How long before Core2 becomes like Pentium4?

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Does anyone think that Bulldozer's 8 cores will put the nail in the coffin of the dual-core Core2Duos, totally obliterating it in multi-tasking power?

Definitely. They say Bulldozer even lets you necro threads while running 34 things in the background. :thumbsup:

 

[sm625]

C2D has speedstep so it can never be as bad as a P4. As long as you got speedstep you got a computer that idles at a decent power draw. Couple that with a modern video card and you've got a machine that wont be pumping out heat when its just sitting there. Almost every P4 machine has a good amount of heat coming out the back, no matter what it is doing.

 

[podspi]

Eh, my T5250 is still going strong.



Speedstep on the earlier CPUs really aren't that great, though. This only clocks between 1ghz ~ 1.5ghz.

 

[Arkaign]

Does anyone think that Bulldozer's 8 cores will put the nail in the coffin of the dual-core Core2Duos, totally obliterating it in multi-tasking power?

I guess that depends on software more than anything, but 4 cores or more are always handy even to run a crapton of non-SMP-aware apps at the same time provided the windows process scheduler is doing a good job, as Win7 seems to do.

We've reached an odd point where a properly setup old Athlon X2 or C2D is enough for most people to do their work just fine (web/email/derping on FB/G+/word/etc).

 

[VirtualLarry]

We've reached an odd point where a properly setup old Athlon X2 or C2D is enough for most people to do their work just fine (web/email/derping on FB/G+/word/etc).

Would you say that we've reached a fairly unique point in PC computing history, where there is such a large spread of potential CPU power, any where from single-core, to hex-core? There seems to be more diversity in the CPU market than ever, in a manner of speaking.

Sure, most of the single-cores are fairly obsolete, even ones based on newer architectures, but they are still available. Dual-cores are still popular with many folks (especially ones upgrading from single-core prior-generation CPUs.) And then we have the budget quad-cores, which are gaining in popularity, many OEM boxes have AMD quad-cores in them due to how inexpensive (relatively) they are. And then we have the enthusiast segment, with unlocked quad-cores, and hex-cores, from both AMD and Intel. Priced out of reach of ordinary consumers (well, Intel's hex-cores are), but available on the market if you want to pay the premium, and finally, an arguably 8-core CPU from AMD will be available quite soon.

Edit: Back in the day, we had 386DXs, 486DX/2s, and Pentiums, all at the same time. I don't recall if mfgs were still selling 286s when they were also selling Pentiums, probably not.

I had a 386DX-40, as an upgrade to my old monochrome XT clone, and then a 486DX/2-66, and then an AMD 5x86-133, which was a neat chip. I never managed to overclock mine sucessfully. Once, I thought I had it overclocked, but it wiped out my boot sector, and I had to restore the partition table by hand with a hex editor, what a PITA. I decided from then on not to overclock my socket 7 rig. Or was that socket 3?

 

[Oyeve]

The PC in my sig below I built over 2 years ago and am only NOW actually using it and its playing all new stuff just fine. SC2 at max levels and crysis and metro all maxxed.

 

[blckgrffn]

My poor Pentium D 920 and its awesome Intel 955x board (no Core2 support, damn you Intel, but Firewire B and 8x Sata 2 ports, PWM System Fan headers and Crossfire support)... what to do with you? Extra LAN box? You bet! If a friend (or heaven forbid, me) loses their box to component or software failure there is no complaining about a little slowness every now and then.

It's pretty hard on frame rates, though... in the CS:S timedemo with a GTS 250 it got 70 FPS... same settings with a 2500k? 270 FPS!

Also, I have a backup Gigabyte P35 mobo that I snagged cheap and its sitting around with a 2.8Ghz Presscott in it for if/when my DFI S775 board dies.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Core 2 duo will never become "like the Pentium 4" in the fact that the P4 was abandoned for a more efficient architecture, the Core 2.

If you mean when will the Core 2 become oblolete, that depends on the user. I am still using an E4500 at stock, and am very happy with it except in a couple of games that are starting to tax the CPU. I dont play a lot of really graphically intense games though.

My wife and son on the other hand only use their machines for e-mail, web browsing, and facebook, so a Core 2 or equivalent should be good for them for the forseable future.

And actually I still sometimes use my old Athlon XP 2600 system for web browsing, etc, and it is not even that bad except for games.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I consider them obsolete already. Not that the Core2 is an infamous under-performing power hog like the P4, but there are better and cheaper choices available for just about any task or price. Case in point - low end AMD quads for under $100.

Well sorta. Phenom IIs only have IPC on/slightly-below par with Core 2s.
Moreover, there's nothing that can beat the value of an overclockable Core 2 Duo (eg. E5200 @ 4GHz).

 

[frozentundra123456]

Well sorta. Phenom IIs only have IPC on/slightly-below par with Core 2s.
Moreover, there's nothing that can beat the value of an overclockable Core 2 Duo (eg. E5200 @ 4GHz).

I agree playa. I definitely would not consider Core 2 duos obsolete, even non-overclocked. Even if there are newer or faster alternatives available, if the Core 2 can still do the job, it is not "obsolete".

 

[wsaenotsock]

well, still running an e6600 at 3.24 ghz and it has lasted 5 years now, and may go another two. I originally bought it because the demands of valve's source engine needed some heavy CPU power.

I usually do a complete rebuild every 2 years or so... But this is the first time in my build cycles that I simply upgraded a video card and added some ram and was good to go for another two years (for running games like BF:BC2 and mass effect 2). whether this is due to less demanding games or just a testament to the performance of the processor I don't know.

 

[BlueBlazer]

My poor Pentium D 920 and its awesome Intel 955x board (no Core2 support, damn you Intel, but Firewire B and 8x Sata 2 ports, PWM System Fan headers and Crossfire support)... what to do with you? Extra LAN box? You bet! If a friend (or heaven forbid, me) loses their box to component or software failure there is no complaining about a little slowness every now and then.

It's pretty hard on frame rates, though... in the CS:S timedemo with a GTS 250 it got 70 FPS... same settings with a 2500k? 270 FPS!

If you can overclock that Pentium D to 4GHz or close to that speed (must use a better HSF), then its gaming performance would be almost as fast as X2 3800+ or faster (depending on game, comes close to FX-60). You can check this review.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

How long do I have before they are considered as obsolete as Pentium 4 rigs?

Depends on the usage. I find any P4 too slow even for basic usage (often painfully slow). Yet some people still think they're "fine". I don't think C2D's will have that problem for many more years.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Depends on the usage. I find any P4 too slow even for basic usage (often painfully slow). Yet some people still think they're "fine". I don't think C2D's will have that problem for many more years.

They definitely wont, especially seeing as even the older Core 2 65nm has around 97% higher IPC than Prescott (Pentium 4), not to mention it has one more core. In most applications apart from audio encoding that means almost 200% higher performance at the same clock speeds.

 

[RobertPters77]

Until Amd beats it clock for clock.

A Llano Apu is still slower clock for clock then a 6 year old Core 2.

 

[BlueBlazer]

Depends on the usage. I find any P4 too slow even for basic usage (often painfully slow). Yet some people still think they're "fine". I don't think C2D's will have that problem for many more years.

Hmm, I didn't find the P4 slow for basic usage (such as web browsing, word processing, spreadsheet, etc) as these tasks hardly stresses the CPU at all. There could be other factors such as low memory capacity, slow HDD and unwanted background programs (taking up resources, especially some anti-virus software are known resource hogs). Those that run on Socket478 with 400MHz and 533MHz FSB (as well as using SDRAM and DDR memory) may "feel" a little slow though.

 

[TuxDave]

but seriously, C2D will never bear the shroud of shame that P4 was

I came in to post this.

 

[nategator]

I'd say with the present day model of using underpowered chips to do mainstream computing for portability and low power consumption (mobile phones, tablets, netbooks) and highpowered needs being sent to the "cloud", the Core 2 Duo will avoid obsolescence for a long time. What people mean by Post-PC is really dumb terminals taking over he dumb users so as long as the computer can handle HTML 5 and HD decoding, it's GTG for 90% of the population. One way to think about it is if the average consumer can game through On Live with a Core 2 Duo 5 years from now, even with lesser graphics then a custom PC but essentially the same gaming experience, C2D won't be obsolete.

Case in point -- tablets. On the traditional benchmarks of CPU, GPU, & RAM the Honeycomb tablets crushed Apple's iPad 2 specs. As phones sales have demonstrated, Android is good enough but people would prefer iOS if other factors do not outweigh. But the Android honeycomb tabs completely crashed and burned because normal users never used or wanted the applications that could utilize the extra hardware and so developers ignored the platform. In other words, regular users want angry birds and not Infinity Blade 2 in 1080p.

Next gen consoles could shake things up by pushing gaming and thus creating "killer apps" to bury C2D from mainstream acceptability. But I'm not convinced that the next refresh will be like what we saw with PS3 or Xbox 360 since the development budgets are becoming too expensive to fit the business models and the resistance of consumers to buy better displays than the current 720p/1080p crop of HDTVs. When you throw in On Live's model of backending things through the cloud with a fast enough internet connection, consumers (and most importantly kid's parents) won't spend $600-$800 for a PS4.

 

[happy medium]

For gaming, next year for the duals and the year after for the quads.

For video encoding,running windows 8, web browsing and playing HD video, and all the basic stuff, it will be 3 or 4 years for the higher clocked ones..

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think IB and BD might tend to make C2D obsolete somewhat, but as long as it can run current apps comfortably, it will stick around.

With chips like the SB G620/G830, and cheap $60 H61 mobos, it is kinda pointless to build new systems based on 775, so eventually, they will die off. But it was definitely a good time to build PCs around then.

 

[B-Riz]

Because the forum has been too quiet lately, and we still have "who uses X these many years later" threads, my Q6600 / AsRock 775Dual-VSTA / 2GB Ram pc with a test Win 10 install says hello!

 

[Gikaseixas]

Legendary CPUs for sure. For internet and other office or basic tasks they still serve a purpose

 

[Zepp]

core2 IPC is strong enough today, it's major problems are lack of modern ISAs(like SSE4) and being on an old platform.

 

[.vodka]

It was not so long ago that you'd be just fine using Core2 with an SSD and maxed out memory for basic tasks just fine. Hell, I know people who still use such systems to do their Illustrator work, for example.

Then Meltdown/Spectre happened. The required patches already murdered the snappiness out of Core2 on Windows 10, save for the higher end models with high clocks which are still bearable.

MDS patches will now end up killing them for good.


Of course one can ignore the patches and accept the risks...

 

[BigDaveX]

core2 IPC is strong enough today, it's major problems are lack of modern ISAs(like SSE4) and being on an old platform.

It's only the Conroe-based Core 2s that lack SSE4, which was introduced with Penryn. AVX and its successors are the major absence from the larger Core 2 family (and Nehalem, for that matter).

Mind you, I've heard in some quarters that Core 2's performance can really tank in certain modern applications, due to a lot of the chip's performance-enhancing tricks only working with 32-bit code, but I've not seen enough benchmarks to indicate that it's a widespread issue.