More Cores | Will Video Games Start Utilizing More CPU Cores With Increased Core Counts Thanks to AMD Zen 2?

AMD Zen 2 Brings 8 Core Gaming CPUs for only $329

Zen 2, Ryzen 3000

For a very long time high-end gaming CPUs featured up to 4 cores thanks to Intel’s monopoly over the CPU market but, when AMD released Ryzen everything changed. The standard Intel gaming CPU now features 6 core CPUs and, AMD’s next-gen Zen 2 CPUs are going to release 8 core CPUs for $329. CPUs are starting to feature more and more cores and, we have to ask the question. When are games going to utilize more than 4 cores?

AMD Zen 2 Specs

Thanks to AMD Zen 2, for the low price of $199 gamers are going to be able to get their hands on a 6 core/12 thread CPU with a 4.2 GHz frequency. This means that in the near future, budget gaming CPUs are going to feature at least 4 cores and, for $320 gamers are going to be able to pick up 8 core CPUs which means that 8 cores is going to become a standard this year. 

AMD Ryzen 3000 Desktop AM4 Series
Cores/Threads | Base Clock | Turbo Clock | TDP | MSRP
Ryzen 9 3950X
7nm 16C / 32T
3.5 GHz
4.7 GHz
105W
  TBC
Ryzen 9 3900X
7nm 12C / 24T
3.8 GHz
4.6 GHz
105W
 499 USD
Ryzen 7 3800X
7nm 8C / 16T
3.9 GHz
4.5 GHz
105W
 399 USD
Ryzen 7 3700X
7nm 8C / 16T
3.6 GHz
4.4 GHz
65W
 329 USD
Ryzen 5 3600X
7nm 6C / 12T
3.8 GHz
4.4 GHz
95W
 249 USD
Ryzen 5 3600
7nm 6C / 12T
3.6 GHz
4.2 GHz
65W
 199 USD

Games to Utilize More Cores

Right now, having more than 4 cores doesn’t exactly affect gaming performance. If you compare the Intel Core i7-8700’s performance against the Core i7-7700’s, you’ll notice that the i7-8700 doesn’t have much of an improvement in terms of gaming performance over the i7-7700. You also see this issue when AMD Ryzen CPUs are compared to Intel’s gaming CPUs around the same price point. Although Ryzen features far superior multi-core performance, Intel still beats Ryzen in gaming performance thanks to its superior single-core performance. Most games are still optimized for quad-core CPUs as the majority of the PC gaming market still use PCs with 4 cores but, in a year or two games should start utilizing more cores. A quad-core CPU will soon be treated like dual-core CPU is treated right now. Gamers should get ready to upgrade thanks to the inevitable shift to 8-core CPUs.

Tags and Keywords:
Technology, Video Games, AMD, Intel, Ryzen, AMD Zen 2, Intel Ice Lake, Sunny Cove, 8-Core CPU, Intel vs AMD

Sina Far
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