Multithreaded games are out now!

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
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X-bit Labs reveals the truth!
And more of it :)

Now while the benefit isn't enormous, & only some games are multithreaded, i still think this is huge.

Quake 4 & Serious Sam 2 - two new titles - are rather obviously multithreaded!

In the tests run, with those games, an X2 4800+ outperforms the 400 MHz higher clocked FX-57 & X2 4400+ > 400 MHz higher clocked FX-55 :D

In the tests run in the "real world performance" second article where they stress the video card as well, the X2 3800+ is only one fps slower than the FX-57! :Q

While this is only two games, it's good news for those of us who took the dual core plunge.

Feel free to mention other games you know of that are multithreaded.
 

Hyperlite

Diamond Member
May 25, 2004
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coolio. Now if i only had time to play games and money to spend on new hardware i would be all set! :D
 

klah

Diamond Member
Aug 13, 2002
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I think that is the result of the Nvidia 81.xx drivers offloading certain processes(geometry?) to the second core, not the game engines.

 

Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
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Originally posted by: n7
X-bit Labs reveals the truth!
And more of it :)

Now while the benefit isn't enormous, & only some games are multithreaded, i still think this is huge.

I don't know if I'd call it huge, I mean the very same article states (emphasis is mine, not theirs):

Having analyzed the obtained results we can state that any of the contemporary CPUs will be good for games. Let?s take a look at the results once again. Even though all our tests were carried out in real applications are still somewhat synthetic. In order to reveal the performance dependence on the CPU speed we had to set lower resolution, disable anti-aliasing, reduce the textures quality, etc. In these testing conditions all CPUs provided more or less acceptable fps rate. Some processors were faster, some were slower, however, in real gameplay with real graphics quality settings any gamer would use all this advantage will disappear. This is because the graphics quality and other gaming settings are usually determined by the graphics card potential. By increasing the quality settings, the fps rate will drop down to 40-60 fps, which is ok for normal gaming experience. And you know, any Pentium 4 CPU with the actual working frequency of 3.0GHz and up and any Athlon 64 with the performance rating of 3000+ and up can process that number of frames per second, as we have already shown in our tests. In other words, in real gaming conditions the performance will still be limited by the graphics processor, and not by the CPU.

So why does dual core matter all that much now? Sure it's great in that it might enable future games to give us better stuff, but for games available right now and in the near future, for someone who is looking primarily at gaming performance, I'm not sure it makes tons of sense to spend the premium for dual core.
 

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
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Sep 16, 2005
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Maybe these are optimized, but they have been multithreaded for a long time. Not to thread crap; I'm very happy to see evidence come in, and I don't doubt that: a) multiprocessing at the consumer level is here to stay; b) single core systems will be obsolete in five years or less; and c) all games will be optimized for multiprocessor systems in three years or less.
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
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Repost

Yeah, maybe some good news if you already have one. Still seems a premature to suggest dual cores for gaming now. Unless you're in to multi-tasking.

I'd rather throw my $ at gfx cards, IMHO that's the action is.

Fern
 

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
7,147
770
126
I wish they would have tested HL2. It actually showed a significant increase when I benched it at different cpu speeds, even at 1680x1050 4AA/16AF.
 

ribbon13

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2005
9,343
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Multithreaded != SMP-aware

UnrealEngine 3 is looking to be fully SMP aware however.
 

jiffylube1024

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
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Quite frankly these results aren't that impressive yet. Serious Sam is the only one that shows an actually noticeable benefit, with the X2 3800+ competing with much higher clockspeed CPU's, and the stillborn Pentium D actually making a bit of noise. Quake 4 is barely a blip for the dual cores...

I don't think these are that optimized for SMP yet. In the next couple of years, it should only get better, though.
 

bunnyfubbles

Lifer
Sep 3, 2001
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Originally posted by: klah
I think that is the result of the Nvidia 81.xx drivers offloading certain processes(geometry?) to the second core, not the game engines.

If that were the only case we should be seeing situations where 400MHz handicapped dualcore is faster in old games. Its true that video drivers can improve the performance, but the 2 new games actually giving the lead to dualcore is pretty solid evidence.
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
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Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
Originally posted by: klah
I think that is the result of the Nvidia 81.xx drivers offloading certain processes(geometry?) to the second core, not the game engines.

If that were the only case we should be seeing situations where 400MHz handicapped dualcore is faster in old games. Its true that video drivers can improve the performance, but the 2 new games actually giving the lead to dualcore is pretty solid evidence.

Read the quote in the seroius sam section. Q4 might have SMP support, but it doesn't look like SS does much. I wish they did this with an ATI card.
 

Skott

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2005
5,730
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Considering its taking developers 18 months to 36 months to make a 'good' game we wont see alot of games taking advantage of dual core for a while. By the second half of 2006 we should see definite changes I'm thinking. Until then the FX single core line will still be king. Their reign wont last forever though if things keep going like they have been.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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Well Seeing a stock X2 3800+ equal or besting a 4.2 ghz P4 seems like ownage to me ! Imagine what they would do at 2.5 ! (I know not in all games, but still)
 

Griswold

Senior member
Dec 24, 2004
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Originally posted by: Skott
Considering its taking developers 18 months to 36 months to make a 'good' game we wont see alot of games taking advantage of dual core for a while. By the second half of 2006 we should see definite changes I'm thinking. Until then the FX single core line will still be king. Their reign wont last forever though if things keep going like they have been.


