How much kick is there in dual core vs single?

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greyt_Autumn

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What's the real world boost to dual core over single core in normal usage (not benchmarks) Sure I've heard people say that Windows is snappier, but when I run apps (in my case, flight sims that do have multithreading/fibers support) what should I expect?

I'm not asking if dual core is better- I know that it is better (multiple cpu's always are). I'm asking what it means.

Are X2's really two processors that share a die or are they two cobbled together processors that share bandwidth and other common die resources unlike a pair of Opterons in two physical sockets?

We buy Xeons here for servers- single core, single die. For SMP we just add cpu's and VRE's before the OS load.

I'm just thinking ahead to my 1q07 upgrade. For Vista and DX10. I can live with my current box until that major shift arrives.
 
some drivers/apps are coming out optimized for dc, or have patches for dc, which give it a decent bump. otherwise, you can run anything you want, recoding, folding, rendering and assign it to 1 of the cores, while gaming on the other core, and you will not take any kind of hit. you can use winlauncher to pre assign affinities to your tasks, or do it manually thru the task manager. dont even think about single core, especialy if your not buying until next year. single core is dead. why would you want to limit yourself to 1 core per socket when you dont have to?
 
Nettwerk said:
I still rather have my 3ghz single opteron over my 2.8ghz x2 (gaming)
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even though your 2.8Ghz X2 is outperforming your 3Ghz Opty? Run some 3dMark06 and 05 and see if you change your mind...
 
greyt_Autumn said:
What's the real world boost to dual core over single core in normal usage (not benchmarks)
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Real world boost? I get around 350% performace out of four cores vs. one core. That is pretty good scaling, though it could be better. Now, this is on an app I wrote myself and is heavily threaded. It really all depends on what you run. I don't know what your primary apps are, so I don't know if dual-core would really help you or not. I run 2x dual-core for four total and love it.

greyt_Autumn said:
Are X2's really two processors that share a die or are they two cobbled together processors that share bandwidth and other common die resources unlike a pair of Opterons in two physical sockets?
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Each socket has a finite amount of B/W, so dual-core CPUs will have less bandwidth available to each individual core vs. a single-core chip. However, I would not say "cobbled together". For AMD, the cores both sit on the same peice of silicone and share a very fast crossbar switch that operates at full CPU clock.

greyt_Autumn said:
I'm just thinking ahead to my 1q07 upgrade. For Vista and DX10. I can live with my current box until that major shift arrives.
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Get a socket AM2 board and drop in a K8L chip in 2007. That would be your best bet.
 
Budwise said:
even though your 2.8Ghz X2 is outperforming your 3Ghz Opty? Run some 3dMark06 and 05 and see if you change your mind...
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Sorry, 3Dmark has about as much value as a game benchmark as AIDS infected cum.
 
Coldtronius said:
Sorry, 3Dmark has about as much value as a game benchmark as AIDS infected cum.
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So true, and yet so nasty!

"synthetic" benchmarks are really only good to get an "idea" of how your computer performs vs others in a similar environment.


these "synthetic" benchmakrs give ZERO idea of "real" world performance.
 
I wouldn't, under any circumstances, go back to single core. After switching my desktop to dual core, I had to buy a new laptop as well...I'm a total whore for the seemless environment it provides. My 'real world' analysis is that multiple applications run smoother and feel faster.
 
Dual Core FTW. I am doing Dual because more and more games/apps are becoming dual core friendly...
 
I'll take my dual core anyday of the week. I do lots of video work and encoding. The difference is huge! Easily half the time or more as compared to a single core processor.



 
I had both a 3.15GHz+ prime stable Opteron 144 that benched 3.2GHz without problem, and I also have a 165 that does 3GHz prime stable and 3.1GHz benchable without issue, but the 165 requires more voltage. On stock vcore, the 144 did 2.9GHz and the 165 does 2.8GHz. Seeing as how the 144 is in the mail as we speak, you can guess which one I prefer. :cool:

 
Dual core makes me cry when i start up wow(crashes) or cs:source(not-smooth) and it runs like crap even with everything optimized and tweaked. I am just praying that these games release some sort of patch with dual core help.
 
FrozenOver2 said:
Dual core makes me cry when i start up wow(crashes) or cs:source(not-smooth) and it runs like crap even with everything optimized and tweaked. I am just praying that these games release some sort of patch with dual core help.
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Same... ATM so frustrated I can feel the pressure of steam and tears behind my eyeball sockets! BTW FrozenOver2 what chipset are you using?
 
I <3 my dual core, running xp64bit I havn't had any issues, everything runs fantastically. Video encoding is a lot quicker than my single core boxen, i'm looking at building a dual cpu dual core if I get the chance this summer to speed up encoding duties. For games and stuff there isn't a real advantage...
 
FrozenOver2 said:
Dual core makes me cry when i start up wow(crashes) or cs:source(not-smooth) and it runs like crap even with everything optimized and tweaked. I am just praying that these games release some sort of patch with dual core help.
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Ive had my chip in 3 dif mobos on 3 dif windows installs and never had a problem. Might try going back to SP1 with no dualcore drivers. Works for me.
 
Coldtronius said:
Sorry, 3Dmark has about as much value as a game benchmark as AIDS infected cum.
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Damn that honestly made me shiver, ughh!

Dual core is for those who want redundancy, want to be able to do several things at once without feeling the usual slowdown that single cores made us so used to, and multithreaded apps are just insane how much quicker they are. Everything will be multithreaded eventually and dual/quad/etc core will be the norm.
 
I would never go back to a single core. It makes me sick to think about how much time I wasted waiting for my pc to do things all these years.
 
XP 64-bit and dual core with latest greatest AMD drivers and not a single problem with anything STEAM (even with previous drivers from AMD)... everything runs fast and smooth ..

running F@H and gaming is no longer an issue ..or burning a dvd while gaming or whatever... all smooth like melted buttuh

 
I never understood the complaints about dual-core gaming. I run a CS:S gaming community, so I have to play CS:S all the time, and on my Opteron 165 it runs perfectly fine, just like my 144. I don't play WoW but my friend has an X2 3800+ @ 2.4GHz and his runs WoW perfectly fine. Sounds like someone doesn't know how to setup the dual-core patch, or something.

 
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