Quad core question

is software like games able to use all 4 cores? i heard that most apps dont use quad core yet.

if not, Is it possible to have say 2 cores used for running a game, then the other 2 to run all my background tasks, or even everything else on my pc, so that there are always 2 cores free for games or rendering etc.

The compatibility of games using quad cores fully is very minimal at the moment, though a few are starting to come through that benefit from it, like GTA4 on PC is recommended a quad core, though most things that do benefit mostly from quad core is video/image editing software such as photoshop CS4 I think can benefit from quad cores.

As to your question, you can set CPU affinity (right click on the program in the processes tab) in task manager that allows you to set which program that's running uses which core, so say you set your Internet browser to use cpu 3 and 4, and a game such as Far Cry 2 for example to use 1 and 2. I'm not sure you'd have to do this every time you run it or if it sticks, and I'm not sure you'd benefit from it as a program that doesn't benefit from quad cores won't use 4 cores anyway.

Some games do, and many many games will in the future.. Call of duty 4 does.. Quads.. KILL the E8600 in testing.

I personally would get a Quad core for SURE if your thinking of upgrading. they are better, they will in the future be better. they are future proof. well more than duals. and they can work very hard. I can do lots with mine. I'm very happy I went Quad from my Dual. I strongly recommend getting a Quad core.

Not to mention soon everything will be able to use all 4 cores. they are getting there now. and my Quad core competes with, if not is better than the new Intel Nehalem Core i7.. they might have hyper threading and run a little better. but mine is up there.

Get one, you'll be happy!

sidewinder said:

Guys,

In regards to utilizing multiple cores, that's not really a choice programmers make. Compilers are used to generate apps and they control how multiple processors are used. Most (all) games today are written higher level languages that offer the programmer no ability to specify anything in relation to multiple cores. Also, most of the work is done by the video card hardware and DirectX so multiple cores is of no real help.

You want better game performance? Get the fastest dual-core processor you can afford and get the biggest baddest video card you can get. Two if your mobo supports it!

Click to expand...

http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/177153-new-intel-processor-generation-any-comments-6.html

Synthetic benchmarks are cool, but nobody plays 3DMark.

xguntherc said:

Some games do, and many many games will in the future.. Call of duty 4 does.. Quads.. KILL the E8600 in testing.

I personally would get a Quad core for SURE if your thinking of upgrading. they are better, they will in the future be better. they are future proof. well more than duals. and they can work very hard. I can do lots with mine. I'm very happy I went Quad from my Dual. I strongly recommend getting a Quad core.

Not to mention soon everything will be able to use all 4 cores. they are getting there now. and my Quad core competes with, if not is better than the new Intel Nehalem Core i7.. they might have hyper threading and run a little better. but mine is up there.

Get one, you'll be happy!

Click to expand...

The lowest i7 can beat the highest Core 2 Quad Extreme.

This article on Guru3D explains it all well: CPU scaling in games with dual & quad core processors When there's no difference/barely a difference with dual to quad core, it means the game doesn't utilise quad cores properly. There's no difference with a $400 dual core to a $1400 quad core in CoD4.

lol, yeah, that whole "my quad competes with i7" was funny. :D... wasn't going to touch it, but... since we're there. Biggest diff, quads only have 1 memory controller, which in effect, makes them no better than duals, which is why they game the same. i7 has 2.

Wasn't it 3 the i7 has? Which is why it's only DDR3? Either way, it's still a real power house.

2 controllers, triple channel ddr.

that's my understanding thus far.

Ah yes you're right.

so most apps right now dont use 4 cores, & would just perform the same if i had a dual core with the same clock.

Right now i have a 2.6 core2 duo, so if i had a 2.6 quad for example, & used 2 cores for doing random stuff, then had the other 2 used just for gaming would that be possible?

i found how to set processor affinity, but i dont think it saves when you reboot.

Very few apps actually use/load 4 cores. Scientific number crunching software perhaps, but for the most part, no, apps don't use 4 cores... and as sidewinder pointed out, games don't yet either.

Dual cores multi-task just as good as quad cores. The problem they both have is that they only have one memory controller; so no matter how many cores you have, as long as they only have access to a single memory controller, they're going to perform the same as current dual core cpus. If you start loading a bunch of apps, one of them will run cool, the rest will suffer to one degree or another. This is true for both duals and quads. Only i7 changes that with a second memory controller.

In the case you mentioned, gaming while doing other easy tasks, dual cores handle that just fine. I game and do all kinds of other random stuff. Game, dl torrents, play mp3's, etc etc etc.

Games don't really require that much cpu strength. Ok, sure, they need a certain amount, to be sure; however, if games really required a quad core Intel, then AMD would be a distant memory today. That isn't the case though. AMD guys run games just fine as long as they have an adequate graphics card... and there isn't an AMD cpu, dual or quad, that can touch an Exxxx Intel in terms of cpu strength.

You need a tool like imagecfg to save affinity settings directly to the exe file. Not sure if it works with Vista.