Will games really use all 4 cores?

ScOuT — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:14:29 +0000

I have seen many debates about this issue in a number of forums in the past year. I was interested which side of the argument was correct and started doing some research to find the answer. I decided to run a test myself with three popular games that are installed on my computer and see if games really can or will use 4 processing cores. I am just a normal guy with a normal computer and wanted to see what real world results I would record.
I have seen gamers say “it is a complete waste to buy a Quad Core cpu, games can not even use 4 processing cores.” I have even seen gamers also say “by the time games use 4 processing cores, the current quad core processors will already be outdated.” If you have surfed any forums I am sure you have seen this debate also. Let us see what happens…

The test was conducted under these conditions.

Computer: Asus P5N-E 650i / Intel Q9300 @ 2737 MHz / G-Skill 2×2GB @ 800 MHz / eVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclock edition / Antec Neo Power 650w / 2 Western Digital Cavair 160 GB / Samsung 22″ with 1680×1050 screen resolution

Software: My operating system is Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit. During the test, I disabled everything except for Vista Sidebar, AVG anti virus and PC ProbeII. I used Asus PC ProbeII version 1.04.19b for the CPU monitoring graphs.

The game line up included: Brothers in Arms, Hell’s Highway / Call of Duty, World at War / Far Cry 2. The games were ran with all graphics settings maxed in the options menu and in single player mode.

CPUZ

Call of Duty, World at War

Far Cry 2

Brothers in Arms, Hell’s Highway

As you will see in the test that I conducted, contrary to popular belief, these games will take advantage of all 4 processing cores. I actually was surprised because I have seen so many people say that games can’t use all 4 processing cores. If you are making a decision on a new processor, I hope my un-scientific home test will assist you. The future is here…Quad Core processors are going to be a necessity for games released in 2009.

I captured the pictures by pausing the game and hitting the Windows key. This would minimize the game. I used the “print screen” button on my keyboard and then pasted the captured picture in Microsoft paint. Then the pictures were cropped to increase size.
This thread can be discussed here.

Coolermaster V8 Review

ScOuT — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:06:16 +0000

It started in early December when my wife asked me “what do you want for Christmas?” She wanted to get something for my computer but of course she had no idea what exactly to get. I found the Coolermaster V8 on German ebay for 52 Euros, about $70 U.S. dollars. When it arrived she wanted me to wait until Christmas and unwrap it with the family. I told her “I have to see if everything is ok in the case we have to return it.” Here are some observations
The packaging was well designed and protected the cooler from a smashed box corner during shipping. The Cooler is aesthetically pleasing with a soft red LED light mounted inside. It looks spectacular, my first thoughts were very well engineered piece of hardware. When I took the cooler out of the package I was fully expecting to give it a once over lapping job. When I saw the contact surface I realized a lapping job would ruin it. The contact surface is nearly polished chrome, very nice quality indeed.

There are a few things to consider when mounting the cooler. Size, this thing is huge and will take a nice chunk of space inside any case. The official size from the Coolermaster website is 120 x 128 x 161.1mm. If you are interested with this cooler make sure your case can support the size requirements. I have it mounted in a Coolermaster 690 Nvidia Edition case and the term “tight-fit” applies. When mounted, the cooler has about 1/8 of an inch clearance from the top mounted 120mm exhaust fans. The cooler has about the same clearance from the cooler top to my side panel, I can push on my side panel and touch the case window to the cooler. Mounting this beast you will have two options. You can mount the cooler with the supplied bracket and nuts or you can mount it with rubber washers and the supplied nuts. The instructions show both options. I choose the bracket for more stability, this cooler has a little weight behind it. You will need an empty PCI slot in your case for mounting the speed controller. Be aware that your motherboard will have to be completely removed for installation. Installation was easy and I encountered no major issues. You might need an extra person to assist you, my wife had to help, I only have two arms. I considered mounting the cooler sideways so the cooler fan would blow the air up and out my top mounted exhaust fans, I tried it and the cooler would touch my RAM.

Performance is great! I had a Coolermaster Hyper TX2 with an awesome lapping job mounted before. I noticed a difference in idle temps as soon as I started the computer. I played around with the speed controller and monitored temps…kinda disappointed. Adjusting the speed of the fan did nothing at all for temps at idle or load. I can hear the fan speed up but absolutely no change in temps. Idle temps dropped with the new cooler 11c and load temps dropped 13c! When running Prime95, the load temps drop to idle temps within seconds after stopping the burn.
Overall I am very pleased with the Coolermaster V8…great product and well engineered. You will be pleased with the looks and the performance of the Coolermaster V8. You really can’t ask for much more from an air cooler!
Here are a few screen shots of a Prime95 burn and idle. My Intel Q9300 has a slight overclock running @ 2750 MHz.

The Coolermaster V8 can be discussed here at computerforum.com

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Will games really use all 4 cores?

Coolermaster V8 Review