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dual or quad?

P

polonyc2

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which do you think is a better chip for today...a high end dual core or a low to midrange quad core?

I'm thinking about upgrading soon and was all set on quad core but then after thinking about it I think dual cores are a real bargain right now plus they offer up excellent performance...I think quad cores are still a few years away from being really relevant---whether it be for gaming or most non server type usage...and by the time they do become relevant both AMD/Intel will have much improved architecture out

plus the new Penryn dual cores look mighty good...I currently have a dual core AMD...but I might just go for the dual core Penryn instead of a quad core one (plus the fact that there are no quad core Penryn's out now except for the $1000+ QX9650 makes the decision even easier)
 
I had the same dilemma and decided on high clock dual core as most games benefit more from higher MHz rather than more cores.
When a quad core is needed I'll get one as they will no doubt be quite a bit faster or cheaper by then.

E8400's are pretty cheap for what they can achieve, reports so far say they manage 4GHz + on air with a good cooler.
I bought one yesterday :)
 
It depends on what you are doing. I elected to go with the Q6600.

Just make sure you get the latest and greatest board you can afford so it will be more likely to run next years processors when the next upgrade time arrives.

To save some cash, I went with an ASUS 650i based mobo, and it will prolly bite me at upgrade time. Oh well.

Don
 
I went with a Q6600 myself. Unless you do a lot of media encoding, rendering or other tasks that are easily multithreaded, a high-clocked dual core is probably a slightly better buy for today. However, I intend to keep this processor for 3 years or more, and a quad-core is likely to be more future-resistant (nice phrase someone else used!). So I'd say that, for most users, it depends on your likely upgrade schedule; if you'll certainly be buying Nehalem when that comes out, then might as well go for dual, but consider quad if you don't upgrade often. That's also the reason why I got an X38 motherboard; P35 is the best buy now, but I'd rather not find that graphics cards suddenly require PCI Express 2.0 in two years' time.

As regards to getting a board that will run future processors - it doesn't make much difference, the Penryn family are the end of line for LGA775. Nehalem will have a new socket.
 
As regards to getting a board that will run future processors - it doesn't make much difference, the Penryn family are the end of line for LGA775. Nehalem will have a new socket.
Click to expand...

Yes, but it's not only the socket that can block your upgrade path. If a new processor requires a bios update to run, a newer model of board is more likely to get the update sooner if at all.

Don
 
I think the best bang for the buck speedwise is a P35 mobo with a new E8400 CPU. You can't go wrong, and the overclockability of these new CPU's are great.

Robert
 
I woud agree but there is a bit of a lottery with P35.
I bought my sister a new PC for christmas and her Abit P35 board wont go much above 330MHz FSB which severely limited the overclock.
 
Mithent said:
I went with a Q6600 myself. Unless you do a lot of media encoding, rendering or other tasks that are easily multithreaded, a high-clocked dual core is probably a slightly better buy for today. However, I intend to keep this processor for 3 years or more, and a quad-core is likely to be more future-resistant (nice phrase someone else used!). So I'd say that, for most users, it depends on your likely upgrade schedule; if you'll certainly be buying Nehalem when that comes out, then might as well go for dual, but consider quad if you don't upgrade often. That's also the reason why I got an X38 motherboard; P35 is the best buy now, but I'd rather not find that graphics cards suddenly require PCI Express 2.0 in two years' time.

As regards to getting a board that will run future processors - it doesn't make much difference, the Penryn family are the end of line for LGA775. Nehalem will have a new socket.
Click to expand...

By the time (possibly never) games start using quadcore on a regular basis both chips will be way outdated. I would go dual core in a heartbeat instead of quad. It has always seemed to be a bad idea to get something slower in the hopes that it will be faster in the future.

Think about how many games actually use 64 bit cpu's to there full potential
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
By the time (possibly never) games start using quadcore on a regular basis both chips will be way outdated. I would go dual core in a heartbeat instead of quad. It has always seemed to be a bad idea to get something slower in the hopes that it will be faster in the future.

Think about how many games actually use 64 bit cpu's to there full potential
Click to expand...

Serious wisdom right there.

-Robert
 
Like I always say, but tech today for today, and tech for tomorrow, tomorrow.
 
