New rig time 4 or 8 core

Building a new rig before 12 comes out and looking at 2500/2600k CPUs

Can fm make use of an octocore(albeit hyperthreaded)?

You won't see any difference in FM performance between a 2500k and a 2600k.

Might be worth asking in here:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/229226-FM-2011-Official-System-Specs-Thread/page19

If you can afford it get the 2600K - it is a lot faster...and irrespective of whether FM (or anything else) explicity makes use of the extra cores...you should notice a difference...with everything...

Notwithstanding that, when buying a new machine the general rule is to get as much CPU as you can...because its cheap and easy to upgrade RAM and HDD later...and even if not quite as cheap - its still easier to upgrade your video card as well (especially as intel keep changing their CPU pin layout and chipsets every 5 seconds - meaning new motherboards are needed more often than not when upgrading CPU)...

The i7-2600K is the best bang for your buck CPU going at the moment really...

Review for yourself here :

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

I have a new build with 2600k, 8 gb ram and FM is extremely quick when processing.

You can run loads of leagues without issue.

Always have large, customised database too, 55k + players...

I'd also recommend an SSD, It has made a noticeable difference in my FM load speeds.

The i7-2600K is the best bang for your buck CPU going at the moment really...

I strongly disagree. the i5-2500k (once clocked) is far better value for money and you won't notice a difference when gaming or general windows use between the two.

I actually have a 2600k at the moment for reference.

Will FM2012 be 64-bit and therefore able to use 8GB of RAM?

Am I right in thinking that 32-bit programs can only use up to 4GB of RAM anyway?

Could be a consideration if you are going to be shelling out ££££'s on the extra spec if it's purely for FM2012.

32-Bit is limited to 3GB I believe. The operating system is at least.

Thread on FM and 64 bit computers here

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/239999-Will-Football-Manager-2012-be-64-bit

The 2500K is better value for money, but FM can, at least when processing, take advantage of as many cores and threads as you have. Sadly it doesn't do much with the RAM :\

The 2600K is about as clockable, but obviously you have the hyper-threading benefits which WILL make a difference.

It might be worth holding on another breath for Ivy Bridge which is a 22nm process reduction of Sandy Bridge and really flies.

Of course Intel 2011 is going to be the major superpower but it's also back to X58 style pricing.

So if you have to have it today, go 2600K. If you can wait, get an Ivy Bridge. If you're rich, get an i7-970 now, and a 2011 CPU when that is released.

/nerd

Except to overclock the 2600k as high as you can overclock the 2500k you pretty much need to disable HT for a stable system. Unless you've got some top quality cooling and tech skills to tweak around with settings.

I'm running 5.0Ghz on my 2600k at the moment with HT off, with it on I can't get over 4.0 and stay stable.

I'd hope that nobody is attempting to put 5GHz through a 2600K without at least running the NH-D14 or similar. You should be able to get way past 4GHz stable if you can find 5 with HT off.

Plus Sandy Bridge overclocking is laughably simple. Increase vCore, increase multipliers and that's about it. There is very little to play with unlike the LGA1366 or something similar.

Anyway, I do enough hardware rambling in daily life so I'll hush and let everyone else carry on.

.....I want to upgrade, but i understood none of that :o

Is there an idiot's guide somewhere?

2500k far better value for money.

You should never buy top of the range components - they depreciate in value so quickly that you'd feel very foolish when you can get it half a year later for a fraction of the cost.

Is there an idiot's guide somewhere?

OC3D.com

/shill

Will FM2012 be 64-bit and therefore able to use 8GB of RAM?

Am I right in thinking that 32-bit programs can only use up to 4GB of RAM anyway?

Could be a consideration if you are going to be shelling out ££££'s on the extra spec if it's purely for FM2012.

FM will only use 2GB of RAM, allow for the OS & other processes 4GB is enough at the moment but it never hurts to get more if you can afford it.

This is how I do it:

How much money you got?

