Multicore CPU's question

[drhax]

If a quad/dual cpu has got a frequency of 3 , have each core got the power of 3ghz or is it 3ghz divided into 4/2 cores, im guessing its the 1st example.
For example software that hasnt got multicore functionally and can only use 1 core, is the ghz the most important thing and can software that hasnt been coded for multicores someway get a performance boost from more cores?

 

[SeraphX]

1 yes, but only if the software is threaded correctly for more than 1 core

2 software that is single coded for a single core, yes ghz is more important then cores obviously lol

software that only uses one core wont get any performance boosts from using more than 1 core lol

 

[Duke]

Yep each core is separate, so if you're not running threaded applications straight away, it would be best to have a quick dual core instead of a lower clocked quad core, for example.

Saying that, Intel with the i5 and i7 made the cache on the chip available to each core, so if it is a single thread, at least the core in use has a lot of cache to speed it up. Also the Turbo feature will 'overclock' the core too.

 

[drhax]

I thought so thx, im going to be getting a new pc with a phenom 3.5 quad, use this atm2.2 dual, should be a big difference.