How many cores does DDO sapport?

[MoonRunner]

As I understand it DDo can only sapport a 2 core proscessor which means it would be pointless to get a 4 core computer for this game. Now I know there are rumors around of a possible new AI in the future. Is there anyone in the know that can tell me how many cores that will sapport? Now lets be honest here with our answers if you are just making a WAG or even an EWAG please be clear about that in your responce.

[grayham]

I don't know the answer, but I didn't just spend £1000 on a new PC for only half the cores to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Answers please!!!!!

[Stormanne]

You all do realize that this game was created when single core processors were the norm, right? Does it utilize dual core procs? I'm sure it does to some degree. But, specifically purchasing a quad core, or more, proc for this game is not necessary. So yes, you did just buy a quad core proc that is going to only use half its power when playing this game. On the flip side, you have a quad core proc that can handle other applications that are designed with quad cores in mind.

[sebastianosmith]

As I understand it DDo can only sapport a 2 core proscessor which means it would be pointless to get a 4 core computer for this game. Now I know there are rumors around of a possible new AI in the future. Is there anyone in the know that can tell me how many cores that will sapport? Now lets be honest here with our answers if you are just making a WAG or even an EWAG please be clear about that in your responce.

DDO supports multi-threading as it is written using the Microsoft .Net framework in C++. Although direct multi-core support is available, I doubt the DDO client has been specifically written to support this outside the confines of what either .Net or DX provide natively. So, to provide an EWAG, as new DX and .Net versions are introduced with more transparent multi-core/threading support the DDO client could theoretically be recompiled to take advantage of the improved capabilities.

However, having more cores does not translate directly into vastly better performance in any game. A quad core wouldn't run DDO any faster than a dual core but it would provide better multitasking capabilities while executing several concurrent applications.

[boricua_in_cali]

I don't know that it would ever be wise to plan your new processor around a single program/game. get the most powerful you NEED, for what you can afford. Keep in mind, even a budget $300 dell can do more than what Nasa used to allegedly put a man on the Moon.

[Seikojin]

DDO supports multi-threading as it is written using the Microsoft .Net framework in C++. Although direct multi-core support is available, I doubt the DDO client has been specifically written to support this outside the confines of what either .Net or DX provide natively. So, to provide an EWAG, as new DX and .Net versions are introduced with more transparent multi-core/threading support the DDO client could theoretically be recompiled to take advantage of the improved capabilities.

However, having more cores does not translate directly into vastly better performance in any game. A quad core wouldn't run DDO any faster than a dual core but it would provide better multitasking capabilities while executing several concurrent applications.

MULTIBOX!

Yeah, I haven't seen it really hit my system hard and I run dual quads. I didn't expect ddo to really push the limits of that portion of my system.

The biggest hit is ram and gpu. So look there for upgrades before proc.

If you got an iram drive, you could array them, drop your OS and game into them and it would run a lot better than if you got a dual or quad core proc.

[Eladiun]

This is all handled at the operating system level. DDO is multithreaded and therefore benefits from as many cores as you give it. Thread marshaling is done on the OS level. Programs rarely interact directly in any way with hardware in modern application design.

How much benefit? Well, that's a question of how well the threading is done.

[MoonRunner]

However, having more cores does not translate directly into vastly better performance in any game. A quad core wouldn't run DDO any faster than a dual core but it would provide better multitasking capabilities while executing several concurrent applications.

Sweet that may be the answer I am looking for as I will want to dual screen on my new computer this gives me a reason to go ahead and get the quad core. If they do deceide to up it to more than 4 cores then I am SOL anyway because a 6 core is just too much Bob.

However I would still like to hear from a dev or someone in the know of the new AI they are working on. How many cores can we expect to be sapported?

[smyter]

This is all handled at the operating system level. DDO is multithreaded and therefore benefits from as many cores as you give it. Thread marshaling is done on the OS level. Programs rarely interact directly in any way with hardware in modern application design.

How much benefit? Well, that's a question of how well the threading is done.

