Best CPU(s) for this game

[waway625]

As you can see, CPU usage for my 5820K is around 30-35%

 

[armarayo]

I7 is waste for the game, as it doesn't use hyperthreading.

 

[akeela84]

I7 is waste for the game, as it doesn't use hyperthreading.

the game is Multi-thread enabled, that is while you can use the command -force-gfx-direct (force Unity to run the rendering in a single thread)

 

[armarayo]

isn't that different from hyperthreading, anyhow, skylines can't use all of benefits of i7, if I recall.

 

[MarkJohnson]

I have an i7-4770K overclocked at 4.4 GHz with 8 GB RAM and an nVidia 980 Ti, and I would like to new how much better would the game run with:

a) A 6-core i7-5820K -or-
b) A 4-core i7-6700K

Currently I see FPS drops from 60 to about 50 when I point the camera at a large part of the city; my guess is that it's because of heavy CPU usage. I would be curious to know if it is the same on the 6-core Haswells or the new Skylake CPUs and if it would be worth it to upgrade for better performance - I'm aiming for constant 60 FPS with VSync.

In my experience a 5829k at stock speeds is way more than enough. I had a -7-4790k OC 4.4GHz and the 450k pop, 25=tiles were choking CPU so badly I couldn't raise my game speed anymore and finally I couldn't even get x1 speed. I was probably .5 speed. My CPU was just maxed at 100% constantly.

I decided to go 6-core and waited for the new Intel 1200 series boards in hopes they would have 6-core CPUs, but they don't. I decided to just get an X99 board and the low end 5820k 3.3GHz processor (The 5830k has more PCIe lane and is better if using more than 2 graphics cards) since I only use one GPU (R9 390 8GB vRAM.)

After installation of the game, which I was only expecting about a 25% increase in overall speed and woulkd have been happy with a 100% CPU usage still and all my game speeds working, I amazing was only getting 35% CPU usage and all of my speeds working. Not sure what game me a huge boost of performance, but I assume it was the CPU cache memory. The multi-threading must have been choking my CPU cache so much it was overloaded. but I have easily double my game speed with the small upgrade, and I didn't need to overclock my CPU at all.

I only use a few minor mods and 1 asset and cities.exe stays a constant 3.5GB since about 200k pop. So it hasn't increased memory usage with city size like I assumed. Memory usage mainly goes up with asset from all of the custom buildings, and can go up slightly with mods, but not anything near what assets use up.

I hope this helps
-=Mark=-

ps, I don't see the 6700k giving you anything over your 4770k. It seems to have the same limitations.

After rereading your thread, if your only issue is FPS drops from 60 to 50 fps, then this is normal for simulators. It is from the way Windows handle multi-threaded apps. It is prioritized for FPS games over simulators so it causes inherent lag. Nothing will improve this except maybe DX12 implemented in this game. So you should be fine with your 4770k. If you start losing your game speeds (x2 x3) then you may start thinking about upgrading, but the upgrade will likely only benefit this game or specialized apps that use a lot of CPU, which are mostly for professional business apps.

 

[k-59]

16GB RAM still sounds excessive for gaming... maybe I'm just old fashioned? ... heh, besides, what would I know, all I play is Team Fortress 2 & Cities:Skylines.

RAM is so cheap that if you are getting a high end i7 you might as well buy another 8 gigs.