Comments on: Hardware Guidance: Four Cores and DX10 https:/2008/12/hardware-guidance-four-cores-and-dx10/ Developer resources for the X-Plane flight simulator Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:52:23 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 By: Benjamin Supnik https:/2008/12/hardware-guidance-four-cores-and-dx10/#comment-894 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:13:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=278#comment-894 The answer is – I don’t know – it depends on the kind of scenery you use and configurations.

If the load on scenery setup is high enough to matter, then yeah, two cores will beat a 35% clock increase.

But if the limitation is JUST the main rendering loop trying to max out fps, you want the 35% fps increase.

]]> By: Photosmith https:/2008/12/hardware-guidance-four-cores-and-dx10/#comment-895 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:52:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=278#comment-895 For a comparison of US pricing, you can use newegg.com:

E8500 (2 x 3.16ghz) = $188
Q8200 (4 x 2.33ghz) = $190

The E8500 is 35% faster when talking single-threaded speed or apps using a max of 2 cores, but with an app that can fully utilize every core you have, the Q8200 has a theoretical 47% more processing resources available.

I think Jens' comment was basically just to try and get confirmation that X-Plane uses >2 cores by enough of a margin to make up the 35% deficit in single-threaded performance due to the Mhz loss.

]]> By: Benjamin Supnik https:/2008/12/hardware-guidance-four-cores-and-dx10/#comment-896 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:37:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=278#comment-896 Jens — you are absolutely correct…only high through-put of the core running the main rendering loop can give you real fps improvements.

What the extra cores give you is the ability to crank up 3-d settings (so that you can DO something with that graphics power) without the 3-d prep interfering with that main loop.

In the case of the quad vs. dual there’s more to it than that — you’d also need to look at how much cache they have, etc. I can’t say what’s going on with European prices – they tend to be higher than US prices across the board.

]]> By: Anonymous https:/2008/12/hardware-guidance-four-cores-and-dx10/#comment-897 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:03:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=278#comment-897 regarding the quadcore advice and considering cost:

– I can get a Quad 4 x 2.4GHz for EUR 170

– I can get a Dual 2 x 3.17GHz for EUR 178

won’t the much higher clock speed of the Duo be of more use for overall performance (FPS) than the additional (but slower) cores on the quad which help only during certain operations (scenery loading)?

Just to make sure people will not be disappointed when going for a quad instead of a duo for the same money…

Now, a Quad 4x 3.2 sure is another thing but one has to hand over about EUR 1,350 for that 🙁 but you will save on heating in your flat 🙂

Jens

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