Physical threads vs virtual threads

[Fixadent]

How much faster are the physical threads when compared to the virtual threads in hyperthreading processors?

 

[geofelt]

They are equally fast.
Windows dispatches threads, not physical cores.
A hyperthread will use residual cycles not used by an already dispatched thread.
That is managed by the cpu.

 

[Fixadent]

They are equally fast.
Windows dispatches threads, not physical cores.
A hyperthread will use residual cycles not used by an already dispatched thread.
That is managed by the cpu.

So a 4-core hyperthreaded CPU will be as fast as an 8-core non-hyperthreaded CPU?

 

[geofelt]

They are equally fast.
Windows dispatches threads, not physical cores.
A hyperthread will use residual cycles not used by an already dispatched thread.
That is managed by the cpu.

So a 4-core hyperthreaded CPU will be as fast as an 8-core non-hyperthreaded CPU?

No.
Assuming you actually had a non hyperthreaded 8 core cpu(I know of none) you would not have the same total capability. FX-8xxx processors share some resources also, so they are like 4 core processors which have a largish number of duplicated resources, (but not all.)
Hyperthreads use residual resources not being used by the first threads. Not all resources are duplicated.
If they were, you would have a true 8 core cpu.
Resources that are not duplicated are those which are not generally used all the time.

 

[Fixadent]

They are equally fast.
Windows dispatches threads, not physical cores.
A hyperthread will use residual cycles not used by an already dispatched thread.
That is managed by the cpu.

So a 4-core hyperthreaded CPU will be as fast as an 8-core non-hyperthreaded CPU?

No.
Assuming you actually had a non hyperthreaded 8 core cpu(I know of none) you would not have the same total capability. FX-8xxx processors share some resources also, so they are like 4 core processors which have a largish number of duplicated resources, (but not all.)
Hyperthreads use residual resources not being used by the first threads. Not all resources are duplicated.
If they were, you would have a true 8 core cpu.
Resources that are not duplicated are those which are not generally used all the time.

When will 6 and 8 core processors become mainstream for gaming? And should I hold off to get one?

 

[geofelt]

If you wait for the next best thing, you will wait forever.

Today, few, if any games benefit from more than 2-3 cores.
Task manager may show activity on 8 threads, but that is just windows spreading the activity out over all available threads.

Then, game makers will not readily require 6 or 8 threads for their games to run. They will not want to limit their market.