Dual Core Question Probly really dumb!!!

valve90210 · 9 Oct 2007 at 10:47

I'm semi contemplating upgrading my computer as it's getting on for 3 years old now and it's starting to show.

However, I'm really rather skint at the mo so would be looking to upgrade as cheaply as possible, this would probably mean going for a lower end Core 2Duo.

Now, seeing as I use a lot of slightly older software (Photoshop 5.5 and 7 and Quark 5 being the most important as they are used for my business work) I was wondering, would these suffer from lower performance if the actual speed of the individual cores was lower than the 2.8GHz of my current P4, seeing as they are so old and don't have support for multiple cores or does the processor just get it's full power used as in effect 1 core when running programs without multi core support?

Valve

semi-pro waster · 9 Oct 2007 at 10:51

It depends which CPU you go for but a Core2Duo at say 1.8ghz using a single core probably isn't that much slower than a P4 at 2.8ghz (I haven't actually checked figures though so this is estimation) because of advances in processor design and greater efficiency.

Corasik · 9 Oct 2007 at 10:54

Each core of a core2 duo can process almost twice as fast as a P4 runnning at the same clock speed, due to improvements in the processors design.

So even a low end 1.8 Ghz Core 2, its like having two 3.6Ghz P4's in about 95% of applications. In a very very small number of benchmarks the P4 will appear faster, but these are generally synthetic benchmarks with very little reflection on real world performace.

An upgrade from a 2.8Ghz p4 to ANY core duo will be an upgrade.

Any "one" older applications which isnt threaded will not make use of the second core (but it doesnt matter as each core will outperform your P4 anyway), However if you run Quark and Photoshop at the same time, windows will automatically schedule both cpu cores, so multitasking old applications will show a big performance benifit. You could also run two separate copies of photoshop, and run intensive image processing on two pictures at the same time, and each copy of photoshop would get its own core.

valve90210 · 9 Oct 2007 at 10:57

I know it's very hard to put into terms of % or anything like that but in general what sort of increase in performance would there be going from the P4 2.8Ghz to An E2140 for example???

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Corasik · 9 Oct 2007 at 11:17

It will vary from application to application, but a 2140 at stock (1.6ghz), will perform almost as well as a P4 @3.2Ghz. On average it should be around 15% faster in most real world applications, that may not be exact, as the 800mhz FSB, and smaller cache on the E2140 will have a small impact compared to say a E6600 etc.

So perhaps its safer to say around 10% faster than the P4. However as I said if you multi task, you'll have two cpu's to play with, so when one application is busy, windows (+ another application) will still be able to make use of the other cpu

So the computer will feel smoother.

In theory P4 was designed to do 3 operations every clock tick, but due to inefficiencies in design it normally only manages 2. AMD64/Opteron are designed for 3 ops per clock, and being a well designed chip sustain that in normal use. Core 2 Duo is designed for 4 ops per clock (on each core!!! giving 8 ops per clock with multithreaded apps or when multitasking), and occasionally are able to squeeze in a 5th, its very efficient at this, which is why its almost twice as fast as a P4 at any given clock.

valve90210 · 9 Oct 2007 at 11:29

Thanks, that puts things a bit more into perspective. So although it would be a fairly good upgrade, it wouldn't be a huge leap in performance terms, and seeing as ideally I'd like to not have to upgrade again for 3 or maybe 4 years, I'd probably be much better off saving for a while and spending rather more and getting as high a spec machine as I can afford then rather than trying to upgrade on a low budget right now.

One of my concerns when upgrading is whether or not to get the system built for me by the company I buy from, I know it's cheaper not too but I've never built up a full system from scratch and I'd be worried about messing things up and not having a warranty....

Valve

Corasik · 9 Oct 2007 at 13:49

Assuming your not going to overclock at all, I would look at getting an E6750 processor. Its got a good price v performance ratio for someone who isnt overclocking. The chip you look at is a very good budget part for an overclocker who wants to push it over the limits.

You could also get the Q6600, which is a little slower per core than the E6750, but better potential on modern/future multithreaded applications. But if your sticking with the current apps, the 6750 would be a little faster overall.

The midrange processors are great value for money for 'non overclocked' business computers, where reliability and absolute stability (+ warrenty issues) prevent overclocking.

Overclocking is cool, but in some applications its simply inappropriate, as an overclocked chip is at a greater risk of making an error/minor instability. Certainly wouldnt want my bank to use overclocked systems to keep my account records (Unless they accidently calculated an extra million in interest.. that would be ok

)

valve90210 · 9 Oct 2007 at 14:02

Well, I wouldn't be overclocking cos it's all prety much greek to me. but I would want to be playing games on the comp as I do rather like a good fps!!!

Baring in mind I would need a case, psu, motherboard, CPU, graphics card, memory and most likely a hard drive or maybe 2, what sort of cost would I currently be looking at for something which would last me about 3 years and still be pretty reasonable, as I managed with my P4?

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Kyle009 · 9 Oct 2007 at 14:14

valve90210 said:
Well, I wouldn't be overclocking cos it's all prety much greek to me. but I would want to be playing games on the comp as I do rather like a good fps!!!

Baring in mind I would need a case, psu, motherboard, CPU, graphics card, memory and most likely a hard drive or maybe 2, what sort of cost would I currently be looking at for something which would last me about 3 years and still be pretty reasonable, as I managed with my P4?

Valve

i just got myself a quadcore, 2gb ram, 750gb hdd space, gigabyte mobo, 8600gt corsair 520w psu and a case for £590 delivered with VAT

so can easily be done on a budget.

valve90210 · 9 Oct 2007 at 14:25

that is a nice spec there, not too bad a price either, my only concern there would be putting it all together myself cos I've never built a full system like that, though I'm sure if I took it easy it'd be simple enough.

Was that inc VAT or + VAT???

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