how many cores/threads uses Team Fortress 2?

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

hi there guys, can anyone tell me and show me (if can with screenies of your CPU´s Working with the game) if Team Fortress 2 uses more than just 1 CPU Core? can i make any difference playing this on a Phenom II X2 550 or on a Phenom II X6 1055T?

more cores/threads, more performance on game? this is a multicore game? or limitates only to 2 or 3..

Thanks to all for your responces and screenies have a nice week!

 

[wolf]

It's definitely multicore, theres an option in the video settings called 'multicore rendering'

having used an i7 system and playing a lot of this game, from memory there was activity over most of the 8 threads availiable, however only one thread was over 50% useage I think.

say if you played it on a dual core, both cores would probably have a lot higher useage, like over 75% per core.

as for the chip to go with, I'd pick a quad core at the moment, maybe a low end 6 core and overclock it, core count is making more and more of a difference lately.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I'm pretty sure Team Fortress 2 is optimized fore two cores (like most Valve games). Any more cores would spread the load out more but it wouldn't necessarily improve performance.

 

[Kenshai]

It's definitely multicore, theres an option in the video settings called 'multicore rendering'

having used an i7 system and playing a lot of this game, from memory there was activity over most of the 8 threads availiable, however only one thread was over 50% useage I think.

say if you played it on a dual core, both cores would probably have a lot higher useage, like over 75% per core.

as for the chip to go with, I'd pick a quad core at the moment, maybe a low end 6 core and overclock it, core count is making more and more of a difference lately.

I believe the multicore rendering refers to crossfire/sli.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I believe the multicore rendering refers to crossfire/sli.

I would like some clarification on this. I always assumed it meant CPU as well.

 

[DrPepper]

Only uses 2 cores at most like most source engines and the multicore rendering setting lowers my FPS because I assume its for weak gpu's and powerful CPU's.

 

[Kenshai]

I would like some clarification on this. I always assumed it meant CPU as well.

After searching a bit it does seem to spread it to cpu cores, but it's very limited in its functionality.

 

[Necrofire]

Before a recent update actually, I was noticing the majority of its cpu time was spent on a single core. It's a little more spread out now over 2 cores, but that's about as spread as it gets.

 

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

anyone with a multi-core processor that can upload a screenie with game working? to see if uses more than 1 or 2 cores? i will be very apreciatted tnx for your comments guys, hope you have a nice week ;D

 

[CDdude55]

Just took these quick screenshots today, im running an i7 920:

Without Multi-core rendering enabled:

_________________________________________________________
With Multi-core rendering enabled:

The source engine is pretty CPU dependent, and from the looks of it when multi core is enabled it utilized all threads and cores to the best of it's ability though keep in mind i have had problems with it in the past where it would cause some shuddering issues, so i usually keep it disabled just so i don't have to deal with those issues, as it's not a very resource intensive game overall anyways. With Multi core rendering disabled of course as expected it mainly put 4 threads to work. My CPU usage didn't go to high either, it mainly took most of it's processing on multiple cores and threads and didn't focus one thread or core much more then another, so it's a very core/thread centric game, and the more you have the more it likes and will put to use.

So yes can definitely tell you that it will utilized your dual or more core CPU, though as i said, the game isn't really heavy on hardware so it'll play smooth on pretty much anything, my bro with a Core i3 and a 4850 can max everything out and TF2 will be smooth as butter.

 

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

thanks CDdude55, your screenies ARE VERY informative and very accurate of the topic, it´s good to see the source engine uses as many core on the machine you had, looks like games like portal 2 or HL2:EP3 become very flexible and uses the latest tech form CPUS (Cores/Threads) but here is a questio nfor you: did you gain more FPS wit or without milticore rendering enabled, or notice any important changes in the gameplay?

Thanks for your effort on the screenies, very appreciated have a nice day!

 

[CDdude55]

thanks CDdude55, your screenies ARE VERY informative and very accurate of the topic, it´s good to see the source engine uses as many core on the machine you had, looks like games like portal 2 or HL2:EP3 become very flexible and uses the latest tech form CPUS (Cores/Threads) but here is a questio nfor you: did you gain more FPS wit or without milticore rendering enabled, or notice any important changes in the gameplay?

Thanks for your effort on the screenies, very appreciated have a nice day!

Generally no, i don't see much of an increase(at least not enough to make a difference) that's why i usually keep multi-core rendering disabled because(they might have fixed this issues) it was causing more problems then helping anything, i would enable it and would find stuttering problems in game, and with more research online i found people had the game actually crashing on them due to it being enabled. They might have threw in a fix for it in one of the updates for the game, but i haven't been keeping up with the TF2 updates much.

You should be fine either way though, TF2 doesn't stress out hardware much at all so you should see smooth game play either way.

 

[ctrain]

It very easily doubles my FPS on my Q6600 in busy situations, Source is definitely CPU bound most of the time

TF2 is on an older version of the engine, Alien Swarm has the latest engine to date which has more cvars related to threading, so I guess one can assume that by the time Portal 2 rolls around, the engine will be better off dealing with more cores.