hi guys after reading reports on dual core processors and single core ,some people have said that its a waste of time buying dual core cpus as most applications cannot use both is it really worth the money upgrading my old processor to core 2 duo or shall i go for an ordinary pentium 4 processor , i ve got to upgrade all my system any way but need to know this answer before i start thinking about the rest
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intel core 2 duo or single core
- Thread starter kvnwds43
- Start date
Even if you ignore the fact that Core 2 Duo is dual core. Its a totally different beast to a P4.
If you took a Core2 Duo, and disabled the second core, it would still blow away any P4 based computer. Its simply a better more efficient processor. Especially in gaming where Core2 really kicks P4 where it hurts. In many games Max framerates are limited by the GPU's still, but even so if you look at the minimum framerates, the Core2 systems often show their strengths.
Some might say that Core 2 is overkill for gaming because of the GPU limitations, however I say it just leaves more potential, as new graphics cards come out, you can just upgrade and not worry that your CPU will be a bottleneck.
So, to recap, a Core 2 Duo beats the living daylights out of any P4 in single threaded applications, and in the future when software makes better use of the second core it will be ready waiting.
Of course XP already makes use of the second core, so even if the programs you have right now arnt designed with dual core in mind, the Core 2 Duo will happily run 2 single threaded programs at the same time, and assign a different core to each task, and XP itself will always be using some processor power for the OS functions, these will make use the of the multi cores as well, so there should be some improvement in windows performance on a dual core system.
If you took a Core2 Duo, and disabled the second core, it would still blow away any P4 based computer. Its simply a better more efficient processor. Especially in gaming where Core2 really kicks P4 where it hurts. In many games Max framerates are limited by the GPU's still, but even so if you look at the minimum framerates, the Core2 systems often show their strengths.
Some might say that Core 2 is overkill for gaming because of the GPU limitations, however I say it just leaves more potential, as new graphics cards come out, you can just upgrade and not worry that your CPU will be a bottleneck.
So, to recap, a Core 2 Duo beats the living daylights out of any P4 in single threaded applications, and in the future when software makes better use of the second core it will be ready waiting.
Of course XP already makes use of the second core, so even if the programs you have right now arnt designed with dual core in mind, the Core 2 Duo will happily run 2 single threaded programs at the same time, and assign a different core to each task, and XP itself will always be using some processor power for the OS functions, these will make use the of the multi cores as well, so there should be some improvement in windows performance on a dual core system.
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Jokester said:
Jokester , would you suggest a single core for anything these days? Im just asking out of interest as with Windows becoming so huge and background apps like av scanning being more and more important to our "online lifestyles" having one core for OS duties is imperative nowadays wouldnt you say? Ie leaving one or more cores for whatever else you actually want to do?
Ok I guess if you JUST want to surf, single core will be ok - but even then very few just want that and for the price difference now its hardly worth it imho
Interested in your thoughts on the matter.................and anyone else's for that matter
Single core will be of use to offices and companys who need lots of computers but have a budget to stick to.
If building your own home pc then IMO single core is dead.Its not that much cheaper than a dual core cpu.And the gains are massive,
With a 6300 costing £120 and a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.80GHz costiing around 50-60 then there relly is no point in skrimping on the brain of the pc.
If building your own home pc then IMO single core is dead.Its not that much cheaper than a dual core cpu.And the gains are massive,
With a 6300 costing £120 and a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.80GHz costiing around 50-60 then there relly is no point in skrimping on the brain of the pc.