Dual core uses

G

Glow

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jul 20, 2002
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So I'm thinking about upgrading my chip here but I really don't see any real point to get a dual core chip when they are twice as much as a 4000+ I mean does anything really take advantage of dual core? I know in the dual core fix thread I think I was reading about a few older games none I play that you can use it. But does vista make use of it or any specific new games coming out? I'm guessing raw processing on one core still makes the most difference.
 
"As of Fall 2006, with the typical mix of mass-market applications the main benefit to an ordinary user from a multi-core CPU will be improved multitasking performance, which may apply more often than expected. Ordinary users are already running many threads; operating systems utilize multiple threads, as well as antivirus programs and other 'background processes' including audio and video controls. The largest boost in performance will likely be noticed in improved response time while running CPU-intensive processes, like antivirus scans, defragmenting, ripping/burning media (requiring file conversion), or searching for folders. Example: if the automatic virus scan initiates while a movie is being watched, the movie is far less likely to lag, as the antivirus program will be assigned to a different processor than the processor running the movie playback."
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It doesn't seem right that he focus's on Virus scans but this is a good description. Games o the future will utilize dual core as well.
Works Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_Core
 
shmitty said:
It doesn't seem right that he focus's on Virus scans but this is a good description. Games o the future will utilize dual core as well.
Works Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_Core
Click to expand...

So basically people need to hope people write applications to be taken advantage of like this and you have to assign 1 core to do this one core to do that. Seems kinda pointless I guess I rather just have 1 core thats got more cache or can push the clock cycles. I mean I guess it's good you can set 1 core two do virus scan while playing a game and use the other for the game. But *shrug* woop de do. I can do that now and I have a 3000+ and I don't see a huge dent in performance.
Forgot:
And Quad core, So what 1 for gaming 1 for your virus scan umm 1 for random things like msging 1 for umm running your p2p? sure.. This seems like such overkill. It's like Intel and AMD are in an arms race for cores and really not putting it to good use. I mean hell if games aren't getting coded or will soon maybe get coded for dual core then programmers are then going to have to code for quad core too? Somehow I see that taking a real long time considering cards like the 8800 are bottlenecking core 2 duos these chips really don't seem to matter much as long as you have a real high end vid card.
 
Not so much the part to key in on is the Mulit-Tasking and being able to get the best preformance on games.
 
Glow said:
Hello Hyper threading and you didn't need to assign anything.
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You seem to have a lack of understanding on how Dual Cores work. Your first application of a dual core is your desktop. Windows XP sp2 does a fair job of multitasking across multiple cores, vista even better. I dont know if your too big on browsing or anything but personaly I noticed a huge difference going from my 3500+ to my 4800X2 in terms of multitasking. Keep in mind the clock rating on these 2 cpu's are not very far apart, it's just that the 4800+ has two cores.

A shining example of modern games using dual cores is Supreme Commander where rendering is done on one core and AI plus trajectories on another. SupCom does this beautifuly and the gameplay difference between a single core and dual cor ein this game is like light and day. Also, supcom has the ability to spread over four cores or more. So the more cores, the better boost you get.

Another facet of it is driver support for things such as video cards. Currently Nvidia (not sure on ati) have multithreaded drivers providing a slight boost in performance as that hardsware operation is spread over the two cores.

The future of processing has almost been set in stone. As we approach a limit set by the laws of physics in terms of clock speeds we will most defiently be moving to multiple core processing.

Most modern games and software support multiple cores now or in the very near future. Your understanding of how multi cores work seems too simplified. Especially in Vista, the load is spread among the two cores pretty evenly. I really beleive if you were to upgrade you would feel and come to appreciate the benefit of dual core computing.

Look at it this way, which way could you drain a pond faster? With one pump, or two?
Also, dont think that just because it has two cores that they are watered down cores. It is actualy two full blown A64 CPU's with the only difference being that they share the L2 cache. (Which doesnt hurt them because the cache on X2's are bloated in relation to their single core brothers)
 
Glow said:
Hello Hyper threading and you didn't need to assign anything.
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Hyperthreading isn't multitaasking. You're still using one core to do many tasks, and Windows does a good job of splitting up tasks intelligently. Only occasionally, for a user specific reason/task, would you consider overriding that, and setting processor affinity.

dR
 
Also, dont think that just because it has two cores that they are watered down cores. It is actualy two full blown A64 CPU's with the only difference being that they share the L2 cache. (Which doesnt hurt them because the cache on X2's are bloated in relation to their single core brothers)
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This info is incorrect. Each K8 processor core has its own L2 cache .

The Core 2 architecture shares L2 among its two processors.
 
I went from a single core Opteron 146 running at 2.8GHz to a dual core X2 4400+ @ 2.5GHz and I will never buy another single core processor again if I can help it. The X2, even running 300MHz slower, does just about everything a lot better. I have a dual monitor setup with 4GB of ram and multiple hard drives, so my ability to multitask is significant. I rarely find myself needing more processing power with my X2. I can have Virtual PC 2007 running on my 2nd monitor with a full 1GB dedicated to it while playing BF2 on my primary monitor and it doesn't skip a beat. There is no way I'd be able to do all than on a single core. DUAL CORE FTW!!!

And yes, each core has it's own dedicated cache as stated above. FWIW, the upcoming Barcelona core will continue to have dedicated L1 and L2 cache, but it will also incorporate a shared L3 cache.
 
dook43 said:
This info is incorrect. Each K8 processor core has its own L2 cache .

The Core 2 architecture shares L2 among its two processors.
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You are correct, thank you for the correction. I guess i got the two backwards. :confused:
 
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