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[Alexei403]

If I had a choice between a less powerful CPU and more RAM, and a more powerful CPU at the cost of less RAM, which would be better for an optimal DF experience (read: more FPS)?


Honestly irrelevant since RAM is rather cheap nowadays, but I'm still curious as to which matters more.

[Nadaka]

depends. Is the more powerful CPU more powerful due to higher clock speed? or due to more cores?

DF will get more benefit from a high clock speed than more cores and more ram.

[Skorpion]

Both. Whatever you're running, DF will max it out.

[Huin]

I haven't done extensive research on this or anything but would suggest that:

* RAM is very handy for DF to use - up to a point.
* After that, you want as many clock cycles as you can get.
* Having multiple cores isn't directly useful for DF, as it's a single process/thread application, however - having multiple cores means that anything else that's running at the same time (other applications, your OS, etc.) will not impact DF's performance as much.

[KaelGotDwarves]

DF always maxes out my CPU first, be it my powerful desktop or my crap laptops.

[G-Flex]

RAM can be a limiting factor, but only matters up to a point. If it has all the RAM it needs, that's basically it.

CPU continues to matter no matter how much better it is, because, well, the game will run faster, and it's not like you're going to get a CPU so fast that other things limit speed.

But "more powerful" for a CPU is ambiguous. More cores don't do a hell of a lot for DF, although it's nice to have two.

[Skorpion]

DF DOES benefit from dual-core processing. It basically allows it to run on one core exclusively, while the OS runs on the other.

[Samyotix]

Yes, the main point though is: If you're thinking about getting a fast dual core or a slightly slower triple- or quad-core, DF is probably fastest on the dual core.
The new i5/i7 ones could be good for DF since if they have a one of their cores maxed out and the others idle, they overclock the maxed-out one. Bit expensive though

[G-Flex]

Yeah, just keep in mind that clock speed is not a reliable indicator of CPU performance.

[Mattasmack]

I recently upgraded from a (single core) Athlon 64 to a Core i7.  The clock speed only went from 2.0 to 2.67 GHz but my FPS more than doubled for my 15-year-old fort.

At first it was terrifying.  Dwarves zipping all around the screen.  It felt like the fort was careening out of control.  Then, about the time the human caravan was supposed to show up, I got the nemesis unit load bug.  Well, I was nearly ready to move on to the next fort anyway.

I've never noticed DF taking up more than a couple hundred megabytes of RAM.  I suppose a really large map or lots of objects could push the memory usage way up, but I think in most cases to the extent that your RAM has any impact on gameplay, faster is more important than more.  Higher bus speed to the extent that your CPU can support it; lower waitstates otherwise.

[They Got Leader]

On Friday, my oldest brother and I assembled his quad-core tower. We built the whole thing and put Windows 7 on it, when we fired up DF (cause that's seriously the first game we played on it) and checked the CPU usage, it was an even spread across all the processors but the third one. Any particular reason? I thought I read somewhere about Windows 7 being able to make single core things spread out. Anyone know?

[KaelGotDwarves]

I believe you're mistaken.

DF does not use up multiple cores, this is verified through toady and multiple testing.

The other cores were probably in use by the OS and other services windows was running.

[zchris13]

It spreads it evenly, but apparently cannot go over using the equivalent of maxing 1 core out.  I've seen it.

[G-Flex]

It spreads it out, but NOT in the sense of executing it in parallel! It's just distributing the CPU load for reasons of heat and whatever else.


In other words: It's not making DF run on two cores at once, technically. It's running some on one core, then some on another, then some on the first, etc. So it's the equivalent of lifting boxes or filing papers and alternating which hand you use, as opposed to filing two papers or lifting two boxes at once (one with each hand).

[KaelGotDwarves]

It spreads it evenly, but apparently cannot go over using the equivalent of maxing 1 core out.  I've seen it.

Yeah, that's not happening.

As said above me, it'll spread OS and other services/program loads across other cores. DF is placed on one core only, the one that's maxed out.  That's why every few weeks we'll have a thread about how DF should be multithreaded.