Benchmark Results - Need Guidance - New To FFXIV

[KisaiTenshi]

I run FFXIV on a i7 3770k machine which reports all 4 cores and all 8 threads being utilized at 20-35%. So there is some merit to having more cores, but really it depends the type of CPU whether or not it can actually utilize them all for a single application.

I don't want to say you're wrong, but that's not how HT works. When a single-threaded (or poorly threaded game, which is most games) is scheduled to run, it's sent to the cores that are not busy. So you'll see all the cores in use at a 100% division of the number of cores. So 4 cores, 25%, 8 cores 12.5%, etc. But HT is not a real CPU core, it splits the CPU in half, so you have either 2 logical cores with half the ALU's or 1 physical core with all it's ALU's. Generally you don't want HT while playing games.

I wrote more here, but I think I'm preaching at the choir. Basically, untick some cores until at least one core is at 100% while running FFXIV and that will tell you how many cores it's designed to use.

[Kittra]

I don't want to say you're wrong, but that's not how HT works. When a single-threaded (or poorly threaded game, which is most games) is scheduled to run, it's sent to the cores that are not busy. So you'll see all the cores in use at a 100% division of the number of cores. So 4 cores, 25%, 8 cores 12.5%, etc. But HT is not a real CPU core, it splits the CPU in half, so you have either 2 logical cores with half the ALU's or 1 physical core with all it's ALU's. Generally you don't want HT while playing games.

I wrote more here, but I think I'm preaching at the choir. Basically, untick some cores until at least one core is at 100% while running FFXIV and that will tell you how many cores it's designed to use.

Servers are back up!

Ok so I decided to test this in a highly populated area to maximize the strain on my CPU and slowly dropped the core affinity in task manager.

At 8 HT cores (not sure what else to call it) CPU usage was about 30-34% across all 8. At an affinity of 7 (one HT turned off) usage went to 40~% across 7.

At this point I just dropped it to an affinity of 4 so that only the actual "physical" cores of my i7 were processing FFXIV and CPU usage rocketed all the way up to 100% solid.

I added one HT core (for a total affinity of 5) and usage was 95%~ across the 5 cores.


So either the i7 is extremely efficient in passing around the workload, or SE programmed their client with multiple cores in mind.
Another discovery I made is that at below 4 cores FFXIV starts experiencing frame drops.

[Faewyn]

Found a really good deal on this PC - ...should solve all my FFXIV woes!

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra GUA390 Desktop

Summary
Processor #FX-Series Quad-Core FX-4100 Processor 3.6 GHz (4 MB cache)
RAM 8 GB SDRAM DDR3
Hard Drive 2048 GB SATAIII
Graphics Coprocessor AMD Radeon HD 7750
Graphics Card Ram Size 1024 MB
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 7
Expand
Other Technical Details
Brand Name CyberpowerPC
Series Gamer Ultra
Item model number GUA390
Hardware Platform PC
Operating System Windows 8
Item Weight 28 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H 19.60 x 7.50 x 16.80 inches
Color Blue / black
Processor Brand AMD
Processor Count 1
Computer Memory Type DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA-600
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 7200 RPM
Optical Drive Type 24x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Super-Multi Drive
Audio-out Ports (#) 2

[Kittra]

Found a really good deal on this PC - ...should solve all my FFXIV woes!

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra GUA390 Desktop

Summary
Processor #FX-Series Quad-Core FX-4100 Processor 3.6 GHz (4 MB cache)
RAM 8 GB SDRAM DDR3
Hard Drive 2048 GB SATAIII
Graphics Coprocessor AMD Radeon HD 7750
Graphics Card Ram Size 1024 MB
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 7
Expand
Other Technical Details
Brand Name CyberpowerPC
Series Gamer Ultra
Item model number GUA390
Hardware Platform PC
Operating System Windows 8
Item Weight 28 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H 19.60 x 7.50 x 16.80 inches
Color Blue / black
Processor Brand AMD
Processor Count 1
Computer Memory Type DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA-600
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 7200 RPM
Optical Drive Type 24x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Super-Multi Drive
Audio-out Ports (#) 2

I can't find anything wrong with that PC.

Personally I prefer to build them myself, but I've heard good things about CyberPowerPC.

[JamieLee]

Servers are back up!

Ok so I decided to test this in a highly populated area to maximize the strain on my CPU and slowly dropped the core affinity in task manager.

At 8 HT cores (not sure what else to call it) CPU usage was about 30-34% across all 8. At an affinity of 7 (one HT turned off) usage went to 40~% across 7.

At this point I just dropped it to an affinity of 4 so that only the actual "physical" cores of my i7 were processing FFXIV and CPU usage rocketed all the way up to 100% solid.

I added one HT core (for a total affinity of 5) and usage was 95%~ across the 5 cores.


So either the i7 is extremely efficient in passing around the workload, or SE programmed their client with multiple cores in mind.
Another discovery I made is that at below 4 cores FFXIV starts experiencing frame drops.

actually you can run @ 3 cores and get 0 preformance drop.. dual core and single core setups get wrecked even with decent gpu's..

[Kittra]

actually you can run @ 3 cores and get 0 preformance drop.. dual core and single core setups get wrecked even with decent gpu's..

Well what I meant was, below 4 cores my i7 experiences frame drops, not in general, lol.