4 core or 6 core for Gaming??

[Leyawiin]

I wish the O.P. would fill in the blanks or respond to posts about his current setup or purchase plans so assumptions would be necessary.

 

[classy]

Whether its 4 or 6, AMD or Intel, you should buy the best processor for your budget. And that answer is not always Intel or AMD.

 

[BrightCandle]

There aren't a lot of games that benefit from 6 cores over 4. Hyperthreading seems to be more of a problem than a benefit as well. Some games are utilising more than 2 cores, although fully utilising 4 isn't common at all. But that is encouraging because 4 years ago it was uncommon that they used 2 cores over 1.

Its actually quite hard to say if two cores is enough. A game might only achieve 50% usage on a quad core but that is an average. It might actually be utilising all 4 cores sometimes, even 6 or more. But we just don't have the tools yet to tell us it makes a difference. Few reviewers test graphics cards and games against 4 and 6 cores and reviews across sites are not really comparable.

So I don't think think a 6 core is 'worth it' yet for gamers, although the day will most likely arrive in the next year or two.

Once we get to real resolutions there isn't a whole lot of difference between AMD and Intel CPUs, but sometimes it does make a difference and its always in Intel's favour.

 

[AtenRa]

BF3 can use up to 8 threads. Multiplayer BF3 is very cpu intensive and a cpu with more than 4 threads really helps.
Haven't you all seen this?
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1657801&page=3
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/263/bf3casbmpmed.jpg/
Note a 1100T, 8150, and 2500k all have about the same minimum framerate.

Why didn't you include the first graph ?? You know, the one with the actual settings everyone would play the game if they had an HD6990.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/21/bfcasbmp.jpg/

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I assume he is talking about the MC combo deal. $100 for an 960t &the MB or $110 for the 1045wife with MB. People are dumping on amd but those are great values for Simone who is tight on cash.

 

[bleucharm28]

Is sad to see AMD to be such poor performer. I remember my first build was AMD Athlon 64 4000+. It was badass back in 03-04.

 

[LoneNinja]

I assume he is talking about the MC combo deal. $100 for an 960t &the MB or $110 for the 1045wife with MB. People are dumping on amd but those are great values for Simone who is tight on cash.

Even FX is worth considering if your getting Microcenter pricing, they have AMAZING CPU/Motherboard combos.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Even FX is worth considering if your getting Microcenter pricing, they have AMAZING CPU/Motherboard combos.

I may do that.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

4 cores is enough, even two cores with Hyperthreading is pretty good.

2500K is still the ultimate CPU for gaming.

Regards
The_Golden_Man

 

[ShreddedWheat]

This article is old with a 460 gpu but gives insight into the topic. Older games but seems relevant.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2737.html

 

[PG]

I assume he is talking about the MC combo deal. $100 for an 960t &the MB or $110 for the 1045wife with MB. People are dumping on amd but those are great values for Simone who is tight on cash.

Very true, and now you can get a $10 off coupon for the 1045T
http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/293660

I have some advice on motherboards for anyone going to get this in a combo.

Skip the cheap Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P. There are 3 Revisions of this board. The first Rev. 3.1, was a 4+1 phase with 125W cpu support. Both later revisions, 4.0 and 5.0 are 3+1 and only support 95W cpus. Sure it will run the 1045T no problem, but there is little to no room for overclocking.
Note the Micro Center website shows the early board picture and specs only. They are behind in technical details, as usual.

The other cheap board, the ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS, is $10 more, but supports 125W cpus. Even the FX-8150 is on the supported cpu list. It is a much better choice for a cheap build.

 

[Leyawiin]

Even FX is worth considering if your getting Microcenter pricing, they have AMAZING CPU/Motherboard combos.

Regardless what I buy for my next build that's where I'm going. They have one in San Jose so its not too far.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Very true, and now you can get a $10 off coupon for the 1045T
http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/293660

I have some advice on motherboards for anyone going to get this in a combo.

