Multi-threaded, 2+ CPU game thread

[entropy13]

AFAIK Real Warfare 1242 uses multiple cores, I've not tested this though but it seems to on my PC.

According to Process Monitor it uses 4 threads max (avg is 3), @44% max (avg is 25%), @956 MB memory max. Played a Custom Game with a 600-man army against a 2930-man army. All settings @ max, 1920x1080.

EDIT: Football Manager, since 2008, is definitely multi-threaded. With the sheer amount of data being used (and once the real players/staff retire, generating custom players and staff), the details involved, it would need all the help it can get.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Boarderlands appears to be MT'd.

 

[_33]

Crysis and Crysis: Warhead are supposed to be multi-threaded also.

 

[MilkyWay]

Oblivion is a cheat, it doesn't actually use 2 cores it uses 100% spread on 2 cores, so it uses say 70/30 or 50/50 never more than a whole core.

So never like 90% on one core 50% on another it would be like 90% and 10%

 

[EastCoasthandle]

One way to tell when a game may use more then 2.5 threads is to read those interviews. If the developer specifically says that all of the audio will be CPU bound then more then likely the game may use more then 2.5 threads. Hopefully the developer will specify how many threads/cpus a game will use. Borderlands and Bad Company 2 are to examples of games that use the CPU for all audio and are multithreaded. Dirt 2 can also use the CPU for all audio but it's an option. You can still use the sound card to process all audio.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Oblivion is a cheat, it doesn't actually use 2 cores it uses 100% spread on 2 cores, so it uses say 70/30 or 50/50 never more than a whole core.

So never like 90% on one core 50% on another it would be like 90% and 10%

Not quite. It would run with room to spare on a tri-core CPU. It only reached 18% CPU usage on my Core i7 920 (which is just over 2 cores).

One way to tell when a game may use more then 2.5 threads is to read those interviews. If the developer specifically says that all of the audio will be CPU bound then more then likely the game may use more then 2.5 threads. Hopefully the developer will specify how many threads/cpus a game will use. Borderlands and Bad Company 2 are to examples of games that use the CPU for all audio and are multithreaded. Dirt 2 can also use the CPU for all audio but it's an option. You can still use the sound card to process all audio.

From what I saw in the configuration files, Dirt 2 should be able to run fine on a dual core processor. At quad-core, they basically gave up on being strict about thread placement. XD

 

[suraswami]

GRID uses all cores available. I tried setting the affinity to 1,2,3 and 4 and I can see the task manager graph change and FPS too change accordingly.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Both Grid and Dirt 2 use the same ego engine. Dirt 2 uses a more refined version of the ego engine though. Below I did a quick race using Rapture audio. Once you enable it you have to restart the game.

This is at 1920x1200 using their Rapture Audio (which uses the CPU). I only minimized to 640x800 window to show CPU usage. I didn't show CPU usage without Rapture.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

OP updated but I've not found that many more PC games. Still haven't found that list of MT games I was looking for.

 

[gvblake22]

Bit-tech did a good write-up on several newer games and their performance with multiple cores (up to six).

At the moment, three cores appears to be what games are happiest using (aside from Dirt 2).