Are quad cores now taken advantage of (articles I've just read are from 2007!)

mischa88

New Member
Hello!

I have been doing light research into the benefits/disadvantages of converting to quad core instead of dual core. However, the articles/posts I've looked at all seem to be from 2007/8 and cannot find any that are up to date.

I looked on ebuyer.com and the fastest processor was a quad core, so does this mean that dual cores are no longer faster than quads?

Also, are there still few programs that take advantage of quads? If yes, then is it worth upgrading to quad, or could it be that by the time quads are taken advantage of, my computer will need an upgrade anyway?

I need to do more research, but will be busy for the next few weeks with dead lines, so am hoping people aren't fed up with answering this sort of question!

Thanks :good: !
 

mischa88

New Member
Long story short: Games and applications these days are already threaded for up to 24 cores. Crysis (a 2007 game) uses all four cores in a quad.

the fact that "quad cores aren't fully utilised by today's games/software" is a common misconception.

here is an article on TechZine created by a member here (ScOuT)

http://www.techzine.com/2009/01/22/will-games-really-use-all-4-cores/

Thank you! I'm glad that this is the case. I will read the article after university. Glad to know there are some up to date articles though lol.
 

linkin

VIP Member
yeah. Oh, and if you read the specs of the system, you'll notice an Asus 650i board. ScOuT was very generous and sent me the motherboard for only the cost of shipping!

I think i will buy his Q9300 too :)
 

Springy182

New Member
Long story short: Games and applications these days are already threaded for up to 24 cores. Crysis (a 2007 game) uses all four cores in a quad.

the fact that "quad cores aren't fully utilised by today's games/software" is a common misconception.

here is an article on TechZine created by a member here (ScOuT)

http://www.techzine.com/2009/01/22/will-games-really-use-all-4-cores/

I've never had Crysis exceed >50% CPU usage, far as I'm concerned it's not a misconception.
 

linkin

VIP Member
Crysis maxes out my dual core (~80%), although occasionally it starts using only one core 100% and the other is at 0%
 

Springy182

New Member
Crysis maxes out my dual core (~80%), although occasionally it starts using only one core 100% and the other is at 0%

Depends on how much CPU it actually needs.

ScOuTs' results were incorrect, just because the OS balances load across 4 cores, doesnt mean overall use will exceed 50%.
 

lovely?

Active Member
many games still don't utilize the cores correctly. GTA IV in my case stresses 1 core to 100% all the time while the others idle around 20%. there are a plenty of other games that do this a lot as well.
 

bomberboysk

Active Member
many games still don't utilize the cores correctly. GTA IV in my case stresses 1 core to 100% all the time while the others idle around 20%. there are a plenty of other games that do this a lot as well.
It may not seem so, but try playing GTA IV on a dualie and see what happens, its actually pretty tough to play it on a dualie.
 

Shane

Super Moderator
Staff member
many games still don't utilize the cores correctly. GTA IV in my case stresses 1 core to 100% all the time while the others idle around 20%. there are a plenty of other games that do this a lot as well.

Thats wierd,All my cores get used around 25-30%..like all the cores are doing stuff,not just one core in GTA IV.

Same as when im converting video files to dvd format...all my cores are been used.
 

Drenlin

Active Member
^ I think GTA IV is coded for three cores, odd though it may be. At first I thought that was because the 360 is a triple core, but it has the equivalent of hyperthreading....so who knows.

Bioshock is coded for 11 threads, IIRC, and the Source engine can utilize an insane number of cores...I forget how many, exactly.
 
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