Are dualcores CPUS doomed?(upgrade advice)

[escrow4]

Dual cores are obsolete unless its a tablet or a real cheap laptop. Otherwise you want an i5 minimum on desktop and a mobile i5 for a laptop (laptops are a compromise either way). Its a waste of time and a fat compromise otherwise. Pick a grunty CPU and it will last and last and you won't need to gut the system and slap something better in you should have bought in the first place.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I doubt it. At nearly max settings besides full grass the CPU utilization on my FX-8350 is 45-65% for the GTA process alone. That's 5+ threads fully utilized just idling.

Gaming with a dual core without hyperthreading or modules is not viable these days. Just look at CPU usage in Windows by just moving around your mouse. There just isn't enough threads to go around. Unless all you play is Starcraft 2 (which I do a bunch still) a dual core isn't cutting it.

 

[cbn]

Gaming with a dual core without hyperthreading or modules is not viable these days.

Trouble is there are so many games that work fine with OC G3258 and just a few that are reported to be problematic.

With that mentioned, I have noticed my OC G3258 doesn't work quite as well with my GTX 660 as my Athlon x 4 860K does (in BF 4 64 player).

However, when it comes to playing with my R7 250X in BF 4 64 player....the OC 3258 is definitely much better than my Athlon x 4 860K. Go figure? (Maybe it is a driver issue? Multithreaded graphics drivers (Nvidia) vs. single threaded (AMD)?

 

[cbn]

Dual cores are obsolete unless its a tablet or a real cheap laptop.

For tablets, I would want the quad core due to performance per watt.

 

[Dave3000]

Trouble is there are so many games that work fine with OC G3258 and just a few that are reported to be problematic.

With that mentioned, I have noticed my OC G3258 doesn't work quite as well with my GTX 660 as my Athlon x 4 860K does (in BF 4 64 player).

However, when it comes to playing with my R7 250X in BF 4 64 player....the OC 3258 is definitely much better than my Athlon x 4 860K. Go figure? (Maybe it is a driver issue? Multithreaded graphics drivers (Nvidia) vs. single threaded (AMD)?

How is the stability of your OC 3258? Overclocking does not count.

 

[cbn]

Speaking of those GTA V results, I have to wonder what would happen to minimums if the Nvidia card were swapped with an AMD one?

Then also test at varying levels of lower detail settings so draw calls are lower.

 

[cbn]

How is the stability of your OC 3258? Overclocking does not count.

I have MSI Z97 U3 Plus mobo and all I do is change multiplier to 43 with everything set on auto.

With the stock cooler it will not throttle with Prime 95 and Furmark running simultaneously.

In contrast, my stock speed Athlon x 4 860K will throttle back to 3.5 Ghz on one core when running just Prime 95 on the stock cooler.

P.S. In the past, I have adjusted voltages on my G3258 to get 4.5 Ghz Prime 95 stable with the stock cooler (when using dGPU), but these days I just use the easy 4.3 Ghz overclock (re: less wear and tear on the parts).

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Yeah. It's a real shame that it has such low minimum frames in games, and that Intel hasn't (yet) seen fit to offer an unlocked i3 CPU. Maybe with SKL?

I fell for the G3258 hype (and the cheap combo pricing). It's OK for most things - pretty darn snappy for web browsing with Firefox (Linux) / Waterfox (Win7 64-bit) though.

To avoid those low minimum framerates you have to run either an fps cap or make sure you are gpu bound. There has to be some cpu time left for the low priority threads, as the high priority threads will keep hogging the 2 cores if they can.

Anyway, when buying new and the budget is there go for an i5 obviously. Much less hassle.

 

[crashtech]

How is the stability of your OC 3258? Overclocking does not count.

Of course overclocking counts. That's the only reason for the G3258's existence. Not everyone is afraid of pumping a little voltage.

 

[cbn]

Your mobo may accept a core 2 quad?

You might check into that. Find a used one on ebay?

Another option is the LGA 771 to LGA 775 mod (especially if the OP is willing to overclock) ---> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36890787&postcount=39

E5440 Xeon (same clocks and cache as Q9550, but with 80W TDP rather than 95W TDP) starts at around $16 shipped in ebay "Buy it now auctions" (plus needs $3 adapter sticker and the modification described in my link)

 

[Dave3000]

Another option is the LGA 771 to LGA 775 mod (especially if the OP is willing to overclock) ---> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36890787&postcount=39

E5440 Xeon (same clocks and cache as Q9550, but with 80W TDP rather than 95W TDP) starts at around $16 shipped in ebay "Buy it now auctions" (plus needs $3 adapter sticker and the modification described in my link)

People that buy Xeons are usually using them for workstations or business machines, therefore they won't overclock them because they want stability.

 

[cbn]

People that buy Xeons are usually using them for workstations or business machines, therefore they won't overclock them because they want stability.

What the LGA 771 to LGA 775 mod does is allow a person to take that LGA 771 Xeon and use it in a consumer board that has overclocking options.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1431723/mod-lga775-support-for-lga771-xeon-cpus

 

[TurtleCrusher]

People that buy Xeons are usually using them for workstations or business machines, therefore they won't overclock them because they want stability.

