FFXIV, How all games should be programmed

http://imgur.com/UPFM25q

I would be a happy man if all video games used all my cores like this. On top of that, I've seen it use 5 cores at once on occasion, which means it's taking advantage of HT as well.

Anyways props to the FFXIV team. Now if we could only get a 64bit client in video games...

I ran tests during open beta against Benchmark. My findings are very different, however are typical of most games. The game is well optimized, however it doesn't take advantage of Hyper-threading. In fact you can increase your benchmark score by a few hundred points by disabling hyper-threading in the benchmark. Also this game doesn't get a much better score with more than 4 cores.

Some data I recorded using GTX Titan stock and i7 3930k. I disabled/enabled cores and overclocked in bios; rebooting for each test.

http://i.imgur.com/jrd5hqM.png

http://i.imgur.com/htq8ORZ.png

http://i.imgur.com/BdTqrea.png

The reason it does better with Hyper Threading turned off is due to how Hyper Threading works. It effectively puts unused parts of your cores to work as a second set of cores. However, if the software you're using is efficient at using your physical cores, Hyper Threading will cut into that.