Core Speed vs Core Count vs Double the Threads

[TukangUsapEmenq]

I've seen lot of topics about CPUs but I can't yet still understand how core speed/core count/multi-threading/CPU cache affects the apps.

Like, example. I know games won't use that much cores, even 6 cores CPU would be just fine. And when Linus upgraded his rendering station (even just gaining few secs lol) with higher clock speed.

 

But in way of more specifics. Would anyone can kindly explain me? Kind of curious. Short answer yet exactly to the point is fine, I don't wanna curl your fingers lol

Not "google it" answer please as I can't find any suitable answers yet after researching for last few minutes.

[Skiiwee29]

Here is a few videos that should be able to explain the concept and reasonings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HotdropHeinz]

9 minutes ago, dhannemon13 said:

Would anyone can kindly explain me?

So, it's not that simple all the time. You are right in that most games only use 6 threads, maybe 8. Having even more threads/cores does not really gain more fps. That means if you compare two samples of the same CPU and clock one higher, that one will give you better performance. Please note that you cannot compare clock for clock over different CPUs as the architectures are different. Each CPU can perform a different amount of calculations per clock. So CPU1 with 8 cores at 3GHz might outperform CPU2 with 8 cores at 4GHz.

Some applications can make use of more cores/threads, f.e. in rendering. In that case more cores can be more powerful than fewer but faster cores as they cannot make up the performace difference in speed alone. If you want to game and stream and listen to music etc., you can also make use of more threads than just 6 or 8. It all depends on what you want to do.

Also watch @Skiiwee29's links. that should clear everything up

[TukangUsapEmenq]

9 minutes ago, HotdropHeinz said:

So, it's not that simple all the time. You are right in that most games only use 6 threads, maybe 8. Having even more threads/cores does not really gain more fps. That means if you compare two samples of the same CPU and clock one higher, that one will give you better performance. Please note that you cannot compare clock for clock over different CPUs as the architectures are different. Each CPU can perform a different amount of calculations per clock.

Some applications can make use of more cores/threads, f.e. in rendering. In that case more cores can be more powerful than fewer but faster cores as they cannot make up the performace difference in speed alone. If you want to game and stream an listen to music etc you can also make use of more threads than just 6 or 8. It all depends on what you want to do.

Also watch @Skiiwee29's links. that should clear everything up

 

13 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Here is a few videos that should be able to explain the concept and reasonings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clearly that R5 beats the hell out of the i3 lol, runs a lot cooler and on lower load either. Because... More room to split the job, right? But more than 8 would be useless because simply the game won't even use it. Except if you're running something else on the background, like streaming.

 

And which is why, my i5-7200U (dual core, got both turbo and hyper-threading still fortunately) kind of struggling to Dota 2 and stream on the same time. I forgot to use QSV (QSV is awesome btw, thought it's kinda better than x265 on my laptop, at least, didn't even thought about that while encoding some videos to H.265 lol) at that time, though.

 

And as for that Premiere video. CPU + GPU CUDA 'kills' the time than CPU core numbers. Because... GPU's designed for better parallel load like that encoding process, especially CUDA cores, yeah? Either on decoding, but on this it really depends of what platform you'd use, since I tried to play 4k videos out of my 7200U and the 940MX, on YouTube, sometimes it's kind of struggling. Yet, I have some movies on 4k (looks really good on my 768p screen tbh) and it barely struggles (didn't remember if I run it on my 940MX or not, somehow).

 

Man, probably this is why Puget Systems are still on there, somehow, right? lol

[Skiiwee29]

Puget is amazing at deep diving into the multi threading realm and use case scenarios.