3930k Hyperthreading for Gaming (Enable/Disable)

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crayseal15

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I've done a bunch of reading and couldn't come to a conclusion with keeping HT on or off. Some people say keep it on others say games don't don't use it it's a waste of resources. On a side note..I didn't want to make two separate threads but I seen other people saying to disable 2 Cores in bios for better performance when it comes to gaming.
 
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Leave it on and let the operating system / application developer handle it.
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Pinhedd

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Aug 7, 2007
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Leave it on and let the operating system / application developer handle it.
 
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Rookie_MIB

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Jul 27, 2013
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Just to elaborate on this a bit more, I could see some very specific use cases where disabling some of the cores might help since that would free up some thermal headroom. Many games aren't influenced much by having more cores, and if disabling a few of them and being able to knock up the clock speed a bit (or a bunch!) allows for those cores to run higher frequencies for longer it could benefit some games especially in a -K processor.

Easiest way to test it is this:

Leave it at stock speed (no overclock).
Leave everything stock (all cores/hyperthreading on). Check FPS.
Disable hyperthreading (again, no overclock). Check FPS.
Disable 2 cores. Check FPS
Disable 2 more cores. Check FPS.

If you get down to 2 cores, stock speed, and it doesn't change your max FPS, and your max FPS is still where you want it for gaming, then you're not CPU limited in any way, shape or form and you might as well just leave it alone.

Besides, one other thing is that remember, the chips are binned to hit their optimal speed/cores/wattage point. Going down to two cores, then jumping them up out of their peak efficiency would be pointless since power draw tends to go up exponentially when overclocking.
 
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crayseal15

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Alright, some interesting results. So followed your recommendations although I accidentally left HT on while disabling to 4 cores and then to 2. At 4 cores it felt mostly the same, not sure of the real world results, at 2 cores FPS dropped out hard. So i turned them all back on realizing HT was on the whole time. Turned HT off with all 6 cores on and I got significantly higher fps in some areas my fps usually suffers (running with 980 2 way SLI). I usually hit only 30fps in these areas and now it's around 45-55 in those same areas. Also normally when I turn my camera quickly my fps takes a hit for a second or two, that also has vanished with HT off. Do keep in mind i downed the cores with HT on the whole time on accident, not sure of I should rety the core disabling with Ht off this time.
 
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Pinhedd

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It's easy to fall victim to a placebo effect. The only reliable way to measure this is using a built-in benchmark tool that performs the same test each time.
 
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crayseal15

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yeah I don't have any build in benchmark tests. I'm sure of the normal fps there though, used them to compare frames when I installed my second card trying different sli modes and non sli. But yeah I understand your point there.
 
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