PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds gets 6 core-plus CPU optimization

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is getting an update today that includes optimization for CPUs that have 6 or more compute cores. That patch, which also fixes a handful of bugs in the last-person-standing shooter from developer Bluehole, hits the test servers today. The studio says that if it’s stable, it will roll out the update to its live servers by Thursday.

Getting support for multicore CPUs could make a difference for a game like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds due to its persistent nature. It has up to 100 players all running around a map at the same time, and that puts a lot of processing on the CPU as opposed to the graphics card. We’ll have to see if this new optimization makes a difference, but it is something that theoretically could improve performance for anyone rocking a chip with more than 4 cores.

This is an update for both AMD and Intel CPUs.

Those chip manufacturers have shifted from creating smaller, more efficient CPUs to focusing instead on adding more compute cores and multithreading. AMD is launching its Threadripper chips that include up to 16 cores, and Intel has a series of Core-X CPUs that have as many as 18 cores. Most games don’t take full advantage of that many cores, so — and you’ll probably still hear this for the foreseeable future — these chips are overkill for PC gaming. But if PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds sees a significant improvement, getting a 6-core Intel Core i7-7800X for $400 potentially makes a lot more sense.

Although, if you don’t give a damn about sense, you could always hop on this $2,000 18-core Intel Core i9-7980XE Extreme Edition Processor. If you’re going for overkill, you should really go all the way.