Quad or Octa Core?

[HackerVlogs]

In (most) games, will having an octa core processor yield better performance over a quad core processor?

[hconverse02]

Obviously yes unless you are looking at an old architecture amd vs a new i5 or i7

[Oshino Shinobu]

That depends on which CPUs you're comparing. Not all cores are equal. 

[Jasun]

It will but I do not think that it will give a significant performance boost considering that game developers don't tend to make games use 8 cores.

[shadowbyte]

if they're both at the same clock speed, 8 cores will be better in newer games (ie BF1)

[suchamoneypit]

If your comparing a 5 year old quad core to a 5960x 8 core, the 5960x would definetly be better. However, very few games utilizes a bunch of CPU cores so on an equal playing field the quad core usually even performs better due to better single-threaded performance.

[Shiv78]

Depends on the cores... like in some modern games a 6700K is better than a 6950X, and is much better than a 22-core Xeon.

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, HackerVlogs said:

In (most) games

no. finding games that can take propper advantage of more than 4 cores is still unfortunately rare.

 

and also up for consideration is that this is *with* the theory that you can find an 8-core that's equal in single core performance to a quadcore, which isnt a thing. intel's 8-core processors are usually clocked lower, and amd's FX is just a potato

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Shiv78 said:

Depends on the cores... like in some modern games a 6700K is better than a 6950X, and is much better than a 22-core Xeon.

*most* games

 

the games where cpu performance really matters, tend to be quadcore at best

[aisle9]

8 minutes ago, HackerVlogs said:

In (most) games, will having an octa core processor yield better performance over a quad core processor?

If you're talking i7-6900K vs i7-6700K, it's a 50/50 proposition, maybe slightly in the 6700K's favor because of single-core performance. If you're talking about throwing an older-gen Xeon with 8 cores clocked at 2.1GHz each against an i7-6700K (or even a 3770K, really), most assuredly not.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

*most* games

 

the games where cpu performance really matters, tend to be quadcore at best

If your 8 core has the same IPC and archeture as the quadcore and the kernel is working correctly, the 8 core will always be the same speed or faster. In the real world, the kernel makes errors and when you get more cores you normally get lower clocks.

[Zyndo]

11 minutes ago, HackerVlogs said:

In (most) games, will having an octa core processor yield better performance over a quad core processor?

if the only differing factor is core count then, usually, yes (although the increase will be marginal). however if the quad core is faster or has better IPC, then take the quadcore absolutely.

Its also worth noting that for some reason unknown to me, benchmarks of some games using more than 4 cores perform worse in some scenarios than those using more than 4 cores.

[Techicolors]

I know Watch dogs 2 likes having a lot of threads.. 

 

[ATFink]

17 minutes ago, HackerVlogs said:

In (most) games, will having an octa core processor yield better performance over a quad core processor?

NO!

 

Almost all games out today utilize no more than 4 cores. Some do (like Watch dogs 2 as just mentioned by @Technicolors and Battlefield 1), but then you have to consider clock speed, IPC, and a host of other factors that I don't know much about relating to cache and probably other stuff as well. Most games right now will be less CPU bound with 4 fast cores (even without hyperthreading) than 8 slightly slower cores. If you are building a computer, put more money into a higher res display and nicer graphics card (obviously depending on the budget) before going for a top tier CPU.

 

Heck, you could purposely go for a worse CPU for the sake of reallocating more of the budget to a better monitor and it wouldn't make much of a frame rate difference between the more powerful processor and the less powerful one (as long as you don't go El-Cheapo... basically go for i5 in a > 1080p situation if you aren't video editing or 3d modeling).

[0ld_Chicken]

Thread moved to CPUs, Motherboards and Memory

[Kenneth Versoza]

Really depends if it is Intel or AMD. Intel certainly has more efficient cores than AMD giving the price of course. An octacore AMD doesn't mean it's more faster. Moreover, when it comes to gaming performance, not many games uses all 8 cores so better stick with a better performing quad core. BUT AMD will be come in handy if you want affordable but decent gaming experience.