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Originally Posted by Commander Wallace
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Are there games out there that can use more than one core ?
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Short answer: Yes.
Slightly longer answer...
I read recently on a forum dealing with modding the Mass Effect series, that Mass Effect (the first one, hereafter "ME1") was using 2 cores on a 4 core PC.
(They were noting differences in CPU/GPU and reported stuttering on newer chips and newer versions of Windows.)
Mass Effect 2, while it would run on (for example) a AMD 3200xp single-core, "Minimum Requirements" were a dual-core of slightly lower MHZ.
I've also read of some newer games (minimum requirements are quad-core and up processors) that use 4 cores...
Now this is where things can get a bit screwy...
Mass Effect 2, when I run it on my FX-8350 with WINE, will raise all cores to the same load, ~25%.
I know of several games that are definitely single-thread programs, yet when I run them with WINE, I see several of my cores increase on my "CPU Load Monitor".
A game that I ran on my Athlon 5600x2, which raised the load on both CPUs, running that on my FX-8350 raises the load on ALL 8 of my CPUs.
Just not as much as the dual core.
For example, the dual might climb to 60%, but the 8x hovers around 20% for the same game, but newer Kernel/KDE.
On the dual core, with WinXP, I had several games that would raise one of the cores to between 70-90%, with the other running about ~25%.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Commander Wallace
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A number of our Subsim members have constructed their own computers, you included Rockin Robbins, based on yours and their respective needs and specifications. If Microsoft continues to alienate their customers and clientele, I'm sure this trend will continue and grow.
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I haven't bought a pre-built PC... ever, if we don't count anything older than the 486, which were given to me way back when.
I always found it, simply less expensive to build my own.
Get exactly what I want, how I want it, from the manufacturer that I want it from (mainly video cards), for less.
The only downside was purchasing a new Windows.
Now with Linux it really doesn't matter.
A friend had me spec. and build a PC for his wife, who needed it for work. As the "master" spreadsheet was so large, that while it worked on the "work" desktop, it would crash the "work" laptop.
So he told me "watch 4k video",
"handle a 1GB spreadsheet",
and "maybe occasionally play a game, I've still got my game PC".
"Budget is X dollars".
And I did, and she loves it.
As a "work" machine, it will probably be "better" than what most corporations buy as "work machines" 10 years after we built it!
You can't get that machine prebuilt, closest to that PCs specs was well over $2,500!
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I edited this, as I got the nagging feeling that I posted this before... or maybe I typed it up, realized it was too long, then deleted it, and posted something shorter...
Sorry if I'm stuck on repeat mode here.
Barracuda