Intel claims software optimisation hide up to 30% of CPU gaming performance
Intel says that optimisation is critical for modern PC games – Software is holding back hardware
Intel’s Robert Hallock has been discussing PC game optimisation and its impact on modern CPU performance. He argues that software optimisation plays a much larger role than it did before, and that PC gamers underestimate its impact.
In an interview with PC Games Hardware, Hallock says that drivers, firmware, scheduler logic, and optimisations are crucial factors. That said, increased PC hardware diversity has also played a role. After all, prior to 2017, most PC gaming CPUs didn’t have more than four cores. Today’s Intel Ultra 7 270K PLUS has 24.
I truly believe, and this might get me in trouble, but I truly believe that the general PC gaming market and especially enthusiasts, like really hardcore PC enthusiasts, are significantly underestimating the importance of software to the PC experience, like really, really seriously.
– Intel’s Robert Hallock
No PC game runs optimally on modern hardware
Hardware diversity is a growing challenge for games. On PC, there are almost countless potential hardware combinations. Add on firmware revisions, motherboard variations, and drivers, and it’s easy to see why it’s hard to run games optimally.
Are you using an AMD Ryzen 5 7600 CPU with 6 cores, or an Intel Core Ultra 7 270K PLUS with 24? With such hardware variation, it is easy to see why games can struggle to fully utilise hardware.
Today, games run faster when their software is well optimised. Even the strongest gaming PCs can struggle with sub-optimal software. Intel sees an opportunity in software optimisation to boost the performance of future games. Yes, Intel plans to make faster CPUs, but they can achieve more if they can get games to utilise their CPUs more effectively.
There is no game on earth that is as fast as it’s going to be purely through hardware. That doesn’t exist anymore. That used to be the case in 2010, 2015. That is not how gaming works anymore.
– Intel’s Robert Hallock
10-30% of a CPU’s potential is lost due to a lack of optimisation
Today, many games are optimised for consoles and then ported to PC. Hallock claims that this approach can result in PC games not being fully optimised, leaving performance on the table. Potential performance is left untapped, with 10-30% of a game’s potential performance being unused.
To address this, Intel is taking a software and hardware approach to gaming. Intel will work on creating better gaming hardware, but it will also develop software solutions to help its hardware be fully utilised. This includes technologies such as Intel Thread Director, Application Optimisation (APO), and the Intel Binary Optimisation Tool (IBOT).
And that performance is, yes, you can make the game faster with a faster piece of hardware, but there’s always going to be 10, 20, 30% performance hidden behind the fact that that game was just not optimized for your CPU.
– Intel’s Robert Hallock
While gamers are asking for more powerful hardware, Hallock’s approach is to deliver more than that. Yes, faster hardware will deliver higher framerates, but so will superior software.
If gamers ask Intel to “just make faster hardware”, they are also asking them to “just leave 20% performance behind”. With Intel’s two-pronged approach, the company hopes to deliver a one-two punch that will raise PC gaming performance.
What gamers have literally asked me to do is like, hey, don’t do this software thing. Just make faster hardware. And what they’re really asking me is, hey, just leave 20% performance behind. Seriously. That is not the kind of business I want to run.
– Intel’s Robert Hallock
Intel is becoming aggressive within the enthusiast PC segment. Not only has Intel pledged to deliver more overclockable CPU models, but it is also taking a bold new approach to PC gaming. Hardware alone won’t deliver optimal gaming performance. For this reason, Intel is pushing for gains in other areas to push framerates higher. This is great for gamers and could lead to significant performance gains in the future.
You can join the discussion on Intel’s plans to boost its CPU gaming performance on the OC3D Forums.
