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Not all about clock ? (P4>dual/quad)

digitaldreams

digitaldreams

digitaldreams

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5 Jul 2007
Posts
510
I currently have the 3.8GHz P4 (670) and am considering upgrading to a dual or quad....

The benchmarks I find appear to show the latest chips outdo the 3.8 P4 even at lower clock speeds (say 2.66). Is this a side effect of having dual/quad cores or are they much more efficient at executing code anyway ?? (even single thread apps).

Regards
 
There is a topic on 'Toms Hardware' that compares several processors @2.4GHz....yet they have only chosen apps that would benefit from multi cores ! (on purpose ?).

I'd like to see a 'single threaded' benchmark comparing my 3.8 670 to say a 2.6 6700 (or Q6700). An older 3dmark or pcmark maybe ?.

<sigh>
 
Clock speeds have never been the be all and end all in computing.

It's about how many instructions a CPU can execute in a single clock cycle rather than how quickly it can do a single cycle.

The old Athlon 64's proved this, they ran at slower clock speed than the P4's but were much more efficient in dealing with instructions - and thus were actually faster at completing tasks than the P4's!
 
So....

If running an old 'single threaded' ap or game, would moving to dual/quad core from my 3.8 P4 (800MHz bus) slow it down ?. I'm talking at least 2.66GHz & 1GHz bus.....

Regards
 
digitaldreams said:
So....

If running an old 'single threaded' ap or game, would moving to dual/quad core from my 3.8 P4 (800MHz bus) slow it down ?. I'm talking at least 2.66GHz & 1GHz bus.....

Regards
Click to expand...

I can't see how a dual-core would be slower.
 
An old application/game not using the multiple cores. The only core in use though more efficient than the P4's cannot compete with the 3.8GHz of my current 670....

True or false ?
 
No the core 2 duo's are just as fast as a pentium D @ half the clockspeed, so a core 2 duo @2.6 would be just as fast as a pentium D @ 5.2 GHZ in Dual-Core apps and as a 5.2 ghz Pentium 4 in Single core apps.

Even 1 of the cores of a c2d (or a c2d in single core apps) would destroy your chip in terms of performance.
 
Yes, in 'general' terms, a P4 was designed to do up to 3 instructions per clock, but due to the way it was designed it normally didnt do more than 2.

AMD's Athlon 64 was a more traditional design, also designed for 3 instructions per clock, but it managed to do that virtually all the time.

Core 2 Duo's are designed for 4-5 instructions per clock, and are normally able to achieve 4, so really it is a good design.

The instructions per clock, are based on a single core, IE the Core 2 Duo being a dual core design is actually able to process 8-10 IPC given the right software, or a C2Q 16-20. Of course keeping all the cores busy isnt an easy task.

In addition to the better design of the C2D, it also has a higher FSB, so better memory bandwidth, and its able to process 128bit SSE instructions in a single clock, a P4 needed 2 clocks per SSE instruction. So for applications optimized with SSE, the C2D has even more potential. All in all its a superior design, and will outperform P4 computers with ease.
 
Nice one !....I'm even more sold on the idea. Yes my bus would be going up to 1000 from 800 (or even to 1333 if I dare push my P5W64-WS Pro & 8000ul ram). Yet I hear bus speed has less effect that the other improvements..

Forgive me if wrong, but while the P4 is executing a couple of things at once, it could also be executing a floating point instruction in it's built in maths co-processor....same to be said of all later chips.

Regards
 
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