Does CPU Core Count Matter for SF2?

[saisran]

Hi guys,

 

I fell in love with the Node 202 and been wanting to build another PC with it. (will be moving in a new house hopefully by May this year and wanted a Media Center/Gaming PC in the new living room)

 

The plan was to Run an I7-7700/i5-7600 paired with A Gigabyte/Zotac Mini 1070. But then AMD released their Ryzen CPUs including the 65W 1700.

 

at some point im sure than an ITX board will be released and at first it seems like its a good move to pair a mini 1070 with the Ryzen 1700. But after seeing benchmark of it it seems like the single core performance is much weaker than even the i5-7600K. 

 

So will SF2 be able to leverage the 8core/16thread of the Ryzen or will the 4 core Intel processor be better?

 

Thanks.

[Gunrunner]

It won't benefit from it, at heart the SF2 series is a monolithic game, the latest patches do offload some minor tasks to other cores but at least 90% of the work is still done on only one.

You would benefit more from having the best single-core performance you can afford.

Keep in mind that many modern CPU get increased performances through optimised path and instructions that would not benefit to SF2 because it never was compiled for it and relies on API versions that do not benefit from them either.

Considering the same principle applies to GPU, you might end up in a situation where older, "slower" hardware might get you better results than newer, faster one (or require high-end parts to see significant improvements over what was middle of the road hardware).

If you look at benchmarks, compare DirectX9 (eg. 3DMark 06) or DirectX10 (eg. 3DMark Vantage) ones, anything above that is not an indicator of how useful it will be to SF2.

[saisran]

It won't benefit from it, at heart the SF2 series is a monolithic game, the latest patches do offload some minor tasks to other cores but at least 90% of the work is still done on only one.

You would benefit more from having the best single-core performance you can afford.

Keep in mind that many modern CPU get increased performances through optimised path and instructions that would not benefit to SF2 because it never was compiled for it and relies on API versions that do not benefit from them either.

Considering the same principle applies to GPU, you might end up in a situation where older, "slower" hardware might get you better results than newer, faster one (or require high-end parts to see significant improvements over what was middle of the road hardware).

If you look at benchmarks, compare DirectX9 (eg. 3DMark 06) or DirectX10 (eg. 3DMark Vantage) ones, anything above that is not an indicator of how useful it will be to SF2.

 

I had a feeling it was like that. I guess it explains why i cant seem to get the game to look the way i want (compared to screenshots of other players) even with my GTX 1070. i have no problem with the framerates, it jsut doesnt look as sharp as i would like. I was blaming my old i7-3770 but i guess its may not actually be the problem.

 

Thanks for the feedback Gunrunner

[Gunrunner]

If it is a question of sharpness, it's more probably a question of settings than hardware performance, maybe try to contact these people to know which graphic settings they are using and whether or not they are using custom shaders and environment/flightengine.inis

 

Optimising your hardware choice to get the best ouf of SF2 is becoming hard, but a lot is still a matter of configuration.

[saisran]

If it is a question of sharpness, it's more probably a question of settings than hardware performance, maybe try to contact these people to know which graphic settings they are using and whether or not they are using custom shaders and environment/flightengine.inis

 

Optimising your hardware choice to get the best ouf of SF2 is becoming hard, but a lot is still a matter of configuration.

 

Haven't thought of that one. I'll definitely try that. (heads over to screenshot threads) 

 

Thanks.

[+Gepard]

For SF2 it is better to have a 3.7GHz DuoCore, than a 3.3 Quadcore. Make sure, that you have a good graphic card and enough RAM. Then is the question which Windows you want to use. Till Win7 SF2 runs without problems. Win8 or 10 can be tricky.

[+baffmeister]

I've posted this link a few times but here it is again. http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_6.html

 

It may be worth installing the Nvidia Inspector software to get access to additional settings not available with the stock Nvidia install. The issue I had with my present Nvidia card was crappy antialiasing compared to the old card/drivers. With the Nvidia Inspector software I was able to access something called "Sparse Grid Supersampling" which improved the look considerably. No idea why the newer card/drivers had worse antialiasing but it may just be related to the age of the SF2 series.

[Gunrunner]

Oh by the way, another way to solve the AA quality with 10x0 nVidia cards, unless you already run at high resolutions, you could use Dynamic Super Resolution, in effect it renders the frame at a much higher resolution then downsample them to the screen resolution, offering better AA, better details. In my experience with a 1060 and 1070, it does so while offering better performance than fixed resolution and "classic" AA up to twice the native resolution.

 

The reason the 10x0 have a problem with AA and some shaders on older games is simply that they are DX12 optimised, with some DX11 heritage but are starting to drop DX9/10 support, going as far as not supporting some DX9/10 functions in hardware anymore and emulating them in software in the drivers instead (which is not specific to nVidia or this generation of GPU, it's been the case for everyone for quite some time).

[saisran]

Oh by the way, another way to solve the AA quality with 10x0 nVidia cards, unless you already run at high resolutions, you could use Dynamic Super Resolution, in effect it renders the frame at a much higher resolution then downsample them to the screen resolution, offering better AA, better details. In my experience with a 1060 and 1070, it does so while offering better performance than fixed resolution and "classic" AA up to twice the native resolution.

 

The reason the 10x0 have a problem with AA and some shaders on older games is simply that they are DX12 optimised, with some DX11 heritage but are starting to drop DX9/10 support, going as far as not supporting some DX9/10 functions in hardware anymore and emulating them in software in the drivers instead (which is not specific to nVidia or this generation of GPU, it's been the case for everyone for quite some time).

Thanks for the additional info. Will try it out.