Applications/Games vs CPU Cores

[Torey316]

How much of todays apps and games use 4 cores, the answer can be kind of broad but maybe like of how many games come out in the past 2 years and future games and general apps that everyone uses.

I'm also wondering what the cheapest upgrade would be to stop a bottleneck between a 260 gtx and a amd athlon 64x2 5600+

Need a new mobo / processor obviosly but wondering whats the cheapest way to go with a little head room for maybe a cheap gfx update later. cpu has been at 100% on both cores for ages on games and it sucks seeing a gpu never pass 50-60%

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-2.html

would either of these bottleneck it? or maybe a 460/470 later on

 

[PP Mguire]

A lot of encoding, video/audio editing, rendering, CAD, and 3D programs use 4 and more cores. Realistically the only things that use more than 4 cores require true CPU horsepower from Intel and those people can afford such CPUs. For instance Xeon workstations, or even the SB-E Hex chips like mine (hell no, I didn't pay for it lol).

Games that actually use more than 2 cores is very slim and I can't honestly think of any off the top of my head. By use more than 2 cores, I mean 100%, not just some blips across each core. It's sort of like how everybody wants more than 8GB of RAM simply because it's cheap. Sure, but it's a waste unless you can truly utilize it. We are in a period where we have a problem between 32bit and 64bit, and currently due to the majority having 32bit consoles and mostly 32bit OS in your average PC games are coded with mainly 32bit in mind. What that equates to the average PC gamer is, more than 8GB is wasted due to the fact that a game can see a maximum of 3GB with help unless it's 64bit native. Even then, I have never seen a game use more than 3GB of RAM.

As for your other question, I used to have a 6000+ chip in my server. When my friend who didn't have a PC came over I used to pop my old 465 in it so he could play BF3 and it actually ran medium to high settings at 1080p.

Your best option would to be this.
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX

It's under 100, and will honestly handle any game of today. Your 260 will be the bottleneck. Currently my fiance has my 260 in her machine because I swiped her 5850. It is paired with an i5 750 stock and it handles her games.

 

[patonb]

As usual, I'm in agreement with P.P..

It'd be a great upgrade.

 

[PP Mguire]

I forgot to mention, depending on your board you can pop that 955 in it.

 

[Torey316]

I can't use it it's AM2 only and it doesn't allow the bios update without the freeware one some people made for it and don't really want to do this. I'd rather buy a cheap board and a new cpu, if that comes down to it dont you think the 1155 would be the best and cheapest option seeing as it has huge upgrade possibilities?

Also wondering if like I'm playing a game which uses 2 cores lets say and I'm running multiple apps in the back, google chrome multiple windows, music, etc will they use the same 2 cores or will they use other 2 or spread it out, confused as of how that works.

If only 2 of 4 cores are only ever used for 90% of apps, curios as of how this gets spread out or w.e.

 

[PP Mguire]

More than likely if your AM2 board will support 125w+ chips like the higher up AX2s then it will support the 955.

Yea, but I could only suggest going that route as long as you could get an IB i3.

 

[patonb]

Oh for sure, infact a i5 dual core can perform as well as upper end AMD ones

Problem becomes you'll need ddr3 ram aswell.

It'd run you about $250.

 

[Torey316]

Oh for sure, infact a i5 dual core can perform as well as upper end AMD ones

Problem becomes you'll need ddr3 ram aswell.

It'd run you about $250.

Yeah I built a setup for 243 $ with the 2120, an asrock atx mobo and 8gb ram

I could make it a bit cheaper with a Mini ATX board but I really don't like them. No room for upgrades really and seem to lack some things I'd like.

I know my board won't support anything above AM2 w.o a bios mod that some people made, (not supported by evga etc.) looks into it a while back.

Phenom II support on EVGA 590 SLI

Seems frustrating and risky for me, don't have any spare parts or spare money so messing something up could end up being not having a pc for a month or something.

 

[PP Mguire]

Oh the 590sli. I had a 940be on my 590sli, but it was a Foxconn.

An i3 will game perfectly well and perform better than most AMD quads. In 2010 I did several tests pitting an i3 530 OCed against an OCed 940BE. The i3 won in almost every single test.

 

[Torey316]

Oh the 590sli. I had a 940be on my 590sli, but it was a Foxconn.

An i3 will game perfectly well and perform better than most AMD quads. In 2010 I did several tests pitting an i3 530 OCed against an OCed 940BE. The i3 won in almost every single test.

Yeah thats what I've been hearing and for an extra 140 or so will save me from possible failures and be more up gradable anyway.

Can anyone go back to the question about gaming / running multiple appps now etc. in one of my previous posts. I appreciate all the help.

Also curios what is a good program to show my CPU performance in game, kinda like msi afterburner but for CPU, want to see which games if not (all) are being bottlenecked by my cpu, im pre sure gw2 and bf3 are for sure, not sure about csgo but im betting that also.