Thanatos246

Nice, did not expect that reply. Kudos to you OP

Just a random question, but have you tried turning it on and off again? Also you could try reloading the OS, not that I know how to access the disk drive or the boot menu. I am not all too familiar with the hardware configuration that these 'females' use. And if all else fails try chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate. I believe that helps in worst case scenarios, and good luck

So finally managed to get Cinebench downloaded and after running it it seems my cpu is working as it should. It looks like windows however is the culprit when it comes to reporting correct number of cores. It seems to be reporting the number of modules as cores, so I have 8 cores, but 4 modules (combined/shared cores). So windows thinks the other cores are virtual cores and ends up not using them first unless under load. I disabled virtualisation in the bios and that sorted out my issue of windows not using the cores. Thanks for the suggestion's guys.

It's on my list to do, internet at home has just been too slow lately. Too many downloads on my consoles etc. Will post as soon as this is done.

But a benchmark by the very definition should be both cpu and gpu intensive to see what the level of performance is, or am I missing something?

So it's normal that windows only uses my even cores and not odd cores unless I force it to with a stress test?

Windows sees all 8 cores, but 90% of the time there is only activity on 4 of them, core 0, 2, 4, 6 to be exact. All other cores remain under 10% load unless I run a stress test which then uses all 8 cores.

Will do

I figured as much. I'm not generally one to settle for 'well enough', but, in this case, it will have to do.

Luckily I can fit just about any length gpu into my case as I have no drive cages or the like in it. I am using the cm master case 5 now, no longer the HAF 932, but even with that case I had ample space inside for long gpu's.

I agree. My old HD 4850, 6850, and 7850's all loved to be OC'd. I actually had my 6850 running stable at a 25% OC using the stock cooler. Granted it was the asus version which had a much better cooler. I did however see that the RX480's are not performing that well when it comes to being OC'd. This is not all bad however as I can still get a 2nd gpu and run it in xfire and still be cheaper than a GTX 1080 with roughly the same level of performance.

I feel like I am going around in circles. I already stated that my friend has the exact same cpu and same OS, just a different mobo and when he runs Heaven or 3dmark both shows that he has 8 cores, not 4 like what mine is showing.

So I attempted to OC my Powercolor RX480 8gb gpu by about 5% and ended up with almost instant artifacts and shortly after a solid grey screen. Any tips on OC'ing further? or should I first swap out the stock cooler for either a waterblock which I can add to my current loop or a different air cooler?

Not sure what you mean. If I view my cpu info in CPU-Z or CPUID both shows 8 cores and 8 threads which is the same on both machines.

A buddy is running the same CPU on a different board and his shows 8 cores as per my post.