This prob is a stupid Question but.....

[Rendier]

Does the Dual Core on the AMD actually mean that it runs like two processors or what?

I mean is the AMD AM2 Dual Core 4200+ (2.0)

Is it that it runs two 4200+ or one at 4200+?

Im sorry but CPU's has never been my thing, im the gfx fanboy.

Can someone please explain to me in normal terms what it does or mean and what the benefits are.

Thanks
Rendier

 

[Xarog]

Basically there are two processors on the same chip. In other words its double the processing power.

 

[nGAGEd55]

Does the Dual Core on the AMD actually mean that it runs like two processors or what?

yeah, it's basically two processors in one.

I mean is the AMD AM2 Dual Core 4200+ (2.0)

If i'm not mistaken, the 4200+ runs at 2.2Ghz not 2.0.

the xxxx+ number for amd dual core CPU's don't really mean much, they're basically just model numbers, like Core 2 Duo E6600.

So a 4200+ wouldn't be the equivilant of a pentium D running at 4.2Ghz.

The 4200+ is basically two single core AMD 3500+ cpus stuck together.

Im sorry but CPU's has never been my thing, im the gfx fanboy.

 

[pope24]

the xxxx+ number for amd dual core CPU's don't really mean much, they're basically just model numbers, like Core 2 Duo E6600.

So a 4200+ wouldn't be the equivilant of a pentium D running at 4.2Ghz.

The 4200+ is basically two single core AMD 3500+ cpus stuck together.

This is basically correct but in theory the AMD model numbers should equate to their GHz speed relative to a single core Pentium4 so a 4200+ would run faster than a single core P4 at 4.2GHz, or at least that was the original intention, they may have lost the plot along the way.

Each dual core chip has two processors but this is not just two CPU slapped together they share a number of resources such as (and I stand to be corrected here) the onboard cache and (in the case of AMD) the memory controller. This means that they will never be able to run as fast as a dual processor system, but they should come reasonably close.

 

[supersunbird]

This is basically correct but in theory the AMD model numbers should equate to their GHz speed relative to a single core Pentium4 so a 4200+ would run faster than a single core P4 at 4.2GHz, or at least that was the original intention, they may have lost the plot along the way.

Each dual core chip has two processors but this is not just two CPU slapped together they share a number of resources such as (and I stand to be corrected here) the onboard cache and (in the case of AMD) the memory controller. This means that they will never be able to run as fast as a dual processor system, but they should come reasonably close.

Asson as the AMD dual cores came out, the rating system changed in effect/applicability, so no its not comparable to P4's anymore and now just a model number, like Intel 670's or whatever...

 

[killadoob]

actually dual core does not work like you okes all say

alot of time if something is installing and you install something else windows is only using one core unless you tell it to use the other core

in my experience with dual core my pc still runs slow when lets say and anti virus is running and im playing a game i then need to tell windows to use the other core

is this correct or not?

 

[4cer]

Um, anti virus could just be that your hard drive is thinking hard, so stuggling to read data for the game maybe cause i can encode a dvd, then play a game, and it seems to just automatically, give one of these tasks to each core.

 

[bekdik]

My understanding is that software has to be compiled for multiprocessor use. If it isn't then it will run in a single processor.

I'm not sure how clever winxp is in assigning threads accross processors, but I don't think it does it well. Maybe vista will handle multi procesors better.

 

[Edwe]

Vista is supposedly designed for dual core processors. Even slightly older programs not optimised for dual processing, mostly consist of multiple program threads which should theoretically get evenly spread across all available cores in Windows Vista. As far as I understand, even the weakest Intel Core2 Duo processor (E6300) is faster than any P4 or Athlon chip in existence today on Windows Vista. At least that's what the benchmarks show.

 

[scotty777]

lol, all a dual core is two cores or actuall cpu's on a singal chip, thus the name dual core, it's the same as intels quad core- it's got 4 cpu's on one chip, BUT on amd's side it's a 4x4 because there's two separate chips each with two cpu's. but intel were clever with there HT dual cores because all they did was they had one cpu and another virtual cpu. the x2 amd's are 2 completly separete cpu's at just share a common chip and thats pretty much all they share and maybe a memory controller. As for the core 2 duo's, they are alot more interlinked because they share the cache( thats why you see the only say a 2mb or 4mb cache and not 2x512km or 2x1mb in the amd chips) the c2d's also have the ddr2 memory controller thats why you can only use ddr2 memory, there are major performace increasments when sharing the cache because both cpu's can process the data at the same time and not have one cpu process 1mb and then give the other cpu the other 1mb and then the cpu's have to toss the data which just takes time. the c2d's als have bigger cache then amd and this means the cpu's can process more data at a time then a amd. So yea the that 4200+ has two different cpu's just one one chip. i hope this anwsers your question. SCOTTY OUT

 

[supersunbird]

lol, all a dual core is two cores or actuall cpu's on a singal chip, thus the name dual core, it's the same as intels quad core- it's got 4 cpu's on one chip, BUT on amd's side it's a 4x4 because there's two separate chips each with two cpu's. but intel were clever with there HT dual cores because all they did was they had one cpu and another virtual cpu. the x2 amd's are 2 completly separete cpu's at just share a common chip and thats pretty much all they share and maybe a memory controller. As for the core 2 duo's, they are alot more interlinked because they share the cache( thats why you see the only say a 2mb or 4mb cache and not 2x512km or 2x1mb in the amd chips) the c2d's also have the ddr2 memory controller thats why you can only use ddr2 memory, there are major performace increasments when sharing the cache because both cpu's can process the data at the same time and not have one cpu process 1mb and then give the other cpu the other 1mb and then the cpu's have to toss the data which just takes time. the c2d's als have bigger cache then amd and this means the cpu's can process more data at a time then a amd. So yea the that 4200+ has two different cpu's just one one chip. i hope this anwsers your question. SCOTTY OUT

OMG!!! The BS makes me