DX12 Gaming - 4 cores vs 6~8 cores

[unb]

Hello,

 

Before DX12 choosing the best processor for gaming was easy. Picking the best single thread performance like 4790k and e z p z.

Now, games start popping for DX12.

My question is: Will regular 6 core processor outperform the 4790k at DX12 games?

 

Regards

 

[Enderman]

no, tests have shows that more cores dont give as much of an improvement with DX12 games

there arent that many DX12 games or benchmarks out right now, but it looks like high-core count CPUs will be less necessary for gaming

a 4 core 8 thread CPU is definitely enough

if you can get the 6700k that would be even better

[Renegade7369]

Hello,

 

Before DX12 choosing the best processor for gaming was easy. Picking the best single thread performance like 4790k and e z p z.

Now, games start popping for DX12.

My question is: Will regular 6 core processor outperform the 4790k at DX12 games?

 

Regards

I believe that is theoretically how DX12 is going to work. More cores can be leveraged to get better performance. However, I don't think there have been enough benchmarks done yet to prove whether its worth getting a 6-8 core as opposed to a quad core i7 hyperthreaded like has been traditionally the standard for gaming rigs.

[arout77]

Considering that cpu's like the 5820k are on par with the 6700k, I think it would be wise to hedge your bet and go with the 6/8 core cpu. Presumably, you're using the computer for more than just gaming, so those extra cores will really come in handy for general use/multi-tasking

[don_svetlio]

Considering most current AAA games use 8 cores rather efficiently, I'd say it won't be long before i5s become six-cores, i3s become tri-cores or quad-cores and i7s are 6-8 core CPUs

[don_svetlio]

Considering that cpu's like the 5820k are on par with the 6700k, I think it would be wise to hedge your bet and go with the 6/8 core cpu. Presumably, you're using the computer for more than just gaming, so those extra cores will really come in handy for general use/multi-tasking

Price-wise yes. Performance-wise, the 5820K is around 30-40% faster than a 6700K

[Clanscorpia]

Hello,

 

Before DX12 choosing the best processor for gaming was easy. Picking the best single thread performance like 4790k and e z p z.

Now, games start popping for DX12.

My question is: Will regular 6 core processor outperform the 4790k at DX12 games?

 

Regards

Probably not, single threaded performance will be most important in gaming for a long time. It's easier to code and devs just want the money. It's the most common and it will take a lot to sway a dev to program a different way. I program and if someone told me to code a different I'd probably constantly make mistakes and being me, I'm absolute crap at debugging so following a way you know works will always be better. Although I could see open source games being better on multi core CPU's. dividing the game area into seperate sectors? Running lots of different threads could easily account for the large amount of entities in those games

[arout77]

Price-wise yes. Performance-wise, the 5820K is around 30-40% faster than a 6700K

To clarify, was just speaking from a gaming perspective; they're about even in that area. In most other areas, the 5820k will wipe the floor with the 6700k

[Clanscorpia]

Considering most current AAA games use 8 cores rather efficiently, I'd say it won't be long before i5s become six-cores, i3s become tri-cores or quad-cores and i7s are 6-8 core CPUs

When has Intel cared about our needs?

[Clanscorpia]

To clarify, was just speaking from a gaming perspective; they're about even in that area. In most other areas, the 5820k will wipe the floor with the 6700k

It's also much more expensive. It's like comparing a Civic to a Ventoro. They are made to do other things and certain things will always cost more money

[arout77]

When has Intel cared about our needs?

When AMD presented a threat to their monopoly. So....not in quite some time lol

[arout77]

It's also much more expensive. It's like comparing a Civic to a Ventoro. They are made to do other things and certain things will always cost more money

Gotta pay to play, so to speak...

[Clanscorpia]

When AMD presented a threat to their monopoly. So....not in quite some time lol

I think if Intel worked better with game developers like nVidia it would be better. Maybe making their own language? They obviously know how to program a CPU

[arout77]

I think if Intel worked better with game developers like nVidia it would be better. Maybe making their own language? They obviously know how to program a CPU

I'd love to see that happen. They wouldn't even necessarily need a new language, but Intel advising Nvidia on leveraging certain CPU characteristics, or Nvidia coming out with cpu specific drivers...that would be very welcomed

[unb]

Speaking of 5820k following the single thread performance chard for out of the box processors... the 5820k is by ~25% outperformed by the 4790k.

http://cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Where should I look?

