything that I am not told when I will get.

Well it seems AMD are doing just fine without your hard earned.

 

[4K8KW10]

Well it seems AMD are doing just fine without your hard earned.

Well, some leaks in December 2018 made us believe that a upcoming revolutionary 7nm product lineup was coming up.
What we received in July 2019 is a mediocre performance refresh, at best.

To make matters worse, intel simply agrees, so AMD sells 70-80% of the DIY PC processors.
I don't think it's normal.

The big loser is every single PC user globally.

 

[humbug]

Well, some leaks in December 2018 made us believe that a upcoming revolutionary 7nm product lineup was coming up.
What we received in July 2019 is a mediocre performance refresh, at best.

To make matters worse, intel simply agrees, so AMD sells 70-80% of the DIY PC processors.
I don't think it's normal.

The big loser is every single PC user globally.

We get that you want 8 core 16 thread CPU's for £200 but what i don't get is why your focusing all your hate at AMD when Intel's CPU's are even more expensive.

 

[Stephanie Peterson]

If you dont think that the worlds first 7nm x86 cpu built with chiplets that brings 12 and 16 cores to the desktop for the first time ever positioning itself as the fastest consumer processor ever by quite a way then.. well i recon you need a visit to a head doctor.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Unfortunately some heads cannot be turned by their own stubbornness.

 

[tyler_jrb]

Read the OP

It’s a comparison but hardly fair considering I’m guessing he’s just disabling cores.

Doesn’t factor in clock speeds etc such as a 6 core at 5.2ghz vs say a 4ghz 12 core.

High speed 6 core is still the sweet spot for a gaming pc and will still yield the best performance.

I’ve had a 4.9ghz 7920x (12 core) and didn’t end up with any extra gaming performance over it’s replaced 8087k at the same speed.

Hence me selling it and settling with a 9900k.

 

[jigger]

I think 8-16 cores are a safe bet for an Uber gaming system.

 

[4K8KW10]

It’s a comparison but hardly fair considering I’m guessing he’s just disabling cores.

Doesn’t factor in clock speeds etc such as a 6 core at 5.2ghz vs say a 4ghz 12 core.

High speed 6 core is still the sweet spot for a gaming pc and will still yield the best performance.

I’ve had a 4.9ghz 7920x (12 core) and didn’t end up with any extra gaming performance over it’s replaced 8087k at the same speed.

Hence me selling it and settling with a 9900k.

The best gaming performance is yielded by the 8-core i9-9900K, if something didn't change today, but AFAIK, i9-9900K has been the fastest CPU for gaming.

 

[humbug]

It’s a comparison but hardly fair considering I’m guessing he’s just disabling cores.

Doesn’t factor in clock speeds etc such as a 6 core at 5.2ghz vs say a 4ghz 12 core.

High speed 6 core is still the sweet spot for a gaming pc and will still yield the best performance.

I’ve had a 4.9ghz 7920x (12 core) and didn’t end up with any extra gaming performance over it’s replaced 8087k at the same speed.

Hence me selling it and settling with a 9900k.

If you're comaring lets say a 6 core at 3.5Ghz and a 4 core at 5Ghz then it not a test of how many cores the game is using, its a test of which CPU is clocked higher.

 

[tyler_jrb]

If you're comaring lets say a 6 core at 3.5Ghz and a 4 core at 5Ghz then it not a test of how many cores the game is using, its a test of which CPU is clocked higher.

I’m not saying 3.5ghz vs 5ghz as that would be unreasonable.

I’m just simply saying a 5+ghz 6/8 core will be better performing in games than a 10/12+ core just because they are known to generally not clock as well due to size, tdp, thermals etc.

And anyway if those 4 cores are better performing that those 6 due to being able to clock faster and thus perform better in games that kind of answers the question.