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Since the Core i3 3220 has Hyper-Threading, will games like Battlefield 3 see and use the CPU as a virtual "quad core" rather than just 2 physical cores, so that AI and other features in the game run more efficiently?

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    Windows will see it as having four processors.
    – Mark Allen
    Sep 7, 2012 at 22:25
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    Welcome to SuperUser. I edited your question, it sounded a bit like a shopping request, masking the real question. If you are unhappy with the changes, feel free to revert them or edit the question again.
    – Baarn
    Sep 7, 2012 at 22:37
  • thank you for the responses. and thanks for the edit. it even made more sense to me.
    – Ben
    Sep 8, 2012 at 21:59

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Quick answer: they will use the four "logical" cores.

A program typically scales to multiple cores by running multiple concurrent "threads". The underlying OS typically manages which threads run where (called "scheduling"). If the OS sees 4 cores (and with hyper-threading, it will) - then four threads will run in parallel.

The game may have a variable number of threads, by asking the OS about the available number of cores. If this is the case, the game will most likely see four cores.

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