I start with my budget. And work from there. Filter out anything out of your price range.

I find dabs.com handy as it's very simple to use and filter.

Processors

If I find a computer similarly priced I compare the Processors here http://ark.intel.com/products/50072

Well works for i-series processors. Tells you the year released, threads, cores, and if it's using Sandybridge (the latest).

Find the processors in your price range and Compare them using the above website.

RAM

For 64 bit Systems (which most are that I've looked at) - 4GB is plenty. But I'd still go for 6GB+ if it's within the budget. If it's not then 4gb RAM will do nicely, I can get the RAM upgraded again.

Video Card

Next thing I look for is if it has a Video Card. If none is mentioned, then it probably doesn't. The i-series chips that have Sandybridge does graphic processing inside the chip. So it's not the end of the world if it hasn't got a standalone graphics card. If it does then it will be Raedon or Nvidea or something listed under Video or Graphics or something. You can easily google the part to find out the release date and if it's Entry Level, Entry to Mid, Mid, or High End graphics card.

If you can get a standalone graphics card it's only going to make gaming better for you.

Ending the search

Jot down the price, processor, RAM, and Video card, I note the system model and I google it and see if I can find it online anywhere else for cheaper.

The 2500K is better value for money, but FM can, at least when processing, take advantage of as many cores and threads as you have.

I'd love to see an official word on this - on German forums, people constantly claim that FM's usage of cores and threads would be comparably limited. It could as well be that what people are experiencing in massive performance increase whenever upgrading might be mostly down just that - upgrading to faster processors that are offering more performance per core due to better and newer architecture. I upgraded from an Athlon dual core to a Core i3 one, and the difference is huge. I don't know about FM in particular, but with games, even when optimized for multi-core support, they just don't gain half as much as application software does.

That is why Intel's current line of budget i3 processors, technically just running two cores, perform or outperform most quad core and sometimes even six core processors of previous generations in everyday use software as well as gaming (Intel Core 2 Quad, AMD Phenom II) - even in games that are claimed to be heavily optimized for multi-core support (GTA 4, Anno 1404). I bought one myself, and the i3 2100 being more than 50% cheaper than the smallest i5 there is, if you're on a tight budget, this is one of the best bang-for-buck deals at the moment also - at least if you're not into overclocking or heavily threaded applications (serious video encoding comes to mind). It's drawing criminally little power to boot.

If you want to spend more though... go for it! Any i5 will naturally perform significantly faster.

I read before on these here forums from someone from SI, can't find thread now? But I remember them saying that FM will utilise as many cores as are available when playing FM.

FM uses all core's & makes full use of HT.

FM is only multithreaded when processing match results; everything else (attribute progression, transfer activity etc.) is single-threaded. For that reason I'd take an overclocked i5 over an i7 running at stock. Unless one runs a ton of leagues at full detail a Sandy Bridge i5 will blitz through fixtures anyway.

FM is only multithreaded when processing match results; everything else (attribute progression, transfer activity etc.) is single-threaded. For that reason I'd take an overclocked i5 over an i7 running at stock. Unless one runs a ton of leagues at full detail a Sandy Bridge i5 will blitz through fixtures anyway.

How do you know this?

The game details screen shows you how much of your processor is being used. Some game functions don't seem to use more than 1 core.

i5 2400 is a brilliant processor, usually at a decent price if your budget lies somewhere greater than the i3 range and the i5 2500k.

FM uses all core's & makes full use of HT.

I should qualify my statement, FM uses all 4 cores of my CPU during general processing but only makes use of HT when handling matches.

Will FM2012 be 64-bit and therefore able to use 8GB of RAM?

Am I right in thinking that 32-bit programs can only use up to 4GB of RAM anyway?

Could be a consideration if you are going to be shelling out ££££'s on the extra spec if it's purely for FM2012.

Probably not until the majority of customers/PC's in general are all 64-bit.

FM11 works lightning fast on 64bit multicore systems.