First off, I know PCSX2's frame counter isn't the most accurate, but it should be accurate enough to prove a point.
Several members of the forum have postulated or thought they had seen improvements when using more than 2 cores for pcsx2. In theory having an extra core or two should improve speed if only because OS and anything in the background should be running on 1 thread, with PCSX2 running on 2 free ones... But in practice does this actually amount to anything? And if so how much?
I chose 3 games from my collection at random with frame limit turned off. The computer system is as follows:
Phenom X3 720 BE @ 3.5ghz for this test
2GB 5-5-5-12 DDR800@920
ATi Radeon HD3850
First game, Final Fantasy 12.
First off is the dual core test... 97fps quite impressive
Triple core gets a noticable boost, about 10%
Second game, Mega Man X: Command Mission a scene from a battle early in the game.
Dual core: 130fps Triple core: 135
This was much less noticable, so much so it is nearly statistically equal.
Final test, Persona 4..
Dual core: 98fps Triple core: 110fps
Once again about a 10% difference.
What's this mean to the average person? If you're looking for a new processor with PCSX2 being the main or only thing on your mind a higher clocked dual core (which is what everyone in general already knew). If you're trying to decide between a dual and a triple/quad and the latter isn't too much lower clocked than a dual it should perform just as well.
Stay tuned as I also plan on dropping the thing to 1 core just for giggles... and if there is any demand, I'll try and play with clockrates and see at what point a dual core matches speed more or less 1:1 with a higher multicore.
(Edit) Single core tests for giggles. MTGS is still enabled (IE they still use 2 threads) but I turned off 2 of my cores in the bios.
Pictures included, all games report about a 50% faster speed dual-core versus single core which is completely expected. Really surprised all 3 test games run about the same speed as my old AMD x2 5000 in dual core mode. Neat.
(edit 2) Final conclusion: If you're going for a system specifically for PCSX2 and you're on a budget, you won't get enough of a benefit from going tri or quad. Higher clockrate is much much more important than number of cores. That said, if you're building for a general computer and you want some "future proofing" (I always find that phrase hilarious when it comes to computers) you can't go wrong with a decent clocked quad (or at least one that's easy to overclock ^_^)
Several members of the forum have postulated or thought they had seen improvements when using more than 2 cores for pcsx2. In theory having an extra core or two should improve speed if only because OS and anything in the background should be running on 1 thread, with PCSX2 running on 2 free ones... But in practice does this actually amount to anything? And if so how much?
I chose 3 games from my collection at random with frame limit turned off. The computer system is as follows:
Phenom X3 720 BE @ 3.5ghz for this test
2GB 5-5-5-12 DDR800@920
ATi Radeon HD3850
First game, Final Fantasy 12.
First off is the dual core test... 97fps quite impressive
Triple core gets a noticable boost, about 10%
Second game, Mega Man X: Command Mission a scene from a battle early in the game.
Dual core: 130fps Triple core: 135
This was much less noticable, so much so it is nearly statistically equal.
Final test, Persona 4..
Dual core: 98fps Triple core: 110fps
Once again about a 10% difference.
What's this mean to the average person? If you're looking for a new processor with PCSX2 being the main or only thing on your mind a higher clocked dual core (which is what everyone in general already knew). If you're trying to decide between a dual and a triple/quad and the latter isn't too much lower clocked than a dual it should perform just as well.
Stay tuned as I also plan on dropping the thing to 1 core just for giggles... and if there is any demand, I'll try and play with clockrates and see at what point a dual core matches speed more or less 1:1 with a higher multicore.
(Edit) Single core tests for giggles. MTGS is still enabled (IE they still use 2 threads) but I turned off 2 of my cores in the bios.
Pictures included, all games report about a 50% faster speed dual-core versus single core which is completely expected. Really surprised all 3 test games run about the same speed as my old AMD x2 5000 in dual core mode. Neat.
(edit 2) Final conclusion: If you're going for a system specifically for PCSX2 and you're on a budget, you won't get enough of a benefit from going tri or quad. Higher clockrate is much much more important than number of cores. That said, if you're building for a general computer and you want some "future proofing" (I always find that phrase hilarious when it comes to computers) you can't go wrong with a decent clocked quad (or at least one that's easy to overclock ^_^)