NationStates Jolt Archive

has anybody made up their mind on the new range of dual core processors hitting the consumer market? i was looking at the pentium d that clocked 3.2 but they say that due to the single-threading games around today its not doing anything special, doing more harm than good for it infact, although with xbox360 coming out with 3 cored i guess computers should go to multi-threading games soon. Maybe i should just get a p4 with hyper threading technology... i dunno, some help please?

has anybody made up their mind on the new range of dual core processors hitting the consumer market? i was looking at the pentium d that clocked 3.2 but they say that due to the single-threading games around today its not doing anything special, doing more harm than good for it infact, although with xbox360 coming out with 3 cored i guess computers should go to multi-threading games soon. Maybe i should just get a p4 with hyper threading technology... i dunno, some help please?

Most newer Pentium 4s are HT anyway. In fact all Pentiums 4 have HT on the CPU except it was only enabled for the 2.8Ghz or higher.

Most games are really single threaded, but they might multi-thread games in the future. Oh yes, if you use programs like Photoshop the Dual cores are great as they do help with multi-threaded graphics effects.

yes the ht technology is supposed to be fairly good, but the question, my fault for not being more direct, was if its worth getting a single core processor and waiting for dual core later, or just getting dual core now. I intend to buy a computer package from dell and they have dual core processors as standard aswell as faster single core processors as an option, Would a 3-3.2ghz dual core processor run games life half-life 2 and that?

yes the ht technology is supposed to be fairly good, but the question, my fault for not being more direct, was if its worth getting a single core processor and waiting for dual core later, or just getting dual core now. I intend to buy a computer package from dell and they have dual core processors as standard aswell as faster single core processors as an option, Would a 3-3.2ghz dual core processor run games life half-life 2 and that?

Value for money - I'd get a high rated single core. Dual cores only seem to benefit multi-threading apps anyway. The dual cores can't match the higher speeds in single core for clock speed at the moment either (AMD and Intel).

For gaming, the best CPU would be the Athlon 64 FX series (single cores) in my opinion. They are also awfully expensive.

On my PC I run a Pentium D(dual core) 3.0 ghz. It is wonderful. I did some research after I built it and decided that I ought to have gone with AMD for dual-core. Their much higher Front Side Bus speed is more important than clock speed. In any case, I've found that it runs smoothly and efficiently, without any hardware issues. My one word of warning: The processor wil reach 145 degrees farenheit with the base cooling system. At idle. But that's ok, it survives. Trust me, I flipped out when it happened too.




By the way, the best buy for dual-cores right now if you want to overclock them: The new Athlon AMD 3800+ (Price: $350-400) can be overclocked to far outperform the Athlon AMD 4800+ (Price: $875-1000)
AMD only clocked down the processor, they didn't do anything else. Thus, with good cooling, you can outperform the most expensive AMD Dual-core with the least expensive (and arguably, outperform the best intel pentium D)

Value for money - I'd get a high rated single core. Dual cores only seem to benefit multi-threading apps anyway. The dual cores can't match the higher speeds in single core for clock speed at the moment either (AMD and Intel).

For gaming, the best CPU would be the Athlon 64 FX series (single cores) in my opinion. They are also awfully expensive.
That is a valid point you make, but I game. I usually game while compiling software and running a few other programs (winrtgen, stuff like that) so I have a use for the dual-core. It's really a matter of preference.

That is a valid point you make, but I game. I usually game while compiling software and running a few other programs (winrtgen, stuff like that) so I have a use for the dual-core. It's really a matter of preference.

My current AMD board can take dual core Athlon 64s with BIOS patch. My next upgrade! Apart from plunking an nVidia 7800GTX in my PC ... when they get cheap.

My current AMD board can take dual core Athlon 64s with BIOS patch. My next upgrade! Apart from plunking an nVidia 7800GTX in my PC ... when they get cheap.
If you've never done a BIOS patch, watch out. I spent like 5 hours patching my bios and not getting it to work. Mine was a very user-friendly BIOS, so it kept the old BIOS OS, but yours may not allow you to roll back. Make sure that you do everything right...

If you've never done a BIOS patch, watch out. I spent like 5 hours patching my bios and not getting it to work. Mine was a very user-friendly BIOS, so it kept the old BIOS OS, but yours may not allow you to roll back. Make sure that you do everything right...

I got one of those new ASUS ones which don't require a floppy disk to upgrade the BIOS. You can also fix your BIOS from floppy too.

I got one of those new ASUS ones which don't require a floppy disk to upgrade the BIOS. You can also fix your BIOS from floppy too.
Yeah, I got the ASUS P5WD2 premium board. The one with the onboard sound that didn't work. The problem for me was that I needed to flash the BIOS to boot from my SATA hard drive. So there was no OS, so I couldn't do that. I totally forgot about that BIOS update feature after I realized I couldn't do it.

Honestly, what the dual core does is bring the dual-proc setup to the lay-person (obvious, I know). The effect of this, and the benefits, are lost to many because they assume that because most apps aren't multi-threaded the extra core is a waste. Let me explain the benefit here:

Anyone who games and runs other apps such as Winamp, a messenger service, etc. stands to gain quite a bit of performance from using a dual-core processor (or dual-proc board) properly. One of the options allowed through the task-manager is the ability to assign programs to a specific processor - in other words: I can run WoW on Proc 2 while everything else is running on Proc 1. That means I have a whole processor ( or core ) devoted to my game. Now, after I get my PCI VGA, I'll have a processor and a VGA to devote entirely to my game and another processor and VGA to devote to everything else I want to run.

As you can see, dual-core does have benefits - one just needs to know how to take advantage of it's architecture.

I own a AMD 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Processor, as I do a lot of multitasking, it's a natural choice for me. The cruacial component in video game performance is the graphics card, not the processor. I own GeForce 7800 GTX and can play smoothly every game I own at 1600x1200, 32bit color. Stability is great, I highly recommend it.