CPU speed comparison

[James D]

I know a little about computers but since all this Duo Core Quad Core stuff
came about it seems as though Intell doesn't base their chips on speed
anymore.

I'm looking at another prebuilt system. My question is, how does a Intel®
Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.40GHz compare to a P4 2.40GHz speed wise?

Last time I bought a pre-built system, the sales guy told me the Duo core
(which was a 1.8 GHZ) was actually "two" 1.86's which equaled out to a 3.72
GHz processor. I later found out that was not true, but with one gig of ram,
it still ran slow and now I am confused as to what to upgrade my system to.

Any thoughts?

 

[DL]

You might first consider what apps you wish to run, as generally Office apps
show very little real enhancement no matter what cpu or ram you use.
cpu & ram is generally important for gaming or Vid type apps

 

[kenkcj]

The way he described the core duo processor wasn't completely correct. He
was correct that it is two 1.8 ghz processors, but that definitely does not
equal 3.72 ghz. What the dual core processors have brought to the table is
multitasking for the computer. As an example that I used when explaining is
when you burn a cd. CD burning is a processor hog and as such, when you burn
a CD with a single processor such as a pentium 4, its using up a lot of the
computers resources along with any other programs you may be running at the
same time, where as with a dual core processor you have a whole different
processor available for other programs to run. Also other things that have
improved over the P4 to the Core 2 Duo processor is the bus speed which
transfers information between the ram and the processor. Overall, a core 2
duo operating at 1.8 will outperform any pentium 4 processor. Even a Core 2
Duo processor operating a 2.4 will be much better than a pentium 4 at 2.4.
As far as a quad goes, it all depends on what kind of program and how many
programs you would be running at any given point on whether you will get the
full benefit of having 4 processors.
Hope this helps,
-kenkcj

 

[Ace]

Short story, multi core processors can tackle more tasks simultaneously,
outrunning single core processors even at slower clock speeds.

However you need to ask yourself: Is it worth it, two cores, or four?
I reccommend you read the following:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/08/parallel_processing/index.html

And judge for yourself.

 

[Leythos]

I know a little about computers but since all this Duo Core Quad Core stuff
came about it seems as though Intell doesn't base their chips on speed
anymore.

I'm looking at another prebuilt system. My question is, how does a Intel®
Core? 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.40GHz compare to a P4 2.40GHz speed wise?

Last time I bought a pre-built system, the sales guy told me the Duo core
(which was a 1.8 GHZ) was actually "two" 1.86's which equaled out to a 3.72
GHz processor. I later found out that was not true, but with one gig of ram,
it still ran slow and now I am confused as to what to upgrade my system to.

Any thoughts?

The cores do not add like you were explained.

What happens is the that you can run more processes across the cores
where a single core (P4 without hyper threading) would share the single
CPU/Core with all processes. The benefit it that one process using a LOT
of CPU time will not always cause the system to stall, the other
processes MAY be able to use the other cores.

A Core 2 Duo Quad Core is a great CPU, certainly faster than a P4 Hyper
Threaded or even a Xeon at the same speed.

Since you're getting a new machine, get at least 2GB RAM if you plan on
moving to Vista at any time with this system, you also want to get a new
video card with 512MB RAM or more (for Vista proofing it).

--

Leythos
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
(e-mail address removed) (remove 999 for proper email address)