I will admit, I do not know how programs interface with multi processors, but I have read countless articles on tomshardware, anandtech, etc that suggest that the amount of processors is directly related to the individual game. When they make their processor recommendations that plainly state that most games are coded to only utilize 2 - 3 cores. That was one of the reasons the AMD X3 was so popular. They did say that some games could handle more than 3 cores, but not many. This seems contradictory to your statement. Perhaps I you could explain in more detail?

[Qindark]

I don't know that it would ever be wise to plan your new processor around a single program/game. get the most powerful you NEED, for what you can afford. Keep in mind, even a budget $300 dell can do more than what Nasa used to allegedly put a man on the Moon.

Allegedly? really?

[Eladiun]

I will admit, I do not know how programs interface with multi processors, but I have read countless articles on tomshardware, anandtech, etc that suggest that the amount of processors is directly related to the individual game. When they make their processor recommendations that plainly state that most games are coded to only utilize 2 - 3 cores. That was one of the reasons the AMD X3 was so popular. They did say that some games could handle more than 3 cores, but not many. This seems contradictory to your statement. Perhaps I you could explain in more detail?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-core_processor#Software_impact

Is about as simple an explanation as I could write...

http://www.yougamers.com/news/13735_..._getting_used/

...also what you are saying was true pre-2007...it's 4 years later. Any new game you buy should take full support of all the cores.

[Smitey]

As I understand it DDo can only sapport a 2 core proscessor

You are incorrect - dndclient.exe will use all available CPUs by default and supports quad core:

[rimble]

You are incorrect - dndclient.exe will use all available CPUs by default and supports quad core:

I don't see how that means it will run on more than one at a time in parallel. It just means it's allowed to run on any core that it wants.

[aristarchus1000]

Allegedly? really?

I am pretty sure the original Apollo computer gets surpassed by a palm 3.

[Maxson]

I don't know the answer, but I didn't just spend £1000 on a new PC for only half the cores to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Answers please!!!!!

Man I hope you're trolling, lol. If you spent a grand on a PC just for DDO you wasted your cash ;p

[mournbladereigns]

3.5 core ruleset

[Stormanne]

I have monitored my CPU's usage for a while now and have never seen DDO operate on more than two cores simultaneously. While it did tax both cores heavily when I was using Vista and an AMD X2 6000, since switching to a quad core Intel (one generation before the i line of procs) and Win 7 it has been as smooth as anyone could ask for. As has been said by others, if you want to increase performance in game, upgrade your memory and video card.

[AZgreentea]

Man I hope you're trolling, lol. If you spent a grand on a PC just for DDO you wasted your cash ;p

In the US, that would be about 1650.00. Thats a pretty decent PC, considering I built a nearly top of the line system with "last years" parts for only 1000.00 (618 pounds) in 2009. Now you can buy my PC for about half of that, LOL. Ah computers.

Speaking from upgrading experience with DDO, DDO's limiters are not the CPU cores, its the RAM and the GPU. I've seen many articles talking to the limited number of truly multi threaded applications (games or otherwise) that exist. It has mostly been graphical programs (Adobe Photoshop) that jumped on the multi CPU bandwagon, as their apps benefited from it the most out of the gate. Most games might take advantage of two CPU's or more, but the real power behind a game remains the GPU.

[LightBear]

There's more at work on your pc while playing DDO then just DDO. So if DDO takes up the use of two cores let's hope your OS schedules the remaining tasks to your other cores.

[Smitey]

I don't see how that means it will run on more than one at a time in parallel. It just means it's allowed to run on any core that it wants.

The OP stated it does not support more than 2 cores which is inaccurate. In a multi-cpu system the load is spread evenly as task manager shows:



As per my previous post the dndclient process can use any/all of the cores as per the screenshot as they are all ticked and none greyed out.

Another layer down the individual threads spawned by the process will make use of all processors as necessary - you can see in this screenshot the chat client thread is running mainly on CPU 3: