Noob question about hyper-threading

[ambam]

I bought an Intel Core i7 930 and an X58 motherboard. The Ci7 has hyper-threading. I know that PC games do not in ANY way benefit from hyper-threading. My question is, what applications actually do benefit from this technology? What is it best and primarily used for?

I heard it makes your CPU run about 10 *C hotter when HT is enabled. Is HT enabled automatically by default, or do you have to enable/disable it manually in the BIOS?

 

[ares1214]

hyper threading just makes it appear as 8 threads, so things that benefit from multi threads do. such as video encoding, or modeling. it isnt really useful for gaming or day to day uses. to my knowledge you can disable it in bios, and get lower heat and higher oc's. HT is automatically enabled. and if you dont need hyperthreading, why didnt u just buy the i5 750?

 

[ambam]

hyper threading just makes it appear as 8 threads, so things that benefit from multi threads do. such as video encoding, or modeling. it isnt really useful for gaming or day to day uses. to my knowledge you can disable it in bios, and get lower heat and higher oc's. HT is automatically enabled. and if you dont need hyperthreading, why didnt u just buy the i5 750?

The LGA1366 socket and X58 chipset has better RAID controller, and triple-channel memory. I can also buy the 6-core gulftown after they come down in price a bit. Like when the Core i7 970X (gulftown with locked multiplier) comes out circia late-2010. It will likely be well below the $1,050 price tag of the 980X.

 

[hunter315]

Hyper threading should not automatically increase your temperature, especially not by 10C,. Applications like some video encoders that use more than 4 cores can benefit from it significantly. If you are doing heavy multitasking it is more likely to be used, like if you are playing a game and your AV starts to scan you will take much less of a hit.

Its enabled by default and is controlled through BIOS if you wish to disable it.

 

[ares1214]

hyper threading does increase temperature, but 10 C sounds like too much, maybe 3-5.

 

[ambam]

The 970 X is going to be close to 900 dollars. They already announced the pricing

I wonder how much the 8-core Sandy Bridge processors will be.

 

[ambam]

I can imagine 1200-1400 dollars

Maybe, for the extreme editions.

 

[Emperus]

Maybe, for the extreme editions.

If you are finding it hard to use the 8 threads available to you now, you should not be worrying about the upcoming 12 or higher thread processors.. Apps like 3DS Max can utilize upto 16 threads.. Also, physical cores have a better performance figure than logical cores.. So assuming you are working with an app like 3DS Max, a 6 core processor like i7 980X (with HT disabled) will give a better performance (clock to clock) when compared to the i7 930 with HT enabled..

 

[blackhawk1928]

I bought an Intel Core i7 930 and an X58 motherboard. The Ci7 has hyper-threading. I know that PC games do not in ANY way benefit from hyper-threading. My question is, what applications actually do benefit from this technology? What is it best and primarily used for?

I heard it makes your CPU run about 10 *C hotter when HT is enabled. Is HT enabled automatically by default, or do you have to enable/disable it manually in the BIOS?

Yes you do benefit from hyper threading. Even the applications you use that cannot use/benefit from more cores, it still helps no matter what as the more cores can split the workload of handling the applications, processes, and background services which are significant of system resources. Lets say you have a 6 Core CPU, but all your games use only 4 cores at maximum. You can have 4 Cores handle the game and just the game, a simple dedication, while the other 2 cores handle your background services and processes which includes the Anti-Virus, Firewall, Critical operating system services...all of which take up resources. Where as if you had a Quad Core, your four cores would need to handle the game and handle the background processes and services on top of that/at the same time. So more cores is better no matter what, even if your applications can't use all of them.

 

[cisco sfp]

That was really great post with nice clarity about hyper threading and it's advantages.

 

[ambam]

Yes you do benefit from hyper threading. Even the applications you use that cannot use/benefit from more cores, it still helps no matter what as the more cores can split the workload of handling the applications, processes, and background services which are significant of system resources. Lets say you have a 6 Core CPU, but all your games use only 4 cores at maximum. You can have 4 Cores handle the game and just the game, a simple dedication, while the other 2 cores handle your background services and processes which includes the Anti-Virus, Firewall, Critical operating system services...all of which take up resources. Where as if you had a Quad Core, your four cores would need to handle the game and handle the background processes and services on top of that/at the same time. So more cores is better no matter what, even if your applications can't use all of them.

There aren't any games right now which use Four CPU cores, are there? Even Crysis only uses Two cores.

 

[blackhawk1928]

I Don't think there are, but don't get me wrong, the 4 core games I said was just an example I was giving.

 

[ambam]

I Don't think there are, but don't get me wrong, the 4 core games I said was just an example I was giving.

There will be in the not too distant future, I would imagine.

 

[ares1214]

BFBC 2 can use a lot, 8 or 12 i believe. and yes, however, most games are just making the switch to quad core, so i doubt there will be many games that are able to use 8 threads.

 

[ambam]

BFBC 2 can use a lot, 8 or 12 i believe. and yes, however, most games are just making the switch to quad core, so i doubt there will be many games that are able to use 8 threads.

BFBC2 has a very CPU-intensive physics engine.

 

[Emperus]

When it comes to gaming, i still would prefer a true hexa core compared to n amount of HT cores.. The i7 930 gets recommendation due to the X58 platform.. I don't feel HT as a viable feature to approve a CPU when it comes to pure gaming..

 

[ares1214]

for the most part, a quad with HT = a 6 core without it. thats why the 1090T and i7 930 are very close in performance.

 

[blackhawk1928]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115063

^Now that is a serious CPU. I couldn't find any motherboards for its socket which is 1567.

 

[ares1214]

nah, i got 2 of those in a cereal box :lol:

 

[ares1214]

http://www.wiredzone.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=10020020

there ya go, i think...