Looking at the CPUs in current popular PC configurations and the specs of the next generation of consoles, I can’t help but wonder: When will we need an 8-core, 16-thread CPU for gaming?
The answer is not short. Processors with high multipliers and high thread counts may be becoming more popular now, thanks to AMD, but for gaming, there’s no need for expensive CPUs just yet. Single-core performance is still a strong factor and game development often takes many years. Upcoming games are often influenced by hardware from a few years ago, not today.
Over the next few years, we’ll likely see a rise in games that use more CPU cores and threads — although there are already many games that use more cores and threads, and PC hardware is getting worse and stronger. But the change will still be gradual for the reasons stated above.
Microsoft and Sony’s upcoming next-gen consoles won’t make a sudden, dramatic leap either. These machines indeed have 8-core, 16-thread chips, but overall, consoles are designed to last much longer than a typical gaming PC. These processors are chosen not for their immediate performance but for their long life: on average a console is used for 7 years.
So, if you build a gaming PC, if possible, skip processors that only have a maximum of 4 cores and 4 threads and instead, take a 4-core, 8-thread processor as a base. Options like the Intel Core i3-10100 and AMD Ryzen 3 3300X will last you well through the average PC upgrade cycle of three to six years.
If you build a PC for other tasks or simply don’t know what to do with the money, go ahead and build. There’s nothing wrong with owning a powerful PC, you just won’t need that power to play games.