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Thread ID: 72248 2006-09-05 18:28:00 CPU disagreement JJJJJ (528) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
482828 2006-09-05 18:28:00 Why, whenever someone asks for advice on buying a CPU, everyone rushes in and says get a double core?

Double core is useless unless you have the software that can use it.

I have an Athlon 64 x 2 4200+. It is useless for my game playing. Slower than previous 3200+.
I am about to replace it with something that does not have a " x 2 " in it's name.

Would some of the people who reccomend the X 2 like to tell me what software will perform better with the x 2? And I mean available now. Not something that may be written in the future.
JJJJJ (528)
482829 2006-09-05 21:36:00 I have an Athlon 64 x 2 4200+. It is useless for my game playing. Slower than previous 3200+.
I am about to replace it with something that does not have a " x 2 " in it's name.

What games are you playing that causes slowness? Because they are a number of patches around for this problem.
AMDs optimizer - one off MS website etc....

It shouldn't be a problem with the newer games, I tried mine and theres no difference except with Warcraft II - slow....but I expected that.
pctek (84)
482830 2006-09-05 21:47:00 As pctek said, there are dual core patches.

I have notice a performance increase on all my games when setting it to use only one core or two, the two cores are faster, not by much though

I do a lot of video encoding and editing and most of the programs that I have are good for dual core and run the CPU at ~90-100% eg: DivX, Fairuse Wizard... these are out not and have been for some time
The_End_Of_Reality (334)
482831 2006-09-05 22:09:00 What games are you playing that causes slowness?

I would have thought that everyone knew Jack plays flight sims by now. :p
FoxyMX (5)
482832 2006-09-05 22:34:00 What games are you playing that causes slowness? Because they are a number of patches around for this problem.
AMDs optimizer - one off MS website etc....

It shouldn't be a problem with the newer games, I tried mine and theres no difference except with Warcraft II - slow....but I expected that.


MS Flight Simulator.
JJJJJ (528)
482833 2006-09-05 23:11:00 When you have a dual core processor you have to be aware that you will only get both cores working if you have software that supports it and an operating system with multi-processor support. This means that you can only use a single core with Windows XP Home and only threaded processes can use both cores at once.

Many older and current games use only a single-threaded design, meaning that a dual core processor will be no faster on one of these than on a single core one. Many game programmers, however, are beginning to run intensive operations such as AI in separate threads. It has traditionally been avoided due to poor general understanding of thread safety, but is now becoming more common.

If you want to be able to get the most of next year's games and are buying a new computer, dual core is definitely the way to go. The current Intel dual core processors are pretty impressive with only one core anyway :)
TGoddard (7263)
482834 2006-09-05 23:31:00 MS Flight Simulator.

Jack FS9 dosen't support dual core but, FSX well, so I would hold fire until FSX comes out before you do anything stupid.

Trevor :)
Trev (427)
482835 2006-09-05 23:47:00 This means that you can only use a single core with Windows XP Home and only threaded processes can use both cores at once.

You can use dual core processors with XP Home but only 1 physical CPU/socket.
www.holwegner.com
PaulD (232)
482836 2006-09-06 00:37:00 I suppose dual core should be compared to a turbo'd engine (high speed processor) or a larger engine (more processors). It just depends what you actually do.

Just remember, in the equations of performance and faster graphics card as usually better then a faster CPU.
KiwiTT_NZ (233)
482837 2006-09-06 01:03:00 No one has actually answered Jack's question yet, although Trev's advice seems pretty sound to me. FoxyMX (5)
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