When Will Quad-Core Be Reccomended for Gaming?

At the moment no games out support all four cores of a quad-core processor, but when they do start to there'll be a huge performance difference before Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Quad Core processors. Think about it, one core could be used for amazing AI, one could be used for incredible physics, another for game scripts, and another for side work which could possibly be used to get rid of loading times etc.

When do you think we'll start seeing quad core processors in the reccomended specs for a game? When developers utilise quad core processors we'll see really amazing stuff, and I don't want to be left out if I choose the m17x notebook. I'm trying to decide if giving up portability is worthwhile for one hell of a hell desktop...

When do you guys think quad core processors will be reccomended for games?
I'd say early/ mid 2009, and if that happens the m17x won't last me the three years I'm hoping for, since I like maxing out any game I can and playing revolutionary games that set a new standard for other games to come.

 

CPU was never importand for gaming, i have a pernituim 4 3ghz and 8800GTX and i play Crysis better than AW with dual core...

 

It will matter if you play RTS games or any other CPU intensive games.

 

i think a game called alan wake will utilized quad-core. it suppose to be out sometime this year.

 

Games that can utilize quad core already include Crysis AND Supreme Commander.

Other than those, I do not see a great need for quad core in gaming for at least another 8 months.

Supreme Commander is a game that sings on multi-core, multi-GPU setups.

 

Actually, Crysis can only utilise two cores. Do you think an Intel Core 2 Duo and the best mobile video cards (they should atleast be upgradable to dual 9xxxMs) will last three years and still be maxing out pretty much every game, especially revolutionary games? I have my doubts...

 

Well, right now the hardware is way ahead compared to software. Anyway, quad isn't meant for games at the moment (because the programmers don't want to optimize the games to benefit out of what quad core has to offer). Other multimedia applications need quad core to run as fast as possible.
Even Crysis could be played on a single 8800M card if it weren't for nVidia and EA to squeeze money out of every gamer's pockets.

 

What about in a year or two from now? I realise it isn't mean for games at the moment.

 

Well it all depends, but like some other people here said: games need video cards, not CPUs. But with along with DX10 games will start using the CPU more.

 

Sure, in a year or so there'll probably be a few games that list quad-core as "recommended." However, I doubt we'll see quad cores as a basic requirement in most games for MANY years......not until after the GDP transitions to 64bit OSs, over 4GB ram, etc.

 

new and optimized games are already fully utilizing multi-cores... especially the Unreal Engine 3 games (Bioshock, Gears of War, UT3, etc...).

Crysis is no where near optimized.. but its also CPU intensive... too bad it does not run the CPU at 100% (Crytek seriously needs to overhaul the coding).

 

Quad-core is useful for a lot of other things besides games - encoding and rendering are the two biggies. You can cut the time it takes to render or encode something in half vs. a dual-core if the program takes advantage of multiple CPUs.

As noted there are several games out right now that will use a quad-core. Supreme Commander and also Unreal Tournament III are two. There are only going to be more in the future. That does not mean the end of dual-core though. One way or another, I would not worry about not having a quad-core right now. Notebook users don't exactly have a choice yet, that is unless you get a Sager NP9262 or feel like waiting for the mobile Extreme Edition quad-core processor to come out with the Montevina platform this spring.

The P4 is dragging down the 8800GTX's potential in your system - big time.

 

I agree... just about to quote the same thing.

Any current dual core would be better than a P4.

Even a current single core would beat it.

 

World In Conflict is also multi-threaded and is optimized for quad core.

 

Yeah, but overall there aren't many games.

 

new and future games will definitely utilize multi-cores... food for thought.

 

yummmy



dual core will be fine for a couple of years, IMO, quad core will most likely not be necessary forat least two years anyways.

 

I really would wish to see game developers spend more time on better coding than demanding better hardware. Gamers should be rewarded with good game gears not punished for lack of top game gears. That being said, I certainly hope there won't be quad-core only games in many years.

 

What I would like to see is a boost in the OS side of things. Imagine a windows that would shutdown everything else and just run the game. If you wanted to multitask you still could but have a special mode that just did nothing but run the game, give 100% of your CPU and GPU's functions to the code. Too much to ask I know.