To dual core or not...

[Cyradix]

Hi guys,

I'm thinking about buying a new (gaming) pc but I haven't been following the latest developments.
What's the deal with the dual core processors?
Are they any good? Do you have to use software written especially designed to use a dual core setup to notice the difference?

How would an P4 3200 GHz dual core measure up to a plain P4 3600 Ghz ?

The MB I’m thinking about is the Asus P5WD2 Premium…

 

[TdC]

tbh I'd say "not yet". if you're going to use your new rig almost exclusively for gaming, like I do, you'd be best off with a fast single core. they aren't that expensive, so you could get one to tide you over before upgrading to a multicore/hyperthreaded blah buzzword next year (like I am doing now)

yeah, you will need software that allows such a processor to shine in your system. winXP pro for example, or almost any unix clone. some games are out already that take advantage of hyperthreading and multiple cpus, but you won't be seeing much advantage outside of benchmarks untill it really takes off.

if you're into photoshopping, multimedia, DTP, that kind of stuff I'd say yeah, go for it now....but just games? wait a bit. myself I have an AMD 64/3200+ that I've OC'd to 2500MHz. my mobo supports up to AMD's X2/4800+ which is the ultimate upgrade goal for me. yup

 

[Cyradix]

Been browsing on the local webstore and come up with this :

copy/paste :

ASUS P5WD2 Prem,Sk775,PCIe ATX,955X,DDR2,Glan,SATA,Raid (P5WD2PREMIUM)
INTEL Pentium 4 Processor 660 (3600 MHZ) Socket 775, 800Mhz, 2Mb
2x Corsair 1024MB DDR2 128MX64 Value Select, PC667, Cas 4 (VS1GB667D2)
Zalman Cooler Socket 478, 775, 754, 939, 940 Compatible (CNPS7700-AICu) 120mm
MSI nVidia GeForce NX7800GT, PCI-X, 256Mb DDR3, Tv-Out, Dual DVI, ViVo, HDTV (NX7800GT-VT2D256E)


Any comments?
Not sure if I got the correct memory tho....

 

[inactionman]

X2 5000+ now Teeds.

It's not essential to upgrade to dual core, particularly not Intel's Frankensolution. To be honest if you're upgrading to dual core your better off going AMD, as Intel's dual core offerings are literally two seperate cores glued together on one package, whereas AMD's is a single die with 2 cores.

With the Intel you get higher power usage, thermals, and it doesn't perform too well, but it is a bit cheaper than the AMD's. It's also a dead-end solution, as long term Intel dual core is going to use the Pentium M, not the Pentium 4, but it's up to you.

One thing I do notice on my dual-core system is that it all seems a lot smoother, i.e. AV/etc doesn't stop me browsing etc. although it hasn't improved game performance (and probably wont until UT2007 comes out, which is multithreaded apparently).

As for what you spec, it looks fine, it's just I wouldn't reccomend Intel multi-core processors at the moment.

 

[Panda On Smack]

Been tempted by a new mobo/cpu/memory package myself recently but ive completely lost touch with all thats new

There are lots of AMD chips at the mo, whats the best one?

is it the X2?

Soz to hijack the thread, didnt wanna start another one!

 

[TdC]

the X2 is AMD's dual-core offering. 5000+ now eh? *wood*

 

[inactionman]

If you look in the thread I made about upgrades recently, you'll get some reccomendations about cpu/motherboard/memory (you could easily make some savings though, if you didn't want SLI, or you could economise on the cpu).

Things you'll need to bear in mind is that all new motherboards are PCI-Express, not AGP, so you'll need a new graphics card and they generally need ATX 2.0 PSU's (24 pin motherboard power connector instead of the 20 pin in ATX 1.0), so possibly a new psu as well.

 

[Ardrias]

For gaming, singlecore is still the way to go. No games out atm are coded to take advantage of dualcore, so there's more value for the money in going singlecore. Get dual cpu's instead

 

[Escape]

Doesn't a dualcore system act like a dual-cpu one?

Multi-tasking and encoding will improve, but games won't benefit.

 

[inactionman]

Yes, dual core is exactly the same as dual cpu.

Well, games will improve if you run things like p2p, firewall and AV in the background as windows will run them (and pretty much anything else) on the other core, leaving one core totally for the game (which you can't do with single cores), but it's not the same as the game running on both cores (as the second core won't be fully utilised). It's just that for the same money you can get a faster single core cpu, that will run the games faster anyway.