i7-8750H 4 core vs 6 core performance

[Jedi_king]

Hello!

 

I have a dell G5 15 laptop with an Intel 17-8750H 6 core cpu. I was experimenting with undervolting in intel xtu when i noticed that, during my stress testing, the cpu clock actually ran much lower (2.95GHz) than it has when doing normal browsing on high performance mode (3.95GHz). Upon closer inspection, I discovered that when only 4 cores are active, the maximum multiplier is set at 41x but when 5 or more cores are active, the max is 39x. 

 

To the best of my knowledge, most games don't really benefit from having more than 4 cpu cores. So, my question is thus: Would I see better performance in games if i restricted said games to only running on 4 of the 6 cores? (I intend to accomplish this using the "set affinity" option in task manager)

 

Thanks for any help!

[vanished]

Honestly, I'd just try it and see.  Every game will be different and you probably won't even be able to look up benchmarks to know one way or another for your situation since that's a laptop chip which people generally don't test like that, and every laptop, even if they share that chip, may perform differently due to manufacturer settings, cooling potential, etc.

[Derrk]

Yeah its worth the shot. More games are starting to utilize extra cores, so i think some games will benefit from the 4 core lock, and others will see decreased performance 

[Edgehill]

Plenty of modern games utilise more than 4 cores.

I would be surprised if a 0.2ghz clock boost is more advantageous that an extra 2 core/4 threads.

[genexis_x]

7 hours ago, Jedi_king said:

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that when only 4 cores are active, the maximum multiplier is set at 41x but when 5 or more cores are active, the max is 39x

This is the standard boost clock for 8750H

7 hours ago, Jedi_king said:

during my stress testing, the cpu clock actually ran much lower (2.95GHz) than it has when doing normal browsing on high performance mode (3.95GHz)

This is because the CPU is power throttling (45W isn't enough for 8750H in stress test) and maybe thermal throttling too (8750H is a hot chip). Also FYI, high performance mode does nothing.

7 hours ago, Jedi_king said:

Would I see better performance in games if i restricted said games to only running on 4 of the 6 cores?

You can try that, not to mention that it can run cooler

[Pendragon]

On 9/21/2018 at 4:37 PM, Jedi_king said:

Would I see better performance in games if i restricted said games to only running on 4 of the 6 cores? (I intend to accomplish this using the "set affinity" option in task manager)

Your confusing gaming with heavy/stress load.

 

During gaming your CPU will rarely get pushed hard so it stays at 3.9ghz most of the time.

 

I have an ULV + eGPU setup and my CPU clock stays locked in at 3.9ghz alot of the time (tune your settings to hit GPU 95%+ utilization).