Hardware How many CPU cores do games need?

I was so hoping that I could open this page and it would say: OVER 9000!

 

I know their are reasons why the Source engine games werent tested but i still think its THE best gfx engine out there to this day to make the most of what you give it...

If you have a weak CPU but strong GPU or vice versa it always manages to give you a playable experience....

 

I kind of agree with some of the comments above. This is a really good test to show that in GPU bound games (Where the GPU is maxed out) additional cores won't give you better frame rates as the games are not adjusting their weighting to add additional load onto "spare" CPU capacity.

So it proves a fast CPU of 4 cores and the best GPU you can use will give you the best frame rates.

That's not a worthless result though isn't it? It means those of us with 920's etc don't feel the urgency to upgrade to 6 cores

 

Great article



Back in 07/08 I played CoD4 on a PentiumM 1.73@2.7Ghz, which is the fastest single core CPU ever (even Athlon FXs couldn't keep up) with a Radeon X850XT and the game was not fluid enough to my taste (the card was kinda old). I always knew however that it was my single core cpu that was holding me back and not the card

 

Looking at this http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/659536-contagion-review-dual-core-vs-quad.html suggests that AM3 CPU's scale better from 2 to 4 cores in Bad Company 2, however in other games the findings are very similar.

 

comments are a strange read: Sup com is left out for being so old no one plays it's MP, yet MW2 is in, and people actually play it's MP? :O

And a C2D running WoW at 25fps :O

 

Going to hold on to my Q6600 as long as i possibly can tbh

would like to upgrade the mobo and GPU at some point but for a CPu i have had nearly 4 years now its been excellent and will continue to be excellent for some time

would love to see how it performs in combination with a 5850

 

I'd have liked to see SupCom 1 in the list of games tested for this article. Its massively CPU dependant, and the only game I play that actually taxes my systems.

 

SupCom still beats the crap out of my pc, it is about the only reason I even remotely consider upgrading the cpu, would have loved to have seen both that and GTA IV tested.

 

you're late - someone already said that

 

SupCom and GTA 4 would have been a good test to include, to demonstrate multi-threading. It would have been nice to include Intel processors from the socket 775 range as many people still use them.

Good article,nonetheless. I liked the CPU thread usage graphs at the bottom of every page. They provide a very useful perspective of how the game is using individual threads.

This is another very good read on tomshardware - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/balanced-gaming-pc-overclock,2625.html

 

Very interesting read and good work Bindi!

Another reason for me to ignore anything above an i3! Woohoo!

 

I think you miss the point. The question was "How many CPU cores do games need?" and the answer is: "Four at a push. After that, it's GPU limited".

How is this meaningless?

 

Interesting point Andy, that's what I took from it. Even though the conclusion says quad, dual seems to be pretty much there throughout the results. What motherboard are you running your i3 in?

 

I'm sure Bindi will appreciate two weeks worth of work and a several page article distilled down to 10 words

 

yeah it shows most games aren't actually using the extra cores.. it's not a worthless test- it's actually been common knowledge for quite a long time

the gpu limited arguement doesn't hold because your still getting close to the same framerate with more cores- max is max no matter how you spin it.. making a game cpu limited doesn't show anything, it's still only coded for 2 cores

now sli/crossfire like pete is running.. that takes more resources- but most of us run single gpu so there's no hassles with drivers

 

I know its not action gaming, but football manager 2010 is one to chew through some CPU cycles.

Certainly less dependant on GPU.

Would have liked to find out how it runs with differing cores. Runs ok on my OC'ed Q6600.

 

Well this should save alot of room on forums, BC2 isn't a Quad heavy game after all

 

So I take it that this concludes the Evga SR2 with the 12 cores would be a complete waste of hard earned cash then?!!

 

If you're only playing the games that Rich tested with yes, but there are a lot more things you can do with a PC than the 7 games tested in this article.