Quad Cores

[nickinmarbella]

Is there any drive in O/S programming to take advantage of X numbers of cores? It seems ultimately pointless if the power cannot be harnessed.

don't think so. hasnt the x64 opp system just been relised last yr?

 

[celliott]

im not going to overclock my new intel system either. I want silence over speed.

a default conroe/quad is still very fast.

Indeed, but if you overclock it will be very very fast.

I also dont see why a lot of you think a non-overclocked cpu is quieter. You can still overclock with quiet/standard coolers. Although im not a conroe owner(yet) my Freezer64 Pro is still silent after I overclocked

Chris.

 

[ps3ud0]

Just wondering when the proper quad cores will come from Intel? Im presuming after AMD has theirs out?...

Im am/will be on a AMD Opty Dual-Core as a cheap upgrade and was considering an upgrade early next year (well I think when DX10 is useful really) and wondering if I can hold out for the quad cores if they arent much more than dual cores, but Im not interested in the hacked stuff Intel are looking to put out first...

ps3ud0

 

[sja360]

Just wondering when the proper quad cores will come from Intel? Im presuming after AMD has theirs out?...

Im am/will be on a AMD Opty Dual-Core as a cheap upgrade and was considering an upgrade early next year (well I think when DX10 is useful really) and wondering if I can hold out for the quad cores if they arent much more than dual cores, but Im not interested in the hacked stuff Intel are looking to put out first...

ps3ud0

iirc its Intel first this year and AMD next year i believe for releasing quad core processors.

 

[Soul Rider]

He was asking when Intel were going to release genuine quad core architecture chips, rather than the current 2 dual cores stuck together version.

AMD will be releasing their quad core architecture about 6-months before Intel on current roadmap/plans. Whether that changes or not, we'll have to see, although it is guessed at that Intel may be releasing a new chipset/socket for their genuine quad core release...

 

[sja360]

He was asking when Intel were going to release genuine quad core architecture chips, rather than the current 2 dual cores stuck together version.

AMD will be releasing their quad core architecture about 6-months before Intel on current roadmap/plans. Whether that changes or not, we'll have to see, although it is guessed at that Intel may be releasing a new chipset/socket for their genuine quad core release...

ah right my bad, i would have said these upcoming quad cores are the first proper ones but i guess not..

 

[Adam Senior]

i would w8t for the main stream ones to come through as the 1st realed quad core will be pricey..

 

[Duff-Man]

But surely multithreading is multithreading (I might sound a bit thick here...). If a program is made to use multiple cores, then surely it shouldnt matter how many cores a cpu has, the program should make sure of the maximum amount of resources available?

It depends on the application.

Take gaming for example. The different aspects of the game have to constantly interact, and to do a multi-threaded game will require frequent communication of large amounts of data between the cores. This takes time in itself, and may often outweigh the benefits - hence the difficulty in creating a scalable multi-threaded game. Currently they're looking to offload different parts of the game code to the second core (mainly game physics and direct X calls), which only need minimal interaction with the rest of the game logic.

Similar problems are apparent in a lot of programs when trying to code for multiple cores, and often they will be designed to take account of only a set number of cores. Of course other applications (like say video encoding) are easy to scale to use an arbitrary number of different cores, and these will immediately benefit from quad core.

It all depends on the nature of the program as to whether you can efficiently code for more CPUs, but if you're looking for gaming improvements forget it in the short term.