• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Cores vs Threads?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
B

Ba!nesy

Member
​
Joined
May 9, 2010
Hey guys, im putting together a parts list for a new computer and I have a few Q's about the CPU...

Hypothetically, if every other spec is the same, what would be better2 cores and 4 threads? or 4 cores and 4 threads?(just curious about that one, i'm sure I'm going for a 4 core machine)

I'm considering either the i5 750 or i7 860, (4 core, 4 threads? or 4 cores 8 threads?) with todays games/programs, is 4 and 4 enough, or is 4 and 8 the thing i should be going for? and is the extra 4 cores worth the extra $100 (about)?

is the 750 good enough for gaming can anyone tell me?

Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks guys.

Ba!nesy
 
hi

if you want to just play games the i5 is great for you really alot of people buy the i7 because they think its cool i have i7 really i5 is good to. you would be able to play any game with the i5 with a good video card of course and good ram.
 
the i5 is more than adequate for gaming most anything right now, the i7 is more of a workhorse for multitasking big apps.. i5+4GB ram is really all you need, save your money for a good vid card!

I have the i7 x58.. pretty big waste of money on my part.. this thing doesnt even break a sweat with what I do on a daily basis.. gaming included
 
The i7 9xx series are 4 cores, 8 threads
The i7 8xx series are 4 cores, 8 threads
These are workstation-class chips really.

The i5 7xx series are 4 cores, 4 threads
The i5 6xx series are 2 cores, 4 threads
The i3 5xx series are 2 cores, 4 threads

Personally, I'd agree that an i5 7xx series chip is suitable for gaming and general use, the i7 are more for number crunching (molecular modelling, audio/video processing, rendering, etc).
 
psionic98 said:
the i5 is more than adequate for gaming most anything right now, the i7 is more of a workhorse for multitasking big apps.. i5+4GB ram is really all you need, save your money for a good vid card!

I have the i7 x58.. pretty big waste of money on my part.. this thing doesnt even break a sweat with what I do on a daily basis.. gaming included
Click to expand...

Same thing here. Bought and i7, and the only thing that uses more than 30% of the CPU is fast scanning my SSD for viruses... most games top out at 20%, some get all the way up to 30%. But with the money i dumped into this i7, i could've gotten a MUCH better GPU and gotten better gaming performance.

David said:
The i7 9xx series are 4 cores, 8 threads
The i7 8xx series are 4 cores, 8 threads
These are workstation-class chips really.

The i5 7xx series are 4 cores, 4 threads
The i5 6xx series are 2 cores, 4 threads
The i3 5xx series are 2 cores, 4 threads

Personally, I'd agree that an i5 7xx series chip is suitable for gaming and general use, the i7 are more for number crunching (molecular modelling, audio/video processing, rendering, etc).
Click to expand...

My thoughts too. i7 is for crunching huge numbers, while the i5 is plenty for games, work, ect. Put the extra money into a GPU.
 
Built my brother a i3 with some of my spare parts, games fantastic! Absolutely no frame rate difference between my 860 and his 530 ClarkBar in my tower.

I wouldn't be afraid to run i3 and up for gaming only!
 
David said:
The i7 9xx series are 4 cores, 8 threads
The i7 8xx series are 4 cores, 8 threads
These are workstation-class chips really.

The i5 7xx series are 4 cores, 4 threads
The i5 6xx series are 2 cores, 4 threads
The i3 5xx series are 2 cores, 4 threads

Personally, I'd agree that an i5 7xx series chip is suitable for gaming and general use, the i7 are more for number crunching (molecular modelling, audio/video processing, rendering, etc).
Click to expand...
Just a note, I7 980x is 6 cores 12 threads... ;)

Get the best you can afford is my advice. :salute:
 
I run my 965XE @ stock :eek:

Honestly, its way more then I need for just about anything. When I do convert some vids, its a total beast!
 
What Earth Dog said. The i5 750 is about the best "general" choice in the S1156 Family. The i7 860 if you just want to say, "if I get this I won't be looking to upgrade it." The i7 860 will only really shine if you do a lot of Music/Movie encoding type work. I can reduce times by quite a bit depending on the software you use. There is also a benefit while Multi tasking very CPU intensive applications. But, for the most part, the i5 750 can handle anything you are going to throw at it, as well as it stays 10 degrees cooler than the i7 at the same clock speeds.

They generally will hit 4.0 and if you get a good one, you could see 4.2-4.4 on Air cooling. Match it up with some nice RAM and a good CPU cooler, throw in a good GPU and you will have a computer that will last you at least the next 5 years.
 
Wow guys, great info from everyone, i was originally considering the 750, but a 'good' deal with a i7 came up and I thought why not...
Its information like this that Intel can't put on their website, people saying what they use it for, and how well it works.

It will be mainly for gaming, with some light hobby Photoshopping which my current Pentium D can handle so no problems with the i5 i'm guessing. No Cad/Cam, no heavy video editing. And was never a person who overclocked anything, and most likely won't with this new build.

Now I really just need to hear back from the Graphics card section bout which ones can do the job of todays games at Full HD...

Thanks again.
Ba!nesy
 
Last edited:
Thanks Khemikal, but my Pentium D had no problems with the Photoshop, so i'll be happy enough with the i5 750
 
Yeah I experience no lag usually in photoshop and usually I have Maya or Zbrush open with it as well. The money you don't spend on a more expensive chip can easily be poured into a videocard and that's where you notice the performance gains. Get a badass video card and an i5, you wont be disappointed! I wasn't!
 
I'm still kinda stuck on a graphics card, I've started a thread about it in the graphics section but little help there, so guys what do you recommend? I'd like to be able to play games at Full HD, smoothly, not necessarily with AA, but i'd like high settings (i've played Oblivion at like 640 x 480 or 800 x 600 (not sure was a while ago) with low to medium graphics, so its not a real big deal) at a playable rate... any suggestions? i've heard the 5770 is not real good with 1920 x 1080 but not sure.. what cards do you guys have, and how does it run?

Sorry, i know off topic, but i've tried in the graphics section, you've been a great help anyway.
 
+1 for the I5 750, beast of a gaming CPU. Thats what I bought when I first got into socket 1156. I've since had every 1156 cpu just to test them out, so I kept the I7 860 of course.

As for the GPU, depends on what you can afford! A 5850 or gtx470 would be one of the best choices if you can swing it. A 5770 can play most games at 1080p, but when I had one I was kinda dissapointed with it's performance. I had heard it was atleast as strong if not stronger than a gtx260, thats not what I found at all. It was in between my old gts250 and gtx260, closer to the gts250 really.
 
Last edited:
I prefer Nvidia myself as well, but the 5850 is a good card....low power consumption, low heat, good performance.
 
yeah. but some of the ati ones are much cheaper. and if your not going to do lots of rendering stuff like that and want decent framerates. you can get a lower price one. i have a nvidia 480 on the way cant wait. time for my 9800gtx+ to retire.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

mackerel
Arrow Lake leaks
Replies
14
Views
404
Flamethrower1972
Flamethrower1972
mackerel
HEDT is back - Zen 4 TR pro and non-pro
Replies
7
Views
484
TerranBrackiatt
TerranBrackiatt
Mario1
  • Question
Best s775 CPU to overclock?
Replies
9
Views
294
freeagent
freeagent
don256us
Educate me and maybe sell me to Intel?
2
Replies
38
Views
2K
EarthDog
EarthDog
magellan
Low core count Rome gen. AMD EPYC CPU's: some questions
Replies
9
Views
1K
EarthDog
EarthDog
Back