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[Byteheart]

I'm looking to build myself a new gaming rig but I want my dorfs to get the most out of my new system. So, to put it quite simply, would an i5 run DF just as well as an i7? I'm aware that DF will take a lot of everything that a CPU can throw at it but I'm super eager to get at least 5 years into my fort's lifespan before my FPS hits the 20's with 100 dorfs. Is that being greedy? Then again, can you ever have enough where DF is concerned?

TIA,

Mike

[andyman564]

neither, since Dwarf fortress doesn't support multiple cores you need to get as few cores with as much processing power as possible. single core is optimal, dual core is the next best. speaking solely in terms of dwarf fortress performance that is.

[Krabocopter]

get an i5 2500k and overclock it

[Byteheart]

get an i5 2500k and overclock it

That's what I intend to do.

@andyman564: I'm aware that DF doesn't like multiple cores but, as far as I know, so long as you restrict DF to using only one core it doesn't really matter. Is this not true?

-

Thanks for the input.

[Lectorog]

It doesn't matter how many cores past one it has. Power for DF processing can only come from one core. The power-per-core is what you need to worry about for DF; number of cores has absolutely no relevance. (Although a second core can be nice, so DF can have its own.)

[freeformschooler]

get an i5 2500k and overclock it

@andyman564: I'm aware that DF doesn't like multiple cores but, as far as I know, so long as you restrict DF to using only one core it doesn't really matter. Is this not true?

No, that's how it works. DF doesn't "not like" multiple cores, it just outright ignores all of them except one (except for rendering which has barely any impact at all). You don't "restrict" it to one core, it's already restricted to only one core, and there's no way to change it.

NINJAAAA

[zilpin]

neither, since Dwarf fortress doesn't support multiple cores you need to get as few cores with as much processing power as possible. single core is optimal, dual core is the next best. speaking solely in terms of dwarf fortress performance that is.

True, DF is single process, so faster is better and multiple cores will not make it faster alone.
But a single core is not optimal.

Having another core will let Windows do other tasks without interrupting DF, particularly if you assign processor affinity to DF on the second core.  Windows does a lot when it sits idle, so don't underestimate this.
And, if you like playing MP#s or streaming internet music, this is even more true.
So dual core is arguably optimal for normal DF playing, but I'd say ignore the number of cores entirely.

Quad core does not slow you down, it just gets wasted.
Go with the fastest specs, biggest CPU cache, ignore the number of processors, and you're set.

[Byteheart]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

So i5 it is then. I already know that DF is a single process program and when I said "doesn't like" I meant pretty much what freeformschooler said. However I also understand it as zilpin put it: DF doesn't actually benefit from multiple cores as it only uses one. The benefit comes in when you're trying to do other things at the same time, e.g. listening to music, and DF is given the luxury of hogging an entire core all to its self. You also don't have to worry about the OS getting in the way of your dorfy antics.

[Krabocopter]

good good
you won't be disappointed

[Makbeth]

I have an i7 running a 5x7 embark with 85 dwarves and a draining underground lake, still at 100 FPS.

[Valdrax]

Isn't some of the graphics done in another thread, IIRC?

[Funk]

Isn't some of the graphics done in another thread, IIRC?

i think it is  under OpenGL(so not the legacy version)
cant check (ive got all of 900mhz of cpu here)

[Siquo]

Yep, it is. Also, you can run Stonesense with dancing flowers fullscreen on your second monitor without any fps setback. Multicore doesn't speed up DF per se, but it's still nice to have.

[b4ux1t3]

So... I have a question regarding the graphics, and it kind of ties in with the OP. Does DF use your graphics card at all? From what I've gathered here, DF is a single, huge process. However, no one has mentioned anything about a video card, so I'm led to believe one of two things: DF doesn't even use the graphics card, and the processor does all the work, or no one here is actually running DF on a computer with a dedicated graphics card.

Just curious. I'm not having any problems with the graphics or FPS or anything.

[Cruxador]

If I recall correctly, the graphical processing can indeed be done by a graphics card, as long as it's DX10 compatible. However the graphics is so little of the processor weight that this is of fairly little importance. It's not worth buying a graphics card just for DF.