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Hyperthreading

Soldato
Joined
21 Apr 2012
Posts
4,991
Location
Bristol
I've always believed Hyperthreading has not been used in any modern games since the testing with Total War.

However I do see people saying HT has helped their FPS in games like BF3 etc.

Can anyone prove (I dont want speculation here) than HT helps with gaming.

I know the i7 has more cache than the i5 and thats what I always believed to help with the fps difference. But if I am wrong I want to know it.
 
Moogley's couldn't tell a difference between HT and no HT and he had a dual GPU set up.
There could well be a difference if the app is capable of utilising the 4 logical cores and they're required as the physical cores just don't have the grunt.
 
Thats what I always thought. I could understand if the app / game used HT in its coding. But if every game can take use of HT then suddenly I might start specing the i7 in gaming rigs :p
 
I don't believe it has to be specifically coded to use HT, just extra threads.

But it's not really worth it.
A clocked i5 2500k would kill a stock 3770 regardless for gaming, even if it's using the HT.
 
It will only help in games like Civilization/Championship Manager where heavy calculations are taking place and CPU usage is 100%, most games will only load each physical core lightly so there are usually plenty of spare cycles still available - and AFAIK Windows will prioritise physical cores first over HT ones.
 
If it will work when the extra threads are needed then surely it would be a big help in more modern games like Crysis and BF3 where the threads can be used. Or is the difference so small because its not a physical core mean its not worth it?
 
If it will work when the extra threads are needed then surely it would be a big help in more modern games like Crysis and BF3 where the threads can be used. Or is the difference so small because its not a physical core mean its not worth it?

HT does help in Crysis 3 though, oddly that seems to have some CPU limitation.
Just because extra threads can be used, doesn't mean they will be.
 
When I enabled HT on my i7 920 for BF3 I noticed a significant improvement. Not so much to maximum framerate but definitely to the minimum and average. Framerate drops are less pronounced which ofc has the effect of making game play smoother. I've read of other people having similar experiences.

Perhaps on a 2500k or 3570k at 4.5Ghz + it doesn't matter much... I don't know. But on my rig it was a noticeable improvement.
 
Not really out of the box usage, but if you run supreme commander on a 2C4T CPU and force it to use 4 logical cores via the core maximizer tool it runs a lot smoother than with just 2 physical cores once things get hectic.
 
He hasn't actually given any figures though.
And it's on a CPU with lower core for core performance than what's currently available.

Whether or not HT is used is entirely depending on the situation.

All he's said is that it can make a difference, which if you can digest, is what I said too, except I give you reasoning.
 
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I had ht disabled for ages but not long ago whilst gaming i noticed my 7970 kept droping to 50% use so i then tried it with ht on and my gpu went to full use, so now ht on all the time
 
While he hasn't got any figures he has given proof, or at least near enough proof. Its a better example than your speculation Martini, unless you have any figures?

And what you said is the percentage gain isn't worth the value. But going by what I've read from your 2 posts.

The current value of a i5 on OcUK is £200 when not on a deal
The current value of an i7 on OcUK is £260.

Your saying that the £60 difference is not worth whatever fps difference there is between the 2 CPU's?
 
200 pound isn't the normal 3570k price.
I said moogley's ran tests and found no difference.

I never even gave you speculation, I posted factual information, (Bar the worth it, as that's subjective).

Would a 3570k make any difference over a 2500k? Yes depending on the situation, in the exact same way a 3770k would, that isn't speculation.

Although you're confusing what value means, the value isn't 200 pound, the price is.

I just gave you some reasoning behind why it can/won't make a difference, not some blanket statement. As one situation can't be taken as a rule for all situations.

MMJ said the exact same thing too.
 
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I would digress by what you mean as normal? I mean I know its a high price but it is still the RRP at OcUK currently :p

I would be interested in seeing Moogleys test results I have to say

But even though Wucked is using a different CPU than the later gens the fact that he got better results from having HT turned on is what interests me :)
 
When I enabled HT on my i7 920 for BF3 I noticed a significant improvement. Not so much to maximum framerate but definitely to the minimum and average. Framerate drops are less pronounced which ofc has the effect of making game play smoother. I've read of other people having similar experiences.

Perhaps on a 2500k or 3570k at 4.5Ghz + it doesn't matter much... I don't know. But on my rig it was a noticeable improvement.

MY old and dead i7 920 didn't see those improvements you speak of when enabling HT in battlefield 3. Load would just go from 60ish on each of the 4 cores to 30ish on each of the 8 threads. It was the same story with GW2 in WvWvW which is darn cpu intensive.
 
Because his core for core performance is lower, what's interesting about it? His physical cores aren't enough and it's able to take advantage of more threads, so the logical threads are getting involved.

But the performance improvement going all out, compare none gaming results between a 3570k and a 3770k at the same clock.

And OCUK pricing isn't the UK's normal pricing, the same could be said if it was a lower price than the rest of the UK.

It's not the RRP in the UK.
 
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