Intel Hyper-threading and gaming

[driedtears]

Hi guys. Since i didnt find any posts about this topic, im posting my own results of gaming with intel hyper-threading on and off, and weather it makes a difference or not.
Im posting this on steam forums because i tought it was appropriate. Most of us use the computer primarily for gaming and want to get most performance on it.

Test system:
Asus rampage ii extreme
DDR3 1600 Mhz C9
Core i7 950@ 3.85 Ghz
Radeon 5870 Crossfire (overclocked - 900Mhz / 1250Mhz)
Windows 7 ultimate

All Tests were run at least three times with turbo mode off, and the results were averaged.
Resolution: 1920x1200 / All settings very high (4x aa)

HT On

	
	
3DMark Vantage		26072
Street Fighter VI	109.17
Resident Evil 5		140.7
Borderlands		77.4
Dirt2			115.63
Far Cry 2		130.97
Hawx			208
Dawn of War 2		79.39
World In Conflict	100.67
Crysis		 	40
Batman Arkham Asylum	196.67
Left 4 Dead 2 		255.67

HT Off

	
	
3DMark Vantage		23191
Street Fighter VI	109.34
Resident Evil 5		136.6
Borderlands		76.88
Dirt2			116.63
Far Cry 2		123.49
Hawx			192
Dawn of War 2		78.59
World In Conflict	97
Crysis		 	39
Batman Arkham Asylum	200.67
Left 4 Dead 2 		255.33

HT On Vs HT Off Percentage Change


	
	
3DMark Vantage 		+12.42%
Street fighter IV 	-00.16%
Resident Evil 5 	+03.00%
Borderlands 		+00.67%
Dirt2 			-00.86%
Far Cry 2 		+06.05%
Hawx 	 		+08.33%
Dawn of War 2 		+01.02%
World In Conflict 	+03.78%
Crysis 			+02.56%
Batman Arkham Asylum 	-00.99%
Left 4 Dead 2 		+00.13%

Overall performance gain with hyper-threading on:
2.9%

Conclusion: HT does not make much difference, but will usually slightly increase performance.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Duke Something]

Can I assume that you are not in the USA due to the use of commas instead of periods? also i think you mean that the overall performance GAIN is 2.9%

i used a period instead of your commas, please understand them to be the same.

and I agree that HT isnt much use for games,YET...

EDIT: also i should mention that your benchmark of L4D2 is irrelevant due to the source engine haveing a 256FPS limit. i think?!?

[driedtears]

Originally Posted by Duke Something

Can I assume that you are not in the USA due to the use of commas instead of periods? also i think you mean that the overall performance GAIN is 2.9%

i used a period instead of your commas, please understand them to be the same.

and I agree that HT isnt much use for games,YET...

EDIT: also i should mention that your benchmark of L4D2 is irrelevant due to the source engine haveing a 256FPS limit. i think?!?

Yep, you are right im from Brazil and the performance gain was wrong. It was updated. Thank you.

About left 4 dead. im getting nearly 300 fps (with fraps) so the limit must be higher. But ill rerun this test at 2560x1600 with 8x AA to get a lower framerate, just in case.

[Baron_Fel]

You have GTA4 or Empire Total War? Those are two pretty CPU intensive games, benches would be interesting.

Originally Posted by Baron_Fel

You have GTA4 or Empire Total War? Those are two pretty CPU intensive games, benches would be interesting.

GTA IV actually doesn't use more than 4 cores/threads, no matter how many you have, HT is on or off.

[Duke Something]

Originally Posted by driedtears

Yep, you are right im from Brazil and the performance gain was wrong. It was updated. Thank you.

About left 4 dead. im getting nearly 300 fps (with fraps) so the limit must be higher. But ill rerun this test at 2560x1600 with 8x AA to get a lower framerate, just in case.

i stand corrected...errr sit corrected. then 300 must be the limit as i know there is a FPS limiter in the source games.

[driedtears]

Originally Posted by Baron_Fel

You have GTA4 or Empire Total War? Those are two pretty CPU intensive games, benches would be interesting.

Sorry, i dont have the pc version of GTA, but from the reviews and benchmarks ive seen, HT does not benefit the performance, but the core i7 still tops the chart for this game.

[Duke Something]

i just find it funny that this is almost the best computer out there and still crysis only gets 40 fps. lol

[bes]

I would like to see these results with everything at their stock speed..nothing overclocked :-)

[Baron_Fel]

Originally Posted by Duke Something

i just find it funny that this is almost the best computer out there and still crysis only gets 40 fps. lol

1920x1200 + 4xAA will do that.

[Duke Something]

Originally Posted by Baron_Fel

1920x1200 + 4xAA will do that.

yeah. but crysis is what like 3 yrs old. MW2 runs on my comp at 1920x1080 at >60fps. all settings maxed.

[Baron_Fel]

Originally Posted by Duke Something

yeah. but crysis is what like 3 yrs old. MW2 runs on my comp at 1920x1080 at >60fps. all settings maxed.

Yeah but crysis still looks alot better than any game out. Which is kinda sad, because like you said its 3 years old. Actually 2.

[slayvus]

It will be extremely nice when we see more games like Dragon Age come out.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...ores/Practice/

Could someone explain what SMT and TM are? Because the 920 at 3.5GHz with SMT/Tm off got a pretty high AVG and Max FPS.

Also, why not just do like a positive and negative percentages for HT On vs HT off instead of 100% being base.

So like

HT On

	
	
3DMark Vantage		26072
Street Fighter VI	109.17
Resident Evil 5		140.7
Borderlands		77.4
Dirt2			115.63
Far Cry 2		130.97
Hawx			208
Dawn of War 2		79.39
World In Conflict	100.67
Crysis		 	40
Batman Arkham Asylum	196.67
Left 4 Dead 2 		255.67

HT Off

	
	
3DMark Vantage		23191
Street Fighter VI	109.34
Resident Evil 5		136.6
Borderlands		76.88
Dirt2			116.63
Far Cry 2		123.49
Hawx			192
Dawn of War 2		78.59
World In Conflict	97
Crysis		 	39
Batman Arkham Asylum	200.67
Left 4 Dead 2 		255.33

HT On Vs HT Off Percentage Change


	
	
3DMark Vantage 		+12.42%
Street fighter IV 	-00.16%
Resident Evil 5 	+03.00%
Borderlands 		+00.67%
Dirt2 			-00.86%
Far Cry 2 		+06.05%
Hawx 	 		+08.33%
Dawn of War 2 		+01.02%
World In Conflict 	+03.78%
Crysis 			+02.56%
Batman Arkham Asylum 	-00.99%
Left 4 Dead 2 		+00.13%

You can use these charts in your OP if you like.

Originally Posted by slayvus

It will be extremely nice when we see more games like Dragon Age come out.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...ores/Practice/

Could someone explain what SMT and TM are? Because the 920 at 3.5GHz with SMT/Tm off got a pretty high AVG and Max FPS.

SMT = simultaneous multi-threading (gives two logical cores from a single physical core)
TM = turbo mode (automatic overclock when CPU is loaded with tasks, depending on how many threads are active and the current power consumption/temp)

[bes]

Originally Posted by jamesd9007

SMT = simultaneous multi-threading
TM = turbo mode

Considering how well AMD is doing currently with their video cards .. it would be nice if they stepped up with their CPU's and added features like that..

if I OC my AMD CPU to 4.0ghz it still cant get close to the I7... its very annoying ..even though a lot of games can still get up to 200+ fps with a single HD5870..