How many cores are you planning to have for Civ V?

[EmpireOfCats]

No one has mentioned here, that up to 8 cores are supported?

Not cores, threads. There's a difference. With hyperthreading (HT), each core can run two threads. So if you have a four-core CPU with HT, for example the i7 "Lynnfield", the computer can work with eight threads at once. You operating system will see this as eight ("logical") cores.

 

[civ_king]

or each core can run 1 thread and 8 cores get used (right?)

 

[kiwitt]

I'm glad I got an i7 (4 cores + HT) ... should chew through the AT calcs. Who needs Ghz when smarts wins in the end.

 

[civ_king]

I'm glad I got an i7 (4 cores + HT) ... should chew through the AT calcs. Who needs Ghz when smarts wins in the end.

unfortunately $$$>Brains
hexadecacore>i7

 

[EmpireOfCats]

hexadecacore>i7

I think what we really need are the new eight-core Xeon 7500s. That way, you can play Civ V at full speed and have power left over to, oh, simulate nuclear explosions, factor Pi to some silly value, or render Avatar II, and some e-mail on the side.

 

[civ_king]

I think what we really need are the new eight-core Xeon 7500s. That way, you can play Civ V at full speed and have power left over to, oh, simulate nuclear explosions, factor Pi to some silly value, or render Avatar II, and some e-mail on the side.

hexadeca means 16

 

[EmpireOfCats]

hexadeca means 16

Yeah. But the 7500 will work with four CPUs on one board. So that's 32 cores or 64 threads. Of course, I think you get in to license issues at some point with Windows (per CPU?) and OS X won't run on it, so you'd be using Linux with Windows in a virtual machine.

 

[The_J]

according to bigdownload, yes. (see the confirmed features thread)

Here = This thread .

Not cores, threads. There's a difference. With hyperthreading (HT), each core can run two threads. So if you have a four-core CPU with HT, for example the i7 "Lynnfield", the computer can work with eight threads at once. You operating system will see this as eight ("logical") cores.

But it still can support 8 cores .

I've also never really understood the sense of HT, and someone tried to explain it (this here), but i still don't understand it . Seems not to be a great advantage.
But well, i've also never heard a lecture about technical computer engineering, so that's not a big deal for me .

 

[civ_king]

Yeah. But the 7500 will work with four CPUs on one board. So that's 32 cores or 64 threads. Of course, I think you get in to license issues at some point with Windows (per CPU?) and OS X won't run on it, so you'd be using Linux with Windows in a virtual machine.

why wont it run it? I know you would need an EFI thing, but what else is wrong?

 

[kiwitt]

I've also never really understood the sense of HT, and someone tried to explain it (this here), but i still don't understand it . Seems not to be a great advantage.

One picture says it all - my core i7 with 4 cores and HT appears as 8 cpus operating independently and sharing the loads

 

[boneys26]

I got a quad core atm and just started to look into upgrading the desktop and seeing civ5 is not to far away gives me a reason to start now

 

[The_J]

One picture says it all - my core i7 with 4 cores and HT appears as 8 cpus operating independently and sharing the loads

I understand, what HT is, but i do not understand, what advantage it gives.
4 Cores * 2 Ghz or 8 Cores * 1 Ghz...sorry, i don't understand the benefit of the second option.

 

[Hail]

I understand, what HT is, but i do not understand, what advantage it gives.
4 Cores * 2 Ghz or 8 Cores * 1 Ghz...sorry, i don't understand the benefit of the second option.

for short imho HT is clever marketing bullsh*t. all it does most of the time is eat watts.

from a technical standpoint, here is an analogy:
the cpu socket is the aqueduct or some pipe. the water(or any liquid) flowing throw the aqueduct is the flow of commands to the cpu. and the cpu is a watermill located below the aqueduct on whom water falls down and spins the blades. so the water is going down and the blades are spinning (cpu is working): all is cool. however a lot of times the water flow halts for any reason (some program waiting for a disk read or network packets) and the blades become idle. idle does not look good in benchmarks
what HT does is it adds another aqueduct that leads to the watermill. so the OS can pump water through either one to keep the blades spinning. but there is only one watermill! core2duo has two physical watermills which is way better

P.S. find any benchmarks comparing p4 to core2duo. in the ones i saw: if p4 with HT off is 100%, than p4 with HT on is ~110%, while core2duo is ~200%.

 

[Abood]

i7 laptop

 

[EdCase]

I'll do what I always do. Max out all settings hit the chosen resolution, assess the performance. Then either

a) just play
b) Find the bottleneck(s) and rebuild/upgrade accordingly.

There is much more to performance than simply the cpu.

 

[civ_king]

I'll do what I always do. Max out all settings hit the chosen resolution, assess the performance. Then either

a) just play
b) Find the bottleneck(s) and rebuild/upgrade accordingly.

There is much more to performance than simply the cpu.

you are right,
RAM, GPU and Hard drive speed are also important, it is just Civ IV is a CPU/RAM pig

 

[mechaerik]

I, meanwhile, have a single-cored (2ghz) laptop. I'm trying to find a job so I can get a decent desktop.

Turns out my laptop is better than I thought; I have a 2ghz dual core, not single core.

I also have 3 gigs of RAM. Problem is the graphics card (integrated).

 

[civ_king]

Turns out my laptop is better than I thought; I have a 2ghz dual core, not single core.

I also have 3 gigs of RAM. Problem is the graphics card (integrated).

i3 is actually pretty good for an Intel Graphics chip, plus they have higher clock speed than your computer

 

[Tacgnol]

Running on a dual core right now, I'm getting a new laptop soon and I'd love to get a quad core if I can find one that's remotely affordable but I kind of doubt it so I'll probably be spending the next few years on dual core until I can actually afford a real up to date desktop.

 

[cyril25376]

Dual Core - I don't buy a new computer. When it is slow I will upgrade from 2 GB RAM to 4