Understanding Dual Cores...

[hyrum]

I haven't really followed new tech as much so now that I'm facing an upgrade of my ancient 1.4Ghz processor I am looking around. There are a couple of games I want to play that request a 3.0Ghz recommended spec so I'm wondering if the dual cores (for example dual core 2.66) are adequate for that or if they are still just classified as a 2.66.

Just looking for some help understanding these new processors

 

[Maximilian]

Specs on games are generally an architcture or two behind. That 3.0ghz number refers to a single core pentium 4. However, a 2.0ghz Athlon 64 has the equivilent performance of a P4 3.0ghz, and pretty much any core 2 duo cpu is better than a 3.0ghz P4, in addition to that all core 2's are dual core.

If that 2.66ghz is an E6600, itll be good for 3-4 years easily. If thats a pentium D 805, then no it wont be so good for as long, in addition to that its real toasty.

So in short, yes dual cores today are adequate, unless its the pentium D 805, seriously, dont buy that its terrible. Itll probably still run whatever game your talking about but its still a bad cpu performance wise and with regards to everything else.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Game recommendations are based on the older Pentium4 numbers. Any of the newer AMD or Intel Core 2 duo chips perform much faster per ghz than the older P4's even though they run at less than 3ghz. Even a Core 2 duo E6300 which runs at 1.8ghz will destroy a P4 at 3ghz and will exceed the requirements of any game.

All of the newer dual core chips perform well at gaming although the majority of games aren't coded to to utilize the second core yet. At this point dual core doesn't provide any extra performance in most games, but they multitask (multiple apps running at once) much, much better than single core chips. And for apps that can use the second core like video encoding, photoshop, CAD programs, etc.... dual core chips show a huge performance increase.

Most people building gaming rigs now are using dualcore chips because new games in the future will likely all take advantage of the second core.

 

[hyrum]

Ah wonderful, many thanks guys. Obviously my computer now is struggling to do much of anything so knowing that a dual core will be a nice leap makes me sleep better