Core i7 notebooks and pcsx2: SLOW

[echosierra]

Not to derail this topic anymore than it already is... that kind of shows the inefficiency of processors with cores beyond 4.

1.6-1.8x / 2 = 0.85 core efficiency.
2.2-2.5x / 4 = 0.5875 core efficiency.
3.0-3.3 / 8 = 0.39375 core efficiency.

Using this game as an example then, 3 CPUs all labeled as 2ghz, same architecture, same everything else except amount of cores...

Dual core is equal to about a 3.4ghz single core (assuming single core performance is perfectly linear to processing speed)
Quad core is equal to about a 4.7ghz single core (...)
8 core is equal to about a 6.4ghz single core. (...)

Obviously an improvement at each step, but the 8 cores nets you less than double performance of a dual core and at probably over 4x the cost.

Of course, not the most thorough study since this is just information based on a single game...

It's very hard to assign a numerical value to something like this because it's very dependent on how well whatever the test is scales up with the cores. So if the game doesn't scale linearly, it throws everything off.

Point is that any code monkey can make a game engine use 8 cores, but making it do useful work is very hard. So even if the latest engines can use that many cores, that doesn't mean you're going to see anywhere near a ($number of cores) times increase in performance.

[rama]

Agreed with what echosierra said.
There's just so many tasks a game could possibly have.
Physics, sound, AI, content streaming, to name a few.
Now all these tasks will usually work great on a single cpu core, not even maxing it.
There wouldn't even be a point in assigning them to different cores.

[shoegazer]

This thread is getting WAY off-topic. Can we get back on please, lest it be locked?

When the Arrandales are released in early January (and manufacturers follow suit) I imagine some of you may spring for it. I'd be interested to hear whether anyone with an Arrandale have favorable results with pcsx2 when compared with a c2d platform with otherwise comparable specs. In the meantime, if you have a Clarksdale notebook, please share your thoughts with us here.

[N1njaSol1d]

Have you tried setting the affinity to 2 cores instead of 4?

[OneHitGamer]

Bottom line it seems when it comes down to it is that its RANDOM. everyone has different specs and setups, dual core this and quad core that etc. PCSX2 will perform differently for everyone as well. of course theres always a GENERAL overall "best settings" for everyone. but the actual performance will vary. i for one am happy with my PCSX2 emu and my PC. i get perfect results with those games that work with it. so no complaints here.

TY guys for setting me straight on my errors lol and schooling me in the smallest ways on CPU stuff. now i have a better understanding on whats what.

Im not returning to this topic otherwise ill keep yapping in someone elses stuff. mission acomplished in my eyes.

Cya Cya

-Sketch

[Nuke]

Thats too bad. I was hoping for a solution. Not an explanation of the problem.

[dr_thrax]

Actually, I've read an interesting review of the 1156 i7 and i5 this morning and I think I know why turbo boost is not kicking in property. There are two possible cases:

1) C6 is not enabled in the bios. As the reviewers stated, C6 was necessary for turbo boost to work.

2) The reviewers also found out that the i5, being the cheaper of the 3 1156 family, boosted less often than the other 2 (860 and 870, with 870 being the one that boosted the most often).

If the problem is case 1, then it can easily be fixed by turning on C6.
If the problem is case 2, then...uh...not much anyone can do.

[shoegazer]

Actually, I've read an interesting review of the 1156 i7 and i5 this morning and I think I know why turbo boost is not kicking in property. There are two possible cases:

1) C6 is not enabled in the bios. As the reviewers stated, C6 was necessary for turbo boost to work.

2) The reviewers also found out that the i5, being the cheaper of the 3 1156 family, boosted less often than the other 2 (860 and 870, with 870 being the one that boosted the most often).

If the problem is case 1, then it can easily be fixed by turning on C6.
If the problem is case 2, then...uh...not much anyone can do.

I don't know what C6 is but mine was a Core i7. Dell doesn't give you too many options in the BIOS unfortunately. One option that would have been critical was the ability to turn off Hyperthreading, but even that wasn't available (stupidly). So the laptop went back.

[mackoyski]

C6 is one of the power states or c-states (its like a "sleep" mode) available to recent Intel CPUs.
On well designed bioses, you would be able to toggle options for turning off both speedstep and c-states (Yes, they are NOT the same thing). Speedstep is responsible for tuning down/up voltages in real-time to conserve electricity and produce less heat, while c-states inc/dec cpu multipliers depending on demand and idle time (thus reducing core clock) .

[bkwegoharder]

Wait. I can't believe I didn't think of this until now. But you can disable the processors on the i7 through your operating system as well as the bios. If you have vista or Windows 7, click on the start button and type "msconfig.exe" in the search box. When you do that a menu will come up. Click on the boot tab. Then click on the advanced options button.

In advanced options, it'll let you choose how many processors the OS will be able to use and the amount of ram along with other things. So you should check the checkbox, then choose 2 processors. When you do that, you'll only be able to use 2 threads. The problem is, I don't knoq if it will choose two threads from a single core, or if it will choose a thread from 2 different cores. If it does the latter then you are good to go. If it does the former, then you won't get the best performance you possibly could get. You could experiment with the number of processors to see what setting is the best for your situation. I'd recommend switching between 2, 3 and 4 to see which gets you the best performance. Setting 5 or more will probably lim it the amount turbo boost can boost your system, and setting it to 1 will leave you with just one thread and that isn't very good for pcsx2.

Also make sure you re enable speedstep in the bios.