3900x to 5900x for X4

[geckoproductions]

Hey so I have a 5900x, coupled with a 6900xt AMD card, and I have to be honest, it never goes above 30% CPU usage. I dont know if that is an issue with optimisation or if my capacity is just more than enough, but I drop to 28fps or something just using the map, in 4k. even in seti mode, it only drops down to 30fps or so, and things are pretty smooth. so my 2 cents: I definitely have more than X4 needs/can use.

[jlehtone]

The 5900x has 12c/24t? The Windows shows 100% when all cores are in full use? Then "30%" would be bit over 3 cores, which is what the game is known to be able to use. (Linux shows "per core", so your CPU in full use -- all 24 "logical cores" -- would be 2400%, when Windows shows just 100%.)

X4 has one main thread that easily consumes 100% of one core and that is where the limit lies.

[Imperial Good]

The 5900x has 12c/24t?

That is correct.

The Windows shows 100% when all cores are in full use?

Windows shows 100% CPU usage when all threads are in use. Due to how SMT works this means that at 50% CPU usage it is possible that as good as 100% of core resources are already being used with the other 50% usage being made up by mostly stealing half the cycles from the 50% that is already working. Technically SMT allows the use of cycles or core resources that a single thread cannot fully use, but in most gaming workloads this extra computation results in ~5% more performance at best and often a slight performance regression due to the halved per thread performance.

Then "30%" would be bit over 3 cores

Using the above logic this means that ~7 CPU cores are being almost fully used. To be honest this is unusually high for X4, with it usually only loading 2-3 heavily.

Linux shows "per core", so your CPU in full use -- all 24 "logical cores" -- would be 2400%

Linux shows per thread/logical processor. For the 5900X this would mean that most CPU resources are being used at just 1,200% since beyond that is all SMT threads which give minimal additional throughput in most workloads.