OK....so i finished testing. Let me start with the environment of the test. I used the same character (sorc) for all the tests, and used the same graphics settings (ultra) @1080p. Because I use them while playing swtor anyways, I also used swtorUNLEASHED and RadeonPro during all the tests, and used the same settings throughout. Its also worth noting that i run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP sp3 and have directX9 installed. My system is Intel i7 5820k @ 4.3 ghz 16gb ddr4 ram windows 10 home 64 bit 2 gb 256bit crossfired r9 270x's 1050base/1400mem clock speeds EVGA 850watt power supply 1080p 60hz acer monitor with ~5ms response time 120gb Kingston V200 series SSD (os) 120gb Kingston V300 SSD (swtor) I tested performance/fps in my nar shaddaa stronghold and the imperial fleet. The stronghold is a pretty good test of solo play, and the fleet is a pretty good test of play with a lot of people around. During the tests, the fleet had anywhere from 100-175 people on it, and probably averaged out to about 125-130 people thoughout the testing time. I would run around, mount and dismount, and spam force storm. I choose storm because I feel it is probably one of, if not the most resource intensive abilities to use. Now, it seems that you were under the impression that the more cores your processor has, the better the game will run. I was under the impression that 1 strong core is better than multiple weak cores, and that being said, the game will actually run better on a strong two core than a weak 8 core. Well the results would seem to lean towards my impressions. Furthermore, from my test results, there doesnt seem to be ANY evidence that swtor will use multiple cores at the same time. Before I list my results, let me break down the cores. My cps has 6 physical cores, with 2 logical cores per physical, so the OS will break down the cores into 12 parts...cores 0-11. Where core 0 and 1 is one physical core, core 2 and 3 is one physical core, and so on. Here are the results of testing gameplay with affinity (swtor.exe forced to use) set to particular cores...
Core 0-1 (1 physical core) Stronghold: 25-40 fps with very little stutter, pretty playable Fleet: 15-30 fps with very little stutter, pretty playable
Core 0-3 (2 physical cores) Stronghold: 25-40 fps with very little stutter, pretty playable Fleet: 15-30 fps with very little stutter, pretty playable
Core 0-5 (3 Physical cores) Stronghold: 25-40 fps with very little stutter, pretty playable Fleet: 15-30 fps with very little stutter, pretty playable
Core 0-7 (4 physical Cores) Stronghold: 25-45 fps with no stutter, very playable Fleet: 15-38 fps with no stutter, very playable
Core 0-11 (6 physical Cores) Stronghold: 50-60 fps with no stutter, very playable Fleet: 30-60 fps with no stutter, very playable
Now, I looked at these results and thought to myself, " maybe more cores is better". The performance increase from 1-3 cores to 4-6 cores is obvious. But it really didn't feel right, so I tried some more tests. In these tests I wasn't linear with the cores I selected. So instead of using core 0/1 and working up, I started at core 8/9, not setting affinity to cores 0-7. Here are the results...
Core 8-9 (1 Physical Core) Stronghold: 55-60 fps with no stutter, super playable Fleet: 40-60 fps with no stutter, super playable
Core 8-11 (2 physical cores) Stronghold: 55-60 fps with no stutter, super playable Fleet: 40-60 fps with no stutter, super playable
These results were pretty interesting to me. It would seem from these results that not only can swtor be played using only 1 physical core, but that the performance of that play is equal to setting affinity to 2 cores, or even 6 cores, depending on what core is being used. Why the higher numbered cores gave better performance than the lower numbered cores, I'm not sure. My guess is that windows assigns other processes and background services in a linear fashion, which would put more load on the lower numbered cores.
I think these results show beyond a reasonable doubt that swtor will not use more than one physical core at any given time and that swtor will not necessarily perform better on a multiple core processor. I think that if multiple people did this test, we would find that the processors single thread rating goes hand in hand with the amount of performance you will get when playing swtor.