dual core, barely more?

[Ned]

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Pro ... 77,00.html

[Mobius]

Yes. Two cores != twice as fast except in very rare circumstances.

Remember, individual apps must be multithreaded before they can take advantage of the other core.

Multitasking performance is increased, because it's quicker switching between apps. Running two intensive processes at once is also faster.

I doubt I'll be upgrading until there are four cores per die.

[Krom]

Keep in mind the 4200+ is two cores @ 2.2 GHz each with a 512k cache, the 4400+ is also 2.2 GHz each with 1 MB caches. The 4600/4800 are both 2.4 GHz with the same differences in cache size. The 4000+ is a single 2.4 GHz core with a 1 MB cache.

That benchmark is not a good test of what separates a dual core from a single core system, look at the X2 benchmarks on anandtech for example, in some cases the dual core chips outrun the single core chips by tremendous margins in multi tasking situations.

[Richard Cranium]

I run Dual HT Xeon CPUs in my servers. That way I can keep the various functions running on the server from stomping on the games it running.

[Aggressor Prime]

Games like Quake 4 and CoD2 work very well with dual and quad cores (2 Opteron 280 ).

Core Decision should also work well with quad cores.
If Into Cerberon is also made to work with Quake 4, we can have some awesome Descent-style games.

[fliptw]

Games like Quake 4 and CoD2 work very well with dual and quad cores (2 Opteron 280 ).

Core Decision should also work well with quad cores.
If Into Cerberon is also made to work with Quake 4, we can have some awesome Descent-style games.

you are assuming they are coding with SMP in mind.

[zbriggs]

We are.

[Ned]

Yes. Two cores != twice as fast except in very rare circumstances.

I am confused. The chart I linked to shows a pathetic 10-20% increase. If they could dig up ANY benchmark making it look awesome, don't you think they would do it?

[Krom]

Ned, you aren't looking at the right kind of benchmark at all period, the benchmarks you have listed do almost nothing for dual core chips. Try this out instead: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... i=2410&p=9

or this: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... =2397&p=21

What happens when you REALLY multitask with a dual core vs a single core, in some cases the FX-55 score was so bad compared to the dual core parts that they had to clip it off the graphs.

[Ned]

Thanks Krom!

Very interesting, I just looked at all that and learned a lot. I KNEW you'd have a techie answer

[Krom]

NP, someone had to point out that the reason dual core is way faster is not because it makes one program faster, but because it makes two (or more) programs at once dramatically faster. With a dual core system you can do things that would normally make your OS lag out completely and your computer impossible to use until whatever task you started it on was done and not even notice it from a system that was idle.

[Ned]

like folding while playinf descent