Dual core question, whos the expert?

Can somebody explain what I'm getting by upgrading from an Intel CPU 2.53 Ghz. to an Intel dualcore 2.33Ghz CPU?
Does it mean that being a dualcore it will run at twice the clock speed i.e. in this case 2.33Ghz x2 = 4.66Ghz?

thanks for your time.

 

No, in layman's terms, its more akin to two CPUs running at the same time, being able to share the load. Both run at the same speed. However, it requires an OS that can take advantage of it, and applications that can take advantage of it.

Most games do not. Many applications do not. Windows XP and Vista do, allegedly Vista moreso. Many encoding apps do too.

DVD shrink is multi core/cpu aware, and the performance increase is tremendous, for example.

 

Thanks for the reply.

How much more powerful is the dualcore over my present CPU, of course taking into account that my software and OS does utilizes dualcore?

 

Incredibly more powerful, and if your apps are multi core aware--tremendous performance increase.

Even if they arent--you are going to see a nice increase in performance, especially with multitasking.

 

I just upgraded to a dual core and the difference is amazing, especially with multi-tasking as was already said. I can now recode avi files and the system is now responsive as compared to a single core when it would almost lock up when browsing really anything else. Don't expect to double the speed though an increase of %50 to %80 in productivity has been bandied about by the pundits. BTW, I'm not an expert.

 

Check out CPU-Control at

http://www.koma-code.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=88&Itemid=93

I run it on Automatic all the time. It helps my old Duo Core (not Core Duo 2) laptop. Bazza

 

Thanks guys, very helpful indeed.

I shall be quite happy to go ahead with purchasing the dualcore CPU now.

 

Quite a bit of that is available via task manager.

 

Can you expand on this, Adrynalyne.
I've checked the 5 tabs in the Windows Task manager and can't spot anything that allows changes to CPU activity. :confused
I'm using XP Pro. Maybe different in Vista?
Thanks. Bazza

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Try right-clicking a process, and selecting 'Set Affinity'

 

Thanks, M_M. (doh)
Do the settings stick?
Or do they have to be reset each bootup?
Bazza

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They have to be reset
In XP, at least.

 

Thanks for the link bigbazza!

I've been looking for a reliable control for setting the affinity. My old IBM set up has hyperthreading enabled, but I have never put it to real use because I get tired of resetting the affinity every time. This helped speed up everything considerably.

 

You're quite welcome. .
Yep, stuff having to set up affinities every time. Bazza

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