Valnar said:
I think the best bang for the buck speedwise is a P35 mobo with a new E8400 CPU. You can't go wrong, and the overclockability of these new CPU's are great.

Robert
Click to expand...

yup. Add that to a nice HD3870 or 8800 GT and you've got yourself one helluva performer, on a budget too.
 
it seems like there is never a general consensus about whether quad or dual is better... which is why we need an intel tri-core, I say! :D
 
well, do you use your system for alot of multitasking? if so quad core, if a gaming rig faster dual core

that simple really.
 
MrGuvernment said:
well, do you use your system for alot of multitasking? if so quad core, if a gaming rig faster dual core

that simple really.
Click to expand...

but aren't games that use more then 2 cores due to start coming out this year---Alan Wake comes to mind
 
polonyc2 said:
but aren't games that use more then 2 cores due to start coming out this year---Alan Wake comes to mind
Click to expand...

We were saying that last year too but there hasnt been any serious inroad on games using Quad cores.
Alan Wake is bound to run well on single and dual cores otherwise they lose a huge market.
Maybe there will be some extra Physics for Quad cores.
 
Something to be aware of when choosing a mobo for your new CPU, my X38 ONLY allows the memory to run at the FSB speed x2 (edit: or higher).
There are options to automatically set the ram timings from the SPD based on a specific FSB frequency but they do not divide the ram speed up or down (edit: can go higher not lower).
I have the Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4 mobo, I dont know if this applies to all X38 and X48 mobos

For example, I have some DDR2-800 which clocks to about 900MHz.
This will allow me to use a 450MHz bus max.
with an E8400 the gives me a top speed of 4.05GHz.
Lucky for me one of the memory modules is faulty so I am returning them.
Instead I have some DDR-2 1000 arriving tomorrow which should hopefully get me to 4.8GHz if the CPU will do it :D

Oh and the performance difference in games compared to an A64 x2 @ 2.8GHz is astonishing, even with a single stick of ram that I have for now.
For example, I was getting 34fps @1280 res with Crysis Timedemo running a DX9 version of Ultra high on a clocked 8800GT.
With a 4GHz C2D, it gets 52fps !! using exactly the same Windows (I uninstalled the old drivers before putting the hard drive on the new mobo)
Now I can run the timedemo at 34fps in 1920x1080 or 45fps at 1600x1200.
I'll play the game when I have more than 1GB ram :)

Using Windows is no different between a C2D and an A64.
 
Scalable multithread applications generally benefit more from having more cores available than higher clock speed. Though I never really believe in "future-proofing", I do think a quad-core will last longer. The only way I see for the quad-core to be "obsolete" is if they come out with an octo-core CPU.
For people who upgrade often, a dual-core will give better performance today and save them some money in the long run. People who want they system to last as long as possible are better of with the quad-core.
 
skadebo said:
Like I always say, but tech today for today, and tech for tomorrow, tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Wise words. Some ppl argue quad = future proof but show me the games that use 4 processors.

Q6600 is the sweet spot for quad, but to get 3GHz you need seriously good cooling. It uses more power too.

I'd elect to go e c2d's to get 3ghz or 4 if you have good cooling. Greatest for games.

Quad is best for video encoding. very fast.
 
you don't need serious cooling for q6600 to get to 3ghz the stock cooler will do that.
 
Here are the results of my E8400 overclock :)

I managed to get to 4.35GHz at 1.493V (BIOS reads 1.44V), core temp = 61C ("coretemp" = 74C).
BUT then read that Intel have a document stating serious wear can occur if you use above 1.45V Vcore, ewwww.
So I backed off to 1.45V (BIOS reads 1.39V) @ 4.275GHz, core temp is 51C ("coretemp" = 66C).

So for safety my E8400 does 4.275GHz but there is so much headroom left to the Tj Max of 105C.
Coretemp says I have a delta remaining of 39C. Subtract the nominal 15C and that gives me another 24C to play with absolute tops!!!
I'll be watching to see if they dont die like flies when pushed harder so maybe it can get more later :)
 
Atech said:
WiC
Supreme Commander
Crysis
UT3
The list is longer...and getting longer...
Click to expand...

Fairly certain you get a higher framerate with the extra mhz not the extra cores with any of those games. Can't find a set of benchmarks to back that up however.

Anyone here have both?
 
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