Are quad cores/dual cores worth it for games yet?
 

As per the title, have we got to the stage where these new chips are actually giving us a performance boost? I have been out of the scene for a bit, and the last time I looked an overclocked (cooking) single core P4 was still the mut's nuts for playing games.

Has Vista managed to automatically offer a speed boost for anything with more than one core that was not designed for multi threading?

yes:)

lol, I am so glad you garnished me with a wonderfully technical explanation :lol1:

The more cores the better. Even if the game isnt written to handle them your gaming wont be interupted by windows doing stuff in the background.

well yes, there is always that. I just remember the testing done at the time which had a fast single core being better than two slower cores.

I think the test was a single 4Ghz core v 2x2Ghz cores. Looking on the market today it does not seem that they have moved on that much. You can get Core 2 Duo at 2.5 or so, but that is not going to fare well against a single 4Ghz core unless the game is optimised to use it....or at least, that was how the thinking was at the time.

Its just I am thinking of getting a new machine within the next few months, it would be nice to start to think about it now :)

Single and dual core arguments are about 2 years old now (when they were first introduced). You'd be hard pressed to find a single core these days that wasnt in a bargain bin and they are there for a reason. Single cores were phased out in Q1-Q2 of 2007.

Good article: Single, Dual Or Quad Core? : Parallel Processing, Part 1: CPU Cores

J

Most/if not all Core2Duo's will clock to 3.2-3.4 with absolutely no problem at all, even higher if you play about with cooling/voltages. Most new games will be optimised for multiple cores, so it's well worth it. Check out Tom's Hardware : Hardware News, Tests and Reviews for comparisons, the old P4 architecure is old hat now and is blitzed by lower clocked C2D's.

Beat me to it!:)

Thanks ppl :D :D

My Quad sits at 34 degrees and has tons of scope for overclocking.

A higher clock frequency on your single core allows more processor cycles per second, but multi-core allows you to offload your physics onto one core (remember Intel buying Havok anyone?), A.I. onto another and so on.

Mutli-core is still in its infancy and software has to be optimised for them, but already there's plenty that supports it. All the new games certainly do eg. Crysis, Bioshock, etc...

Further down the line we'll see multi-core graphics cards.

Eventually, because they're so closely tied, can see a convergence between CPU and Graphics technology. I'm sure AMD are cooking somethhing up, from their aqquisition of ATI.

Yes, there are lots of advances to be made in this area. Its nice to know that things are just going to keep getting better :)

Looks like my XP 2500+ is going to be retired soon then :D

The answer to this is no! If you're looking at a game and the best CPU to run it on then forget about the OS (assuming you're looking at XP or Vista). Check what the game writer says about multi-threading/best CPU to run it on etc. After all, they are the ones that will have written the game in a multi-threded fashion - or not .....

And as has been said, a dual-core will be slightly faster than single core with all other things being equal, as the 2nd core does all the mundane windoze type stuff.

Dave

What do you think will be better for someone building a new machine who will be gaming and some Photoshop CS2 work - Budget around £100 for cpu, at the moment i am thinking of the Core 2 Duo running at 2.33GHz - or better of single core?

Thanks,
Scott.

For photoshop you really can't beat having a quad as that does make use of multi threading.

Gaming wise crysis is out next month and will be one of the first to make use of the quad, infat it's meant to make quite a difference. :)

So things are gearing up for multiple cores.

Photoshop and a lot of other Adobe products ARE optimised for multi-core systems.

Assuming your new CPU won't be upgraded for a good couple of years, I'd jump on the multi-core bandwagon now.

As for games, check out the Crysis system requirements:

Minimum Requirements

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better
RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better
VRAM: 256MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 12GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10


Recommended Requirements

CPU: Core 2 Duo/Athlon X2 or better
RAM: 1.5GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800 Series, ATI Radeon 1800 Series or better
VRAM: 512MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 12GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10

Added: Sorry Hux, think we both posted at the same time ;)

No i posted 2 minutes before you :p