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Is this advert misleading?

CurlyWhirly

CurlyWhirly

CurlyWhirly

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I haven't posted details of the website as it is a competitors!


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2.4 Ghz per core = 9.6 Ghz TOTAL POWER
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As far as I know, quad cores don't work like that :confused: (although having 4 cores working simultaneously is bound to offer a higher performance compared to a single core running at 2.4 Ghz)

I've never seen such a claim in an advert before!
 
na its bull **** the 4 cores dont add up seen quite a few of these especialy on auction sites, just trying to make it spund betther than it is!
 
Yeah, it's common bay-speak.. someone not in-the-know sees "9.6Ghz TOTAL POWER!" and assumes it's automatically better than any lower number that isn't using the 'total power' rating system (or I guess that's how the seller hopes it works!)
 
Yes I thought it was bull :D

Incidentally I wonder what sort of performance increase a quad core CPU like in the above advert manages over a single core CPU, perhaps 20% :confused:

Just curious :o
 
CurlyWhirly said:
As far as I know, quad cores don't work like that :confused: (although having 4 cores working simultaneously is bound to offer a higher performance compared to a single core running at 2.4 Ghz)

I've never seen such a claim in an advert before!
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Common on a certain internet auction site. Its bull as you already pointed out. 4x2.4ghz = 4x2.4ghz, as increase performance from multicore systems is about getting more work done in parallel, not ultra fast single task work.

Cant wait to see the "bay" i7 systems... 4 cores @2.66Ghz + hyperthreading = 8 threads = 21.28Ghz. Well they gotta make the i7 look more impressive than a Q6700 somehow :) (Yes I know an i7 kicks a Q6700 clock for clock just having a laugh at the bay sellers).
 
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CurlyWhirly said:
Yes I thought it was bull :D

Incidentally I wonder what sort of performance increase a quad core CPU like in the above advert manages over a single core CPU, perhaps 20% :confused:

Just curious :o
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Depends on the application, in games not that much, although some games are starting to make use of dual cores, but even there the gain is mostly from having 1 cpu for the OS to make use for, and 1 dedicated for the game.

In a LAMP web server, you could quite concieveably see a 400% improvement in performance assuming the hard drives could keep up, as each concurrent web request could easily spawn a thread for apache, another for PHP, another for SQL etc.. Multiply that by 1000 people visiting a busy website, and 4 cpu cores = a lot of processing power, and almost perfect scaling, as its scheduling thousands of threads across all the available cores. (Sun actually have a server with can process 64threads at once.. kinda like a 64core processor but actually 8 cores and a lot of hyperthreading)
 
Corasik said:
Depends on the application, in games not that much, although some games are starting to make use of dual cores, but even there the gain is mostly from having 1 cpu for the OS to make use for, and 1 dedicated for the game.
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I can see that is a benefit.

I wonder if any games make use of quad cores yet :confused:
 
It's the usual claim that sellers make on eBay.

Quite a few games use more than 2 cores - all the Unreal 3 Engine games for example, as well as SupCom, Left4Dead (I think...).
 
CurlyWhirly said:
I can see that is a benefit.

I wonder if any games make use of quad cores yet :confused:
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I believe the AI for Supreme Commander can make fairly good use of quad cores, the graphics engine itself doesnt make much use of it, but after 15-20 minutes as the AI starts massing a lot of units, the quads really do make a difference.

But Im pretty sure supreme commander one of just a handfull of games that get any benifit.

For what its worth world of warcraft can put quite a load on a dual core, but moving to a quad gives no futher improvement. At the moment, a dual core will generally give as good a gameplay as a quad, or even better as the duals generally clock to higher frequencys.
 
With non-IT literates I use the analogy of cars - if you have four, four seater cars which can do 100mph it does not mean you can do 400mph, but you can get 16 people from A to B in a quarter of the time you can with one car (or it could be an eighth, if the one car has to return to A each time !).

So it depends on what type of work you want to do. But then, I like things to be simple.

cjph
 
cjph said:
With non-IT literates I use the analogy of cars - if you have four, four seater cars which can do 100mph it does not mean you can do 400mph, but you can get 16 people from A to B in a quarter of the time you can with one car (or it could be an eighth, if the one car has to return to A each time !).

cjph
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I use a similar analogy, except I normally use a car @70mph V a bus @ 60mph.. The bus may be slower, but it can carry a lot more people in 1 trip. But for each person, the car ride is faster than the bus ride.

You can even extend to overclocking, as the car can break the speed limit, and it might even be able to make 2 trips, carrying 8 people in the time the bus can make 1 trip.. But the bus still carrys 20+ :)
 
cjph said:
With non-IT literates I use the analogy of cars - if you have four, four seater cars which can do 100mph it does not mean you can do 400mph, but you can get 16 people from A to B in a quarter of the time you can with one car (or it could be an eighth, if the one car has to return to A each time !).

So it depends on what type of work you want to do. But then, I like things to be simple.

cjph
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Not heard that before, that's a good analogy
 
Corasik said:
I believe the AI for Supreme Commander can make fairly good use of quad cores, the graphics engine itself doesnt make much use of it, but after 15-20 minutes as the AI starts massing a lot of units, the quads really do make a difference.

But Im pretty sure supreme commander one of just a handfull of games that get any benifit.

For what its worth world of warcraft can put quite a load on a dual core, but moving to a quad gives no futher improvement. At the moment, a dual core will generally give as good a gameplay as a quad, or even better as the duals generally clock to higher frequencys.
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I'm surprised that quad core hasn't had more support from software writers :eek:

I think quad core processors have been out for over a year :confused:
 
CurlyWhirly said:
I can see that is a benefit.

I wonder if any games make use of quad cores yet :confused:
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In FSX you can add a Job Scheduler line to the fsx.cfg file and assign up to 4 cores to be used. Here's a quote from an FSX tweak guide that I used:

"Allows the user to force FSX to create or not create additional threads in a multi-core or multi-processor environment. This may be useful in a QUAD core environment where you wish to use only 3 cores for FSX, but leave another one free for Windows or other programs to use. ACES recommends NOT adding this line unless you have a specific need and knowledge of what you are doing. FSX supports up to several hundred cores, but the following settings are the only ones provided from ACES at this time."

I have a Q9650 and added the Job Scheduler line to the .cfg file. I assigned 3 cores to the sim. Originally only one core ran maxed at 3 GHz, now 3 cores run at about 75% to 85% and the sim is a lot smoother.

And if FSX really can make use of "several hundred cores", then ACES must have designed it using a Cray!
 
It's a total bull ad.

I have 2 cars. One can do 110 mph and the other 140 mph. According to the logic of this ad I have a top speed of 250 mph.:D
 
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