I have a Phenom II 965 X 4 3.4Ghz or whatever. Just want to know if skyrim would be using that all? or just two cores

all i know is it won't make use of more than 64 bit windows.

all i can say is i went from a dual core to quad core and the difference is amazing

From what I can tell, Skyrim is more cpu intensive than gpu. Even when it comes to graphics issues.

Skyrim is very CPU-dependent, but only makes use of two cores.

Yeah, with a better CPU, as well, I'm guessing?

From what I hear, the game uses 2 cores, really 1 main, and one for other stuff (like shadows, I hear). Windows will split the load to other cores, however. This is not nearly the same as having a true threaded app.

I would love to hear from someone who knows facts, though.

Basically what we've seen is:

First core - Obviously
Second core - Will use it
Third core - To a lesser extent
Fourth core - Not at all/Maybe a little

It's definitely dual core enabled. And it does seem to scale a tad up to four cores, but it won't use those two much.

My Dual Core CPU handles Skyrim very good.

Likewise. My PC is a three year old dual core running XP and it's run everything I've thrown at it so far. Certain things like advanced textures that requre DX10 it can't do, obviously, but most games still look pretty good in terms of graphics.

There's a hardware/software thread in the http://www.gamesas.com/forum/179-skyrim-hardware-and-software-issues-subforums/ in the PC subforum titled: Unofficial "Will My PC Run Skyrim" Thread #57 w/ hardware guide hosted by Tig Ol Bitties.

Here's an extract about CPU performance from there: This list does not include CPU performance. If you find your video card here to be capable to run the game and are curious about your CPU, general rule of thumb is that if you have a true dual-core chip with at least 2.0GHz frequency, you will likely be fine to run the game. Pentium 4 chips are not true dual core chips; they are dual-core pretenders and are really single-core chips with poor implementation of HyperThreading. Should your dual-core CPU have a lower frequency than 2.0GHz, you can ask about it here. Please understand that frequencies are only comparable within the same architecture of CPUs...it is not a 1-to-1 ratio. A Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2 at 2.0GHz will destroy a Pentium D at the same frequency.

Could not find anything else, besides the above. But it would be a good place to ask the question.

Good luck.

Clock for clock perfomance - per core - is a more useful measurment of performance than number of cores.

Here's a useful link to compare CPUs:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=434

Extra cores sometimes come in handy, but are no excuse for slower individual cores,
at least for gaming.

looks like I should upgrade from dual core to quad core soon

It really only uses 2.

I don`t get it. All this time and games still don`t use the whole FOUR cores? I mean it`s been years and we were told how games would be using all cores available, Even if, by chance, it`s using more than two, it still doesn`t seem to make good use of them.

Is anything more then 4 cores a big white elephant we were tricked into purchasing?