I think you missed the point, which is fine, I did too the first few times I heard about doing this. The whole point of the mod is to use those ultra-cheap ($20 total investment) but powerful enough Xeon quads in regular s775 boards for gaming. You can overclock them too.

 

[Blue_Max]

I'm running into more and more apps/games that just die with dual-cores. When running Skype at the same time as even a simple game like Space Engineers, even my i3 grinds to a crawl where my i5 keeps going strong.

I've learned. I won't make that mistake again.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Some ads on websites use a cpu core 100%, pretty terrible.

 

[Gikaseixas]

dual cores are obsolete just like single core a few years ago

I bought back my old i7 860 from my brother in law, got a new Mobo, added some DDR3 1866 i had laying around, overclocked it to 3.6Ghz for 24/7 and with a SSD it's a beast of a system still

 

[superstition]

The Pentium is probably the best choice for an emulation box (MAME and such), where single-threaded performance is king. Also, games like the Sims 3 and MMOs don't need many threads. I've never heard of a multithreaded MMO since they're targeted toward a very broad audience generally (low spec machines).

It's a niche product that many people mistakenly passed off as being a general-purpose CPU like an i3, only with magical overclocking ability. I owned an E2140. Back then, it really was possible to overclock by roughly 100% and hang with much more expensive chips. But gaming has diverged into tiers, with the top tier generally needing more than two threads.

I don't think the two thread chip is dead but it's limited, certainly. Even emulator authors are apparently trying to use more threads. There is a Sega Saturn emulator or something that is being written to use 4.

 

[Dave3000]

The Pentium is probably the best choice for an emulation box (MAME and such), where single-threaded performance is king. Also, games like the Sims 3 and MMOs don't need many threads. I've never heard of a multithreaded MMO since they're targeted toward a very broad audience generally (low spec machines).

It's a niche product that many people mistakenly passed off as being a general-purpose CPU like an i3, only with magical overclocking ability. I owned an E2140. Back then, it really was possible to overclock by roughly 100% and hang with much more expensive chips. But gaming has diverged into tiers, with the top tier generally needing more than two threads.

I don't think the two thread chip is dead but it's limited, certainly. Even emulator authors are apparently trying to use more threads. There is a Sega Saturn emulator or something that is being written to use 4.

I disagree that the Pentium is the best choice for an emulation box. An i7-4790k is the best CPU out right now for single threaded performance. A Pentium G3258 is only 3.2 GHz and no turbo boost and the i7-4790k runs at 4.4 GHz on single threaded loads because of it's turbo boost and there is a big difference between 3.2 GHz and 4.4 GHz.

 

[superstition]

I disagree that the Pentium is the best choice for an emulation box. An i7-4790k is the best CPU out right now for single threaded performance. A Pentium G3258 is only 3.2 GHz and no turbo boost and the i7-4790k runs at 4.4 GHz on single threaded loads because of it's turbo boost and there is a big difference between 3.2 GHz and 4.4 GHz.

The Pentium should be able to be overclocked beyond the i7 given its fewer cores, plus there is the cost issue. But, the 4970 definitely excels in single-threaded performance. If cost is not an issue it wouldn't be a bad choice. However, if the chip is just being used for an emulation box and no emulator is going to use more than two threads (and the larger cache isn't a significant performance improver) then it's just extra money for no gain. I wonder if latency is increased from having 4 cores, though, even if hyperthreading is disabled.

Also, I was going to add this point to my last post, at the end:

However, the developer of bsnes, byuu, said latency (including input lag) is inherent in software emulation and multithreaded emulators will have more of it. Since a lot of emulation is for fast action arcade games, that's a definite drawback over a hardware solution.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

I disagree that the Pentium is the best choice for an emulation box. An i7-4790k is the best CPU out right now for single threaded performance. A Pentium G3258 is only 3.2 GHz and no turbo boost and the i7-4790k runs at 4.4 GHz on single threaded loads because of it's turbo boost and there is a big difference between 3.2 GHz and 4.4 GHz.

the i7 is 5 times more expensive and only slightly faster when both are overclocked, why would you even compare stock speeds, the whole point of the 3258 is overclocking.

 

[TeknoBug]

Some ads on websites use a cpu core 100%, pretty terrible.

Yeah thank god for browser adblock, flash ads on mmorpg.com eats CPU for breakfast/lunch/dinner and every meal the next day. lol

That must be one of the reasons flash is slowly being phased out.

 

[2is]

the i7 is 5 times more expensive and only slightly faster when both are overclocked, why would you even compare stock speeds, the whole point of the 3258 is overclocking.

"only slightly faster"

You must be ignoring games that choke on dual core CPUs. GTA V to name one, particularly when you look at minimums

 

[Flapdrol1337]

"only slightly faster"

You must be ignoring games that choke on dual core CPUs. GTA V to name one, particularly when you look at minimums

in emulators, that are all singlethreaded