Will 6 Cores help Multi-GPU Bottle Necking?

[chris.y2k.r1]

Any thoughts on this? Right now there are not many convincing arguments to go with 6 cores due to the lack of software threading. However, with that said, as far as gamers are concerned, a huge benefit could be found in the extra cores if it pegs your GPU utilization to 100% across the board.

Any info or thoughts?

With this in mind, right now I get pretty close to 99% utilization with my quad at 3.8GHZ juicing my 3 4850s. However I suspect that if I a added a forth card that would drop. What are other people seeing? I use Riva Tuner Stat Server to get my utilization percentages.

[AMD-C]

Any thoughts on this? Right now there are not many convincing arguments to go with 6 cores due to the lack of software threading. However, with that said, as far as gamers are concerned, a huge benefit could be found in the extra cores if it pegs your GPU utilization to 100% across the board.

Any info or thoughts?

Games are becoming more threaded. As shown in this review Dirt2, Crysis and Need for Speed all show significant gains at 6 versus 4 cores.

Meanwhile, BFBC2 will generally bottleneck the GPU at any setting.

[richierich]

Damn those are some nice gains with 2 extra cores, in those games.

[initialised]

My testing says no.

4GHz x6 is out performed by i7 870 @ 3.5GHz when running a single 5970.



With a pair of 5970s the situation gets worse.

AMD x6 @ 4GHz:



Scaling from 5970 to 2x5970 ~ +50%

Intel x6 @ 3.4GHz, 12GB @ 1800MHz 8-8-8-24, 2x5970 (not OC'd):

[informal]

Any chance you can test with actual games people actually play,instead of futuremark's "test" ?

[richierich]

^^^^

I'm looking at the Test Scores at the right side. The Thuban gets higher FPS except the 1st two GPU tests. And the 860 still gets a higher score???

[Titan7171]

My testing says no.

4GHz x6 is out performed by i7 870 @ 3.5GHz when running a single 5970.



With a pair of 5970s the situation gets worse.

AMD x6 @ 4GHz:



Scaling from 5970 to 2x5970 ~ +50%

Intel x6 @ 3.4GHz, 12GB @ 1800MHz 8-8-8-24, 2x5970 (not OC'd):

whats your gpu score in performance with one 5970? you have Xtreme running up there then show intel at performance. I get 22,350 stock 5970 and 26,600+ with it overclocked to 970/1200 vantage compare is in my sig

[Tom128]

BFBC2 alone could make a case by itself in a SINGLE gpu setup, that game is a monster threaded game, I really hope it's engine gets used more and new engines are developed like it is. Keeps my Phenom II X4 @ 3.6Ghz in the 70%'s on all cores almost all of the time, with spikes towards 100% on some cores. I plan to eventually get another 5850 and would assume my quad would start crying at that point.

[Particle]

BFBC2 alone could make a case by itself in a SINGLE gpu setup, that game is a monster threaded game, I really hope it's engine gets used more and new engines are developed like it is. Keeps my Phenom II X4 @ 3.6Ghz in the 70%'s on all cores almost all of the time, with spikes towards 100% on some cores. I plan to eventually get another 5850 and would assume my quad would start crying at that point.

I've observed about 50-60% loading across all cores on the 4.0 GHz 1055T system I play with. That's with two 5850s and playing in Eyefinity. The HUD shows that both GPUs load to 97% or higher in such a setup. Kind of interesting.

[[XC] Oj101]

It wasn't even five years ago we were saying dual cores aren't needed

[Particle]

People will eventually come to understand that multi-core is very useful. It takes time for software to catch up to hardware, but it does happen.

[AMD-C]

Any chance you can test with actual games people actually play,instead of futuremark's "test" ?

3DMark is very broken. I'm kind of amazed anyone puts much stake in it, much less pays for it.

It wasn't even five years ago we were saying dual cores aren't needed

The argument that you should buy for what's available right now or even yesterday is a popular one even though it seems like most people keep their setups for 3 years or more.

[vitchilo]

It wasn't even five years ago we were saying dual cores aren't needed

There's still ignorant people out there saying it.

[Sals]

It wasn't even five years ago we were saying dual cores aren't needed

A milestone to be sure. Something tells me that these processors have very flat IHS finish and will not benefit greatly from lapping.

Won't stop me though.

[[XC] Oj101]

Lap? I've never been bothered, removing the IHS has greater gains and is quicker and easier. All I do is steal the rubber pads from a dead AthlonXP, stick them around the core and slap on the cooler