4-cores vs 8-cores impact on future games?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
F

Filipe Gorges Reuwsaat

Reputable
Jun 27, 2014
6
0
4,510
Hello!

I've been preparing to build a new PC, I've already purchased a GTX 970 and now I need to upgrade my old CPU/MOBO/RAM combo (Phenom II X3 720, ASRock 790GX, 4GB DDR2 1066MHz, and yep, must change ASAP).

After some research, I've decided to purchase an i5 4400, for it has a reasonable price and the benchmarks I've seen didn't really give me a reason to get a more powerful version of it (although Skylake seems great, the price on my country is absurd in comparison to the 4th generation, plus expensive mobos and DDR4).

Now, I've been following the specs of these new titles, such as Fallout 4 and Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and they both recommend 8-core CPUs (i7 and 8350) as opposed to the minimum (i5s), which raises my question:

Are new games optimized enough to see a tangible difference between 4-core and 8-core CPUs?

Should I go instead for the 8350 as it would be a better option from now on? Or it won't make a difference and I could still go for the i5 4400?

The question isn't really which is better as they are quite similar in gaming performance for most cases, and I'd pick the intel on mostly because I'd like to switch to a mini-ITX form factor, I don't really care for the imminent death of either sockets since I don't plan to upgrade either for quite a long time (see DDR2 lol) and I don't really need the ultra-enthusiast-of-doom 4K 86x MSAA settings, these are the best fit for my current budget.

Thank you for your time!
 
Solution
lifespill
The short answer is No.A second gen and after core i5 and fx 83xx are enough for the next 4-5 years.By the time that games utilise 8 cores core i5 4400 and fx 83xx would be obsolete.Choose the cheaper one of these 2,you would notice no difference(well except some single threaded games but even then the difference would be small)

Sort by date Sort by votes
lifespill

lifespill

Reputable
Oct 25, 2015
520
0
5,360
The short answer is No.A second gen and after core i5 and fx 83xx are enough for the next 4-5 years.By the time that games utilise 8 cores core i5 4400 and fx 83xx would be obsolete.Choose the cheaper one of these 2,you would notice no difference(well except some single threaded games but even then the difference would be small)

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
C

Crixilian

Distinguished
Aug 1, 2015
398
0
18,910
do u mean i5 4440?
i5 4440 is better for now game, and 8350 is slightly better for future games
but 8350 wont much better than i5 4440 for future games
because 8350 core is perform slower than intel core
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
maddogfargo

maddogfargo

Splendid
Nov 28, 2006
3,344
8
22,965


I agree. Even an FX 6300/6350 with an overclock is enough to play modern games on a GTX 970 without any major bottlenecks.

i5 4440, 4460, 4590 or 4690k will be plenty. If you can get the newer Skylake i5 k and a Z series board you can overclock and get DDR4.

An FX 6300, 6350, 8320 or 8350 would also be fine, but will soon be phased out in favor of Zen core AMD CPUs sometime next year. I would go with Skylake if you need to build right now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

Th3-Hunter333

Reputable
Dec 15, 2014
508
0
5,060


It HIGHLY depends on the game you are playing here.

For example and references, i use to own the fx 8350 before i switched to what i have now in my signature.

One of the single threaded games that i play (arma is the example here), the difference is NOWHERE near small.

The difference in framerate i consider huge, considering it went from 25 to 35 frames to around 75 to 120 on intel.

That is easily triple the performance, many other games are like that
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

rollingbarrels

Reputable
Oct 6, 2015
176
0
4,710
From what I've read, the new low-level graphics APIs that game developers are going be using in the future will be making more use of processors with a greater amount of cores. So I think there is a great likelihood that 8-core CPUs will do better in at least some future titles than 4-core CPUs that is, if you are comparing CPUs from the same generation. However, until we see actual releases using these APIs, we don't know how much game devs are going to make use of their >4 core potential. Perhaps some game devs will end up relying on the increased single threaded performance of future CPUs to be sufficient for the demands of their future releases. All we can do at the moment is speculate. Although, if 8-cores are being recommended for Fallout 4 and AC Syndicate, then this does somewhat suggest that we may be seeing a lot of games optimised for 8-core performance in the future.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

Th3-Hunter333

Reputable
Dec 15, 2014
508
0
5,060


Yeah mate, its no worry at all.

In my opinion, if arma is a game you play then hands down choose intel and dont even think twice about it.

P.S. feel free to add me on steam under this exact same name you see here (R4GE is in front of my name on steam), and you will see that this info is coming from someone with 2500 + hours in arma 2 and 3
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom