Need Help selecting a Processor

I want to buy a new PC but I am totally confused with

(1) Hyper Threading
(2) Dual Core
(3) Core Duo
(4) Core 2 Duo

I barely started understanding that P4 3.8 GHz was the fastest sometime ago.

But now with above 3 how do they compare to P4 3.8 GHz in terms of Processing power ?

How much faster is the Latest Core 2 Duo in terms of P4 3.8 Ghz.

What is the difference between Core Duo, Core 2 Duo & Dual Core ?

Thanks
Kevin

 

This is fun, check this out,

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=430&model2=464&chart=193

 

i thought my athlon 64 4000+ was kinda fast till i played with them benchmarks on other cpu's. ed

 

ok first off whats your budget,

if you can spend about 400 or more then Core2 Duo

if you can spend about 300 then 939 X2

if you can spend about 250 then 939 A64

less than that and look for the Sempron 64

 

Since Core 2 Duo is fairly cheap, just ignore Core Duo. The "2" means alot of performance.

Dual Core, is a fairly basic idea, but no one seems to have an information on "dual core" technology. Someone else on this forum could probably describe it in a better way than I could. All I can say is it's similar in idea to HT.

I would go for the Core 2 Duo E6400 (2Ghz), it's cheap, and totally kick-ass.

The crappest Core 2 Duo (E6300, 1.86Ghz) outperforms the Pentium 4 Extreme 3.8Ghz, i'm sure of it.

 

Now the rest of the story, if only running one app, the 3.8 will keep up or out do the dual cores, in my opinion, until software is designed for dual core it is all hype, unless you set around all day and do benchmarks. ed

 

not correct.

The Pentium 4 is a 16 stage pipeline, the Core2 Duo is a 7 stage pipeline. one stage per clock, so do the math. In about 16-17 cycles on the Core2 Duo it does twice the work the Pentium 4 did while being slower. Thats why the Athlon 64 was faster than the Pentium 4 while being slower.

 

So you are tell me that a 1.8 dual core will run one app faster than a 3.8 single core, in the real world not a benchmark. ed

 

yes I am here to tell you that. There is alot more to a CPU than raw clock power. The FPU, the Interger, the pipeline and the cache all play major roles along with the FSB. Now also take into account that there have been improvements that make it more effecient anyway.

 

Dual core is not exactly similar to hyperthreading as a dual core is two seperate cpu's on the one die, both with there own caches. I run a 3.4Ghz pent D dual core on my home comp and a 3.2 Ghz pent 4 with h/t on my work comp. At the moment both are running rosetta@home a folding program that utilises both threads of the pent 4 and both cores of the dual core. The dual core does over twice the work of the Pent 4 for only .2Ghz higher clock. Put simply dual core is much better than a H/T P4 and core2duo are better again than a Dual core. comes down to what you can afford I guess. Thanks for that link tunered I was pretty stoked with my pent D 950's comparisons

 

I think you are missing my point, name me some software that the average person would use everyday that he can benifit and utilize the dual core, i have not heard of any app that will use over 50% of each core, is this correct?. ed

 

yeah pretty much at the moment, most apps only use 1 core period don't even share the load so one core will be 100% the other will be idle so 50% overall. But there is still a benafit because you can be running multiple apps at the same time with no performance loss. ie could have WMP cranking away in the background and still do anything else I have too with no extra lag on the system. Still would be nice if apps started to utilise at least dual cores as it won't be long before quad cores start to appear, and at the moment whats the point? Even microsoft haven't developed apps for dual core (32bit anyway), I bought FSX the other day and was a bit p1$$ed to find it only runs one core

 

Yea maybe thats why no software makers are getting excited, dont know what is coming out next month, or the next. ed

 

Yeah but they should be, because in the future I can't see Intel or AMD going back to single core processors. It is possible to develop software that will run on any comp with any number of cpu's, I'll use BOINC as an example again, you download the same app for any computer(single core, dual core or H/T cpu's) run the program for the first time and it reads which type of cpu your system has and utilises all available processors. This is an open source program that people have developed without receiving any payment what so ever, I don't think its too much to ask that company's that earn a fortune developing software should be able to do the same. Anyway getting way off subject here so Kevin just get the best CPU you can afford be it intel AMD single core dual core hyperthreaded I mean something like a pentium 4 3.2 Ghz processor is cheap as these days and is far from being a crap CPU, you can never own the best cause as soon as you buy one you can bet you ass they will release a better one the next day.

 

Keeping Future in mind as well as upgrading or exchanging in future, Core 2 Duo seems to be the consensus.

And of course I can afford extra $200 so why not get the latest.

Thank You ALL for great inputs & suggestions. I really appreciate it.

Kevin

 

if you can afford it, I suggest the E6600