Originally posted by BigMackCam Not an impossibility, as they had hyper-threading - and activity monitoring would show all cores, physical and logical. My old laptop from 2012 (I think) had an i7-4700MQ with four physical cores, but two logical cores for each of those. Processor monitoring showed eight cores in total, but of course four of these were virtual. I'm pretty sure that's what Norm was seeing too...
Hyper threading can increase processing It's great for gaming but it isn't a cure all as there are still some tasks it isn't as efficient such as image editing. Instead of taking my word on it, I quote from HP;
Will hyper-threading improve my computer’s performance?
According to Intel
[1], hyper-threading your cores can result in a 30% increase in performance and speed when comparing two identical PCs, with one CPU hyper-threaded. In a study published on Forbes, hyper-threading an AMD® processor (Ryzen 5 1600) showed a 17% increase in overall processing performance
[2].
Despite these results, hyper-threading your cores isn’t always the go-to solution. There will be tasks in which the speed of your processor does not increase despite hyper-threading. This is due in part to the fact that not all applications and strings of data can efficiently load into a multi-thread core.
In an experiment carried out by bit-tech.net, a hyper-threaded Intel i7 Core was compared to a single thread Intel i7 Core after being put through a few different tests
[3].
When it came to image editing, multitasking, and power consumption, the hyper-threaded counterpart did worse than the single thread.
However, it performed the same or better when it came to Handbrake Video Encoding, the Overall Custom PC Benchmark Score, and playing the popular game Crysis.
Gatorguy
very true when it comes to just image editing & video editing difference.
Just keep in mind those product requirements are the bare & recommended minimums... not what can make a software run at it's optimum performance.
I've probably interjected too much. I know what and how I want my system to run and have it built for that to keep me happy. Each person's level of comfort, Software they use and what equipment they use can be different and that is fine...
For the OP it sounds as if your headed in the right direction.