So now that all the new Ryzens are here how many cores do we actually need in 2020?

[Brazo]

Looking at cinebench single thread scores there is no meaningful difference between a 3700x and a 3950x.

So the only benefits of the ‘better’ Ryzen CPU’s are more cores(?) But can we realistically make use of those cores?

Is eight cores the new ‘four’?
Is having 16 cores only for niche use?
Isn’t eight cores simply overkill for most desktop consumer software?

 

[Brazo]

Core blimey

If software takes advantage of the cores/threads then yes

Of cores (see what I did there) but most software can’t?

 

[Brazo]

There must be a reason why chip makers are releasing chips with more cores more threads to the desktop user

Edit: why dont gpu's have multicore/thread chips?

Because they’ve hit a brick wall in single core speed so the only way to make a ‘better’ cpu is to increase core count but what they don’t tell you is that a 3600x is as good as a 3950x 99% of the time barring of course niche applications, rendering h etc.

 

[Brazo]

You lost 99.9999% of real-world users and usage with that opening.

Well it was more to show that the ‘best’ Ryzens aren’t in fact better for 99.9999% of people.

It’s all very well wanting 12 or 16 cores but if most of them are sat idle it’s no different to buying a car with eight seats and only using 1-2 instead of buying the cheaper car with 4 seats.

 

[Brazo]

6 Cores 12 Threads is the new 4 Core 4 Thread
8 Cores 16 Threads is the new 4 Core 8 Thread
12 Cores 24 Threads is the new 6 Core 12 Thread

That is the reality now.

Maybe in the heads of enthusiasts but I suspect reality is most people aren’t even on a four core cpu yet.

 

[Brazo]

Hi everyone . I've just joined to brush up on my cpu knowledge. I'm wanting to build a real budget 4k video editing PC (I don't do gaming). Already decided on AM4 , and was thinking of getting a cheap CPU to start with a view to changing it when I get some more money. I keep looking at the next CPU up and thinkiong , hmmm.. for just another £10 .. or whatever ! lol . Anyway , I'm thinking of the ryzen 7 2700 @£140 8 cores 16 threads. Is that a good place to stop spending ?

Absolutely. My 2700x was as good as my 3800x in some benchmarks.

 

[Brazo]

barely any single or dual core systems are sold nowadays though, only the bargain PC world jobbies really.

I suspect the majority of laptops sold are dual core even when labelled i5/i7!

 

[Brazo]

Don’t know about that. I bought a £400 i5 Asus laptop from PC world back in 2013 and that is quad core.

I bought a £500 i5 dual core laptop in 2017!

I don’t know though tbh I know my father bought a dual core MacBook and dual core four thread is probably fine for most uses, but I don’t have figures to hand.

 

[Brazo]

Steam users aren't everybody of course, but realistically pretty much anybody with a gaming PC is going to have Steam installed. The uptick in hexa-core ownership since July is quite remarkable. Almost 4.5% of the user base has moved to six cores in the past six months (nearly the same amount of people total who own an octa-core). Guess those 3600s are selling well...

Interesting!

Does also show that 75% of people are on 2-4 cores!

 

[Brazo]

I think we will only truly start seeing the greater benefit of all these extra cores once the next generation consoles come out (with 8 zen2 cores) and also as software devs get used to the idea of having more cores in programs.

Once they start building apps/programs/games that cater to higher cores, we will see a massive increase in performance and use for these high core CPU's.

I agree with your second paragraph. Better software that can actually make use of the cores will be better for the consumer. When that happens of course we’ll it could still be years off.

As for a console induced benefit I see no such thing. We can get 144+ Fps now on four to six cores and simply don’t need more than that. It may mean cpu gaming workloads are spread across 8 cores instead of loading up 4 but we won’t even notice so meh..:

 

[Brazo]

I meant that game developers would start building bigger and better games that require more CPU power. The new consoles have 8 zen2 cores, so devs would start building games that will fully utilize the CPU instead of how it was previously with the weak jag cores.

This will soon become the norm, so 8 cores would be the standard.

8 weak ass cores though

To be fair I don’t know how powerful the new console zen cores will be but I have read as high as 1.8ghz so see point 1

 

[Brazo]

Jaguar cores were garbage, thats a known fact. They are miles behind Zen2.

1.8ghz, where did you get that from? I havent seen any mention of clock speeds anywhere for the consoles

Just a quick and dirty google. As I said I dont really know quite how powerful they will be.

 

[Brazo]

It just cant come soon enough. Assassins creed is just the first of many games that has utilized these high core counts. Once the next gen consoles come out and game devs have made games utilizing the 8 cores, by 2021 I think almost every triple A game will end up using all 8 cores, and will perform better with more cores.

THANK YOU AMD

I think before we all get too excited let’s not forget Assassins Creed origins will run perfectly on a 4 thread cpu with minimum 70fps and lets be honest you don’t need ultra high fps for that game.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.techspot.com/amp/article/1525-assassins-creed-origins-cpu-test/

let’s not also forget that Assasins creed origins had some drm’feature’ that took up a lot of cpu resources so again the results could be misleading.

Not needing an eight core cpu doesn’t stop me from having one but if there’s actually any games out in a years time that actually require one then I’ll be very surprised.

 

[Brazo]

Are you honestly going to buy a Ryzen for use in 2020 and then replace it before the year ends?

Surely it's better to ask how many cores we'll need in 2022 so you've got an extra couple of years use out of it?

Ironically I did just that in 2019, bought a 2700x in January and then a 3800x on Black Friday

I think many on here change their cpu like
their socks! Maybe even more frequently

But no the thread was started to get a picture of where we are today now that all the Ryzens have landed.

 

[Brazo]

Its easy with AMD due to the AM4 socket. You literally just buy a new CPU and replace - and given a reasonable sell value for the previous CPU, you're not even spending anything overly crazy to get it

My total ‘upgrade’ fee was £160 after selling free games and old cpu so not end of the world!

 

[Brazo]

That is a very decent fee indeed!

Personally to save more money I would have gone with the 3700x as I dont think the difference between them is that big anyway

The 3800x worked out cheaper than a 3700x (after game sales - 3700x only came with one game and the 3800x was £315 less £40 after selling 2 games.)

Either way the 3800x is better silicon and I wanted to push the ram speeds so needed my best shot at a strong imc.

 

[Brazo]

The more PC's and laptops there are on the market with higher core counts then morewe will see more software and games that can use that hardware. I'm pretty sure the lack of competition and Intel's lack of effort to move the market forwards between 2012 and 2018 have led general computing software development to stall during that period.

What do you expect from software and games that can use more cores though? We can still game at silly high fps on existing cpus so what will an even faster one offer?

What other software do we use that will somehow be better?

I understand the need for speed when it comes to rendering etc but day to day software is already pretty quick no? Unless it’s coded badly like Adobe Lightroom!

 

[Brazo]

games will be changing that's why. The extra performance can be used to great effect to totally change modern gaming.

how about games with weather effects like this? That's what those extra cores and performance give you - the power to create dynamic environments with dynamic weather and other effects. Imagine the next grand theft auto where every building has full interiors with dynamic destruction like crackdown 3 promised, now throw a tornado fire storm into it and 200 mile per hour wind.

Or what about water - imagine adding a full dynamic real time water system in unreal engine 4, capable of dynamically calculating the physics and displaying every wave, drop and movement with precision based on weather and character actions.

That does look good!

But how many of us have CPU’s pegged at 100% now or is there still plenty left in the tank for these sort of effects? I would wager its more to do with coding time having openable doors and destructive interiors in every GTA building rather than lack of cpu resources? It’s probably a bit of both actually.