Good point, but you also have to consider engines made by people with a vision and/or farsightedness. Why is it that these two games seem to benefit from dual core processors now? Right, the people behind it were thinking a little ahead of the pack. I wouldnt be surprised if we see quite a few games here and there that benefit from dual cores without a big hype around it, being released in the next few months.

And then theres the obvious candidates like Unreal3 and the successor of the FarCry engine that will support SMP.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
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I realize the benefits are not enormous at all, i but i have to admit i found it exciting that there actually were some games that were utilizing dual cores, since frankly, i've been skeptical of the whole thing happening anytime soon.

Now that i've seen it's already happened in small way, i'm just hoping for some serious improvement with UT2k7, etc.
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
Originally posted by: n7
I realize the benefits are not enormous at all, i but i have to admit i found it exciting that there actually were some games that were utilizing dual cores, since frankly, i've been skeptical of the whole thing happening anytime soon.

Now that i've seen it's already happened in small way, i'm just hoping for some serious improvement with UT2k7, etc.

Is that comming out in 2007??? :) or 2006 heh.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
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81
Originally posted by: Hacp
Originally posted by: n7
I realize the benefits are not enormous at all, i but i have to admit i found it exciting that there actually were some games that were utilizing dual cores, since frankly, i've been skeptical of the whole thing happening anytime soon.

Now that i've seen it's already happened in small way, i'm just hoping for some serious improvement with UT2k7, etc.

Is that comming out in 2007??? :) or 2006 heh.


The title would indicate 2007, but i've heard it may actually be out next year sometime :D
 

IdaGno

Senior member
Sep 2, 2004
452
0
0
Originally posted by: Concillian
Originally posted by: n7
X-bit Labs reveals the truth!
And more of it :)

Now while the benefit isn't enormous, & only some games are multithreaded, i still think this is huge.

I don't know if I'd call it huge, I mean the very same article states (emphasis is mine, not theirs):

Having analyzed the obtained results we can state that any of the contemporary CPUs will be good for games. Let?s take a look at the results once again. Even though all our tests were carried out in real applications are still somewhat synthetic. In order to reveal the performance dependence on the CPU speed we had to set lower resolution, disable anti-aliasing, reduce the textures quality, etc. In these testing conditions all CPUs provided more or less acceptable fps rate. Some processors were faster, some were slower, however, in real gameplay with real graphics quality settings any gamer would use all this advantage will disappear. This is because the graphics quality and other gaming settings are usually determined by the graphics card potential. By increasing the quality settings, the fps rate will drop down to 40-60 fps, which is ok for normal gaming experience. And you know, any Pentium 4 CPU with the actual working frequency of 3.0GHz and up and any Athlon 64 with the performance rating of 3000+ and up can process that number of frames per second, as we have already shown in our tests. In other words, in real gaming conditions the performance will still be limited by the graphics processor, and not by the CPU.

So why does dual core matter all that much now? Sure it's great in that it might enable future games to give us better stuff, but for games available right now and in the near future, for someone who is looking primarily at gaming performance, I'm not sure it makes tons of sense to spend the premium for dual core.

Oblivion! (Remember the mess that was MW?)
 

Matrices

Golden Member
Aug 9, 2003
1,377
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0
Dual core is a waste of time if gaming is your main concern at this point. Anyone saying otherwise is in denial. Who the hell needs dual core for Q4 or SS2? Those games run fine on my P4 2.8 6800 GT.
 

orangat

Golden Member
Jun 7, 2004
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Originally posted by: ribbon13
Multithreaded != SMP-aware

UnrealEngine 3 is looking to be fully SMP aware however.


Its quite strange though to see both cores taking 50% of the workload in many of the games even the ones which only max out one core.
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
Originally posted by: orangat
Originally posted by: ribbon13
Multithreaded != SMP-aware

UnrealEngine 3 is looking to be fully SMP aware however.


Its quite strange though to see both cores taking 50% of the workload in many of the games even the ones which only max out one core.

Thats a windows task manager error. With Speedfan, it only shows 1 core used when I play guild wars in a window, while it shows 2 for task manager.
 
Oct 30, 2004
11,442
32
91
Originally posted by: n7

The title would indicate 2007, but i've heard it may actually be out next year sometime :D

I think they want to release it in 2006, possibly as early as the 2nd quarter. They'd prefer to name it with the next year though in order to keep the title fresh for longer. That's my guess anyway.
 

subzero813

Member
Aug 4, 2005
111
0
0
Quake 4 is not multithreaded. the new nvidia drivers however boost performance from X2 processors to FX-caliber or higher (X2 4800 > FX-57)

i would imagine these drivers would do this in any game. so yes, with just these drivers, the X2 and other dual core chips are good enough for serious gaming.
 

GFORCE100

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,102
0
76
Originally posted by: ribbon13
Multithreaded != SMP-aware

UnrealEngine 3 is looking to be fully SMP aware however.

Thank you. So many people on numerous forums constantly get confused on this issue. Games have been multithreaded for years but it doesn't mean they can use the benefits of SMP. It's down to whether the main processing threads were designed to run in sync, something the programmers need to implement, it's not something the compiler can just stick on.