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[jid]

Hi All,

If I purchase a Dual Core @ 2.1GHz does this mean 2.1 x 2 to give 4.2 GHz of power?

This has been a question I have been searching for all day but haven't found a solid answer.

Sorry if I sound real stupid asking it

Thanks

Jamie

[HPsauce]

Sort of, but not really. Depends what mix of work you're doing.

[roseway]

It depends on how the OS and the applications use multiple processors. In effect that's what you've got - two processors. Each running thread in a program will only run on one processor, so if a particular program is only written as a single thread (many are) then that program will only use one of the processor cores. With a multi-threaded program, it depends on how well the OS kernel allocates threads to the two processor cores.

Which is a more long-winded way of saying the same as HP.

[jid]

So if I run two seperate single thread programs they will use one core each?

I see more how it works now

Thanks both

[roseway]

>> So if I run two seperate single thread programs they will use one core each?

That's what should happen, broadly speaking, but of course there are a lot of background processes running as well, so it all depends on how well the OS handles the allocation of threads to processors.

[UncleUB]

Hi Jamie.

I have a pentium 6400 (2.13) dual core proccessor.

One of the processor runs all the windows op system an the other springs to life when you are using the internet/downloading etc.

I have the windows vista dual core sidebar gadget and at present is showing the background one using 49% and the other one between 0 and 15% whist I'm using the internet for general browsing.
When you click the mouse to load a page this goes up to about 30% until the page loads.

[geep]

Hi,
Linux System Monitor with Core2Duo. Both cores hit 100% for several seconds running the multiprocessor version of the POVRay raytracer. You can see clock speed and temperatures increase too.
Cheers,
Peter

[jid]

Thanks for the info guys, especially geep, those graphs were very helpful

I asked as I am hopefully getting a new laptop sometime next week ( ) and it has a Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz processor in.

Was wondering how it all works!

[kitz]

Not dual core - but quad core graphs from an XP o/s.

Just so you can see load with some common applications such as multiple IE + FF, then with more resource intensive progs such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver Flash etc.

As you can see the load isnt quite evenly distributed..  but it is shared out

[attachment deleted by admin]

[oldfogy]

As you can see the load isnt quite evenly distributed..  but it is shared out

Yes I have a similar distribution effect with my quad processor on Vista, and it's very rare that any one core maintains a high level for very long before another core takes over and evens it out.

[jid]

Aaah I've got it.

I think the Quad Core is better for a desktop machine and quad core laptops are very expensive

[kitz]

 

[jid]

I suppose a 2.0GHz with 1066mhz and 2mb cache would be quicker then than a 2.1GHz with 800MHz 2mb cache?