Skip the cheap Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P. There are 3 Revisions of this board. The first Rev. 3.1, was a 4+1 phase with 125W cpu support. Both later revisions, 4.0 and 5.0 are 3+1 and only support 95W cpus. Sure it will run the 1045T no problem, but there is little to no room for overclocking.
Note the Micro Center website shows the early board picture and specs only. They are behind in technical details, as usual.

The other cheap board, the ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS, is $10 more, but supports 125W cpus. Even the FX-8150 is on the supported cpu list. It is a much better choice for a cheap build.

Thanks Man, I appreciate this!

 

[SickBeast]

Why are the AMD boards 4+1 power phases vs. 10+2 for many Intel boards?

 

[LoneNinja]

Why are the AMD boards 4+1 power phases vs. 10+2 for many Intel boards?

That's only on the real low end boards, the Gigabyte board available in those combos with the 970 chipset has 8+2 power phase. It's personally the board I would go with for overclocking any of those chips, I got one of the free 760G boards last year with a Phenom II X4 965 and it's a joke for overclocking.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Why are the AMD boards 4+1 power phases vs. 10+2 for many Intel boards?

Must be hidden in AMD's design specs, to build boards with crappy VRM sections that burn out when you overclock your CPUs.

Or possibly, that's why AMD boards are generally cheaper than Intel boards, because the mfg's cheap out on VRM phases.

 

[BD231]

My x4 smacks the sh t out of my x6 in most common tasks and online play but it has nothing to do with core count.*

 

[AtenRa]

Must be hidden in AMD's design specs, to build boards with crappy VRM sections that burn out when you overclock your CPUs.

Or possibly, that's why AMD boards are generally cheaper than Intel boards, because the mfg's cheap out on VRM phases.

You must be joking right ??

Low end boards from both AMD and Intel always have crappy VRM designs. That is why they are called Entry/Low end boards.

 

[jacktesterson]

Must be hidden in AMD's design specs, to build boards with crappy VRM sections that burn out when you overclock your CPUs.

Or possibly, that's why AMD boards are generally cheaper than Intel boards, because the mfg's cheap out on VRM phases.

this couldn't be more false.

 

[Dave3000]

How would a consumer, that is shopping for a new computer, know if an application takes advantage of more than 4 cores. There might not be a benchmark on the internet showing performance for a specific game on different CPUs? Not every game get's benchmarked with different CPUs then gets results posted on the internet. For example, FSX, I could not find a review about different CPU's performance in this game, yet it can make use of more than 4 cores, not for better frame rates per say, but for quicker load times and texture rendering. I have an i7 3930k and used to own a i7 2600k.

 

[antisocialmunky]

Whether its 4 or 6, AMD or Intel, you should buy the best processor for your budget. And that answer is not always Intel or AMD.

Gaming on a via so underground. :awe:

 

[BrightCandle]

How would a consumer, that is shopping for a new computer, know if an application takes advantage of more than 4 cores. There might not be a benchmark on the internet showing performance for a specific game on different CPUs? Not every game get's benchmarked with different CPUs then gets results posted on the internet. For example, FSX, I could not find a review about different CPU's performance in this game, yet it can make use of more than 4 cores, not for better frame rates per say, but for quicker load times and texture rendering. I have an i7 3930k and used to own a i7 2600k.

Beyond the recommended specs on the box of the game there isn't any guide. Games reviews on Eurogamer/RPS etc don't go into the technicalities of games. About the only place that does is the hardware review sites, and they run games for the purpose of testing the graphics hardware.

Games reviews are so broken, and this is just one of the ways.

 

[taltamir]

Games reviews are so broken, and this is just one of the ways.

Yep...
I would first like them game reviewers to:
1. Report that a game is so buggy that it cannot be completed at the moment (show stopper bug on main plot)
2. Stop giving review scores based on the advertisements on their site.