What games utilize 8 or 6 cores?

[Gizmo j]

Can someone please give me a list? I've been trying to research on Google but I cant seem to get a direct answer.

I heard Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4 utilize 8 cores.....is this true?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Games are written using threads not cores:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(computing)

If a game is written using 6 threads, the processor would just run 2 threads on a couple of the cores of an i5, or 1-5 threads on each core of an i3.

Xbox and PS4 cores are less than half the speed of an i5 / i7 core, so it's easy for a desktop CPU to do more work with less cores.

 

[alcoholbob]

A lot of SP games don't have 8 threads or anywhere approaching that, but do so benefit with more cores in massive multiplayer matches. I suspect in this case its due to OS scheduling the load of all the internet data its receiving and not necessarily multi-threading done by the developers with the core game itself.

 

[Skott]

Not sure if its true or not but I heard BF4 took advantage of 6 supposedly. I'd say as long as you have a good quad you are pretty much have enough cores for any game out there and in the near future as far as gaming goes.

 

[MalazanEmpire]

Some companies promote that games use more that 2 threads. Some people think that this is a myth. What i know is that i never see the activity on the cores on the multithreaded game in a way that they promote it. e.g. 4 threaded game, handled by 1 core which would suggest 2 threads. I dont know, maybe it is real!

 

[KentState]

Games are written using threads not cores:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(computing)

If a game is written using 6 threads, the processor would just run 2 threads on a couple of the cores of an i5, or 1-5 threads on each core of an i3.

Xbox and PS4 cores are less than half the speed of an i5 / i7 core, so it's easy for a desktop CPU to do more work with less cores.

That is not true. There is a distinction between multi-thread and multi-core programming. Games have been multi-threaded since the days of single core cpus. For example, I would use threading in applications to isolate Windows forms to their own thread, separate from main thread. In order to take advantage of multiple cores when they became available, I would have to explicitly program to that using Tasks (multi-core).

Here is an article that explains the differences.

BERKELEY, Calif. — Is multithreading better than multi-core? Is multi-core better than multithreading? The fact is that the best vehicle for a given application might have one, the other or both. Or neither. They are independent (but complementary) design decisions. As multithreaded processors and multi-core chips become the norm, architects and designers of digital systems need to understand their respective attributes, advantages and disadvantages.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1271568

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yes, I did the equivalent of multi-threading on a single-core C=64 thanks to scanline and vertical blank interrupts.

But in Windows and xbox 360 programing you generally still use software threads to achieve parallel processing across cores.

MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee416321(v=vs.85).aspx

Also, by Tasks do you mean .NET System.Threading.Tasks:Task ?

 

[Red Hawk]

<<< Programming section is that way, guys.

 

[KentState]

Yes, I did the equivalent of multi-threading on a single-core C=64 thanks to scanline and vertical blank interrupts.

But in Windows and xbox 360 programing you generally still use software threads to achieve parallel processing across cores.

MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee416321(v=vs.85).aspx

Also, by Tasks do you mean .NET System.Threading.Tasks:Task ?

I guess what I'm getting at is that creating something with multiple threads does not guarantee that it will run across multiple cores unless the framework handles both aspects. I see a lot of posts that talk about multi threading as if their 6-8 core CPU will take advantage, but the software has to be structured that way. In .Net, the threading class was available before multi-core desktops to enable simple threading and was extended to have Tasks to simplify multi-core development. When the Xbox 360 was launched, it had the class in the framework to support multi-core.

 

[BrightCandle]

Crysis 3 can use up 12 cores in certain scenes.
Battlefield 4 uses 6 cores completely for me.
That is about it for genuine use of 6 cores all the time that I have seen. These games have a lot more threads than 6/8 according to task manager, the question is really which do a lot of work.

 

[Kippa]

Planetary Annihilation sucks up core use like a vacuum cleaner. First game that I have seen that used 9gb of ram, though that was on the un-optimised alpha version. It is the best rts game that I have every played and it is still in Beta. Well worth buying.

 

[BFG10K]

If a game is written using 6 threads, the processor would just run 2 threads on a couple of the cores of an i5, or 1-5 threads on each core of an i3.

Not necessarily; the only inference you can derive from thread count is if (thread_count == 1), you'll never get any scaling. But having more doesn't guarantee any kind of speed up.

If those threads are waiting for I/O or are structured in a serial fashion because they're deadlocking and/or waiting for each other to finish, you'll get no benefit, no matter how many there are.

I've got several games from the 1990s that run 14 threads, but they always execute on a single-core.

 

[Demo24]

Rage seems to spread itself over the '8' cores of my i7 pretty evenly. First game I've noticed do that so even and consistently. Not sure where it's all going though.

 

[frozentundra123456]

How many cores a CPU uses is an interesting theoretical question I guess, but still the real question is which CPU gives the best real world performance. No offence meant, op, and I don't mean to derail the thread, but that is how I would look at it. Simply because a game uses more cores does not necessarily mean it will run faster on a CPU with more slower cores vs one with fewer faster cores. It might, but it depends on how the threads are distributed and if you are being held back waiting on data from a certain thread.