[Ansau]

Yes, but the increase will be very subtle. In the eyes of software and dx12, 4790k/6700k to a 5820k is going from 8 threads to 12. 8 threads is already a lot, and more than enough for dx12, which stops seeing lineal improvement after 6 threads. Beyond that single core performance matters more.

 

The only place where the 5820k would see improvements would be in games so cpu intensive with several threads needing each one a full single core, that 4 true cores would not be enough to feed them. Quite unprovable to happen, such games would have a lot of performance issues.

[Clanscorpia]

I'd love to see that happen. They wouldn't even necessarily need a new language, but Intel advising Nvidia on leveraging certain CPU characteristics, or Nvidia coming out with cpu specific drivers...that would be very welcomed

Or Intel and AMD like the good ol' times. Combined, those 3 tech companies could create amazing products. Imaging 32GB HBM 2.0 on a 5960X with integrated 980 graphics. Content creators dream

[Clanscorpia]

Speaking of 5820k following the single thread performance chard for out of the box processors... the 5820k is by ~25% outperformed by the 4790k.

http://cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Where should I look?

Tek tubers

[arout77]

Speaking of 5820k following the single thread performance chard for out of the box processors... the 5820k is by ~25% outperformed by the 4790k.

http://cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Where should I look?

I still say go with 5820k. If DX12 really leverages multicores in the future, that's a win. General use outside of gaming, 5820k is a win. Besides, neither is going to be a bottleneck in any sane setup; save for those quad Titan X SLI builds

[Megahurt]

From the benchmarks we have, the behavior seems to be the same, where single thread performance matters more than the number of threads, but at a higher performance level than with DX11. And amd seems to close the gap to nvidia in cpu limited scenarios.

[skline00]

You can see from my sig I have a 5960x @4.4Ghz and a 4790k @ 4.7Ghz. Hard to tell the difference in most games.

[bomerr]

Speaking of 5820k following the single thread performance chard for out of the box processors... the 5820k is by ~25% outperformed by the 4790k.

http://cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Where should I look?

 

Most Benchmarks of the 5820K don't include overclocking.

 

Using Geekbench, OC"d scores for both:

 

5820K @ 4.4 GHz

Singlecore: 4,000

Multicore: 25,000

 

6700K @ 4.8 Ghz

Singlecore: 5,000

Multicore: 20,000

 

So 6700K has 25% gain in single threaded performance while 5820k has 25% gain in multithreaded performance.

 

To answer your question about DX12 in short, 6 core is better.

 

Long answer, DX11 puts a large amount of load on 1 CPU thread and the rest are only particularly utilized. This bottlenecks the games hard to single core performance. DX12 reduced a lot of the overhead and as a result has a better distribution of load across all the CPU cores. See picture below

 

 

In the short term both CPUs (and even older CPUs) will benefit from DX12. In the long run, the 5820K will have more headroom available before it bottlenecks. 

 

I have a 5820K (and a 6600K) and my personal expectation is that I'll gain about 1 or 2 years of extra life out of the 5820K as compared to the 6700K. And that's pretty good considering the cost is almost the same between them and I've already had the CPU for a year. 

[Asses_Of_Fire]

dx12 full potential is still pretty far aways,look how long it took for dx11 to become mainstream, by the time that comes there will be newer choices to pick. as of right now we just dont know yet.

[Jahramika]

I believe that is theoretically how DX12 is going to work. More cores can be leveraged to get better performance. However, I don't think there have been enough benchmarks done yet to prove whether its worth getting a 6-8 core as opposed to a quad core i7 hyperthreaded like has been traditionally the standard for gaming rigs.

YA story ofr the last 6 years with benchmark.

[Jahramika]

Probably not, single threaded performance will be most important in gaming for a long time. It's easier to code and devs just want the money. It's the most common and it will take a lot to sway a dev to program a different way. I program and if someone told me to code a different I'd probably constantly make mistakes and being me, I'm absolute crap at debugging so following a way you know works will always be better. Although I could see open source games being better on multi core CPU's. dividing the game area into seperate sectors? Running lots of different threads could easily account for the large amount of entities in those games

There again that the whole point of DX12 to take a lot of the burden of programing from the Devs as you are talking about.