CPU Cores

[Lone Wolf]

Ok after having built 2 computers and having to change my CPU on my computer. I have to ask is there a difference in the number of Cores a CPU has? What are the benefits?

[Carlsberg]

Imagine what you could learn if you just used the search bar occasionally.

[Alexalmighty502]

The CPU is what does most of the data processing in your PC. As CPU tech has improved the main limiting factor was how fast the CPU could go in terms of GHZ. Seeing this issue CPU makers decided to get around this limitation was to add more cores to the processor. While not the only factor in computer performance if you compare two cpus IN THE SAME GENERATION and one has double the cores you can expect nearly double the performance of the one with half of the cores.

Do note however that its also dependent on the game/program your running some are only limited to a single core(or only a few) due to how it was coded. A lot of old games generally value the speed of the CPU over how many cores it has.

NOTE: if you're thinking of a CPU change you MUST make sure the motherboard will support the new processor if you don't the CPU most likely wont fit/wont boot

TLDR: more CPU cores is almost always better

[Cathulhu]

Imagine you have to transport a lot of stuff.
Stuff that does not fit into a single car (core).
Now imagine you can put all stuff into multiple cars instead. Which means you can move stuff faster, even if the speed of the car is still the same.
They could even drive to different locations ( multiple tasks) simultaneously.
That is simply more efficient and helps with load distribution.

[Chevy HHR SS]

Depends what you're doing on it. Most games don't even use more than one core anyway. So having a 6 or 8 core CPU for games that use 1 core is pretty pointless. You would need to be doing workstation stuff that uses more than one core.

[Illusion of Progress]

Publicado originalmente por Green:

Depends what you're doing on it. Most games don't even use more than one core anyway. So having a 6 or 8 core CPU for games that use 1 core is pretty pointless. You would need to be doing workstation stuff that uses more than one core.

Most games don't use more than one core? Huh? I mean... this isn't 2008. The days of only needing one core for gaming are long, long gone.

Even something like Minecraft (Java edition, more recent versions) really wants either a dual core, Hyper-threaded, or straight quad core CPU MINIMUM these days for best results. Plenty of modern, big name titles want even more than this.

[Andrius227]

More is better, with greatly diminishing returns. 6-8 is the sweet spot.

More cores means lower speed on each individual core. Thats why super expensive high core cpus like ryzen threadrippers are bad for gaming.

[mtono]

Publicado originalmente por Lone Wolf:

Ok after having built 2 computers and having to change my CPU on my computer. I have to ask is there a difference in the number of Cores a CPU has? What are the benefits?

mostly the computer can do more work in one time and with one cpu core you always have to wait for what the computer has to finish. with more cores there is mostly always one core(cpu) available for work that you want the pc to do. so you can work with your computer while he is working on a thread parallely. thats it imho.

[vadim]

Any program (including games) benefits from additional cores ONLY it was explicitly programmed to use that number of cores. There is NO games that can use arbitrary amount of cores. All game algorithms are single-threaded by nature.

[Lone Wolf]

So more is better in some cases and not in all cases. Ok thanks for the info.

[A&A]

Publicado originalmente por vadim:

Any program (including games) benefits from additional cores ONLY it was explicitly programmed to use that number of cores. There is NO games that can use arbitrary amount of cores. All game algorithms are single-threaded by nature.

Wrong

One of the core advantages of low-level APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan is improved CPU utilization. Traditionally with DirectX 9 and 11 based games, most games only used 2-4 cores for the various mechanics: Physics, AI, draw-calls, etc. Some games were even limited to one. With DirectX 12 that has changed. The load is more evenly distributed across all cores, making multi-core CPUs more relevant for gamers.

[vadim]

Publicado originalmente por ⚒A&A✠(✠Ghost✠Warrior✠):

Wrong

One of the core advantages of low-level APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan is improved CPU utilization. Traditionally with DirectX 9 and 11 based games, most games only used 2-4 cores for the various mechanics: Physics, AI, draw-calls, etc. Some games were even limited to one. With DirectX 12 that has changed. The load is more evenly distributed across all cores, making multi-core CPUs more relevant for gamers.

You clearly not a programmer and have no idea what are you talking about. Look at github for "hello, world" Vulkan program. It still single-threaded.

[mtono]

Publicado originalmente por ⚒A&A✠(✠Ghost✠Warrior✠):

Publicado originalmente por vadim:

Any program (including games) benefits from additional cores ONLY it was explicitly programmed to use that number of cores. There is NO games that can use arbitrary amount of cores. All game algorithms are single-threaded by nature.

Wrong

One of the core advantages of low-level APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan is improved CPU utilization. Traditionally with DirectX 9 and 11 based games, most games only used 2-4 cores for the various mechanics: Physics, AI, draw-calls, etc. Some games were even limited to one. With DirectX 12 that has changed. The load is more evenly distributed across all cores, making multi-core CPUs more relevant for gamers.

interesting post! thumbs up :-D

[A&A]

Publicado originalmente por vadim:

Publicado originalmente por ⚒A&A✠(✠Ghost✠Warrior✠):

Wrong

One of the core advantages of low-level APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan is improved CPU utilization. Traditionally with DirectX 9 and 11 based games, most games only used 2-4 cores for the various mechanics: Physics, AI, draw-calls, etc. Some games were even limited to one. With DirectX 12 that has changed. The load is more evenly distributed across all cores, making multi-core CPUs more relevant for gamers.

You clearly not a programmer and have no idea what are you talking about. Look at github for "hello, world" Vulkan program. It still single-threaded.

There is no need to be programmer
Mr programmer living in 2001

[A&A]

Publicado originalmente por vadim:

Publicado originalmente por ⚒A&A✠(✠Ghost✠Warrior✠):

Wrong

One of the core advantages of low-level APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan is improved CPU utilization. Traditionally with DirectX 9 and 11 based games, most games only used 2-4 cores for the various mechanics: Physics, AI, draw-calls, etc. Some games were even limited to one. With DirectX 12 that has changed. The load is more evenly distributed across all cores, making multi-core CPUs more relevant for gamers.

You clearly not a programmer and have no idea what are you talking about. Look at github for "hello, world" Vulkan program. It still single-threaded.

Should I challenge you to run Cyberpunk on only 1 core and 1 thread :)))

[iceman1980]

Publicado originalmente por ⚒A&A✠(✠Ghost✠Warrior✠):

Publicado originalmente por vadim:

You clearly not a programmer and have no idea what are you talking about. Look at github for "hello, world" Vulkan program. It still single-threaded.

There is no need to be programmer
Mr programmer living in 2001

He is not wrong but not right. "Some games" can make use of multiple cores, but a lot of them are still single threaded, more specifically they are main thread -> worker thread dependent threading models.