Read on full site | Join TechSpot! (it's free) | Bookmark / Share this



Cpu Cache question.

Acidwinter
03-08-2006, 11:29 PM
Ok im looking to upgrade my CPU. Ive built a few computers and knew the basics, but now im starting to get down to it, making performance key. I built a pc and threw a Celeron D 478 2.93ghz cpu in there with a cache of 256kb. Just to see how much my fans would OC this thing to, I oc'd it up to 3.2ghz. Now if I bought a P4 3.2ghz CPU with 1mb cache, would that help my performance x4? I thought a cpu was based mostly on the ghz, but now im looking into things, the cache has important play. I mean obviously its better then my Celeron D, but how much better would it make things? Because if its only a little better, I may just wait to build an AMD64 dual core system when I have to upgrade next, but if its going to make it at LEAST 50% or around there, I will gladly fork over the dough to get a p4. Thanks!

P.S. By performance, I mean gameplay wise. I dont encode or videoedit and mostly play games like BF2, FEAR etc etc.

~~~~CPU I WAS LOOKING INTO~~~~~~~
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1016658

~~~~CPU I HAVE NOW~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1109132 :haha:

Nodsu
03-09-2006, 04:17 AM
You cannot take any single property of a CPU and say "this makes stuff X times better". Everything depends on everything else, including all the other hardware and the exact kind of workload you intend to put on your CPU.

A task that fit into 64K of system cache will run just as fast no matter if your CPU has 64K or 256K or 2048K or onboard cache or whether you have fast or slow RAM.

Another task randomly accessing two gigabytes worth of data in RAM will gain or lose almost nothing from the CPU cache, but will depend largely on the speed of your memory subsystem, including the hard drives used for swapping.

Benchmark your system with your own stuff or look up some real-world-like CPU benchmarks results (and decide how they apply to you).

Ad
03-09-2006, 04:17 AM
  

Post a reply, see related topics & more

Tip: Download Advanced SystemCare 3 Free - Clean, Repair, Protect & Optimize your PC.



 Top Technology News

Weekend Open Forum: Google Chrome OS and the future of cloud computing

Tech Tip of the Week: Unearth Region-Specific Windows 7 Themes

Sony: PlayStation 3 to be 3D-capable via firmware update

iSuppli: DDR3 to account for over half of DRAM shipments by Q2 2010

Facebook named third most popular video website behind YouTube and Hulu

Patriot introduces new PS-100 SSD series

Sony working on digital store for music, movies, books

Details of Intel's 32nm Atom emerge, on track for 2011

More Tech News

  
 Software Downloads

Norton Virus Definitions 2003-07 November 20, 2009

AVG Anti-Virus Updates November 20, 2009

Norton Virus Definitions 2008-09 November 20, 2009

avast! Virus Definitions November 20, 2009

McAfee SuperDAT Update 5808

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Update November 20, 2009

Google SketchUp 7.1.6087

More Downloads



Copyright © 1998-2009 TechSpot.com. TechSpot is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved.