Dual core vs single

[lehsstudent]

what is the advantage of a dual core cpu vs a single core. is a 2.4ghz cpu faster then a single core 2.8ghz? please help!

 

[Gnomeofdeath]

A dual core cpu can run multiple programs or multi-threading from a single program faster and better than a single core. If you run two programs at once, they have to fight over one core in the single core machine. Having a dual core cpu is like having 2 cpu's in one computer, each of the two programs has it's own core to use, making the system faster. As far as clock speeds go, a single core that is clocked higher than a dual core would be faster if you were only running a single program or one that doesn't support muti-threading. But if you want to have more than one program running, a dual core would be faster, so long as it wasn't a huge difference in clock speed. Like a 2.4 dual core and a 2.8 single core are so close in clock speeds that I don't think you would notice a difference.

 

[KingCody]

Hi lehsstudent,

which one is faster? well that all depends on: 1.) what it's being used for, and 2.) what processor models are being compared.

1. - they both have advantages over each other...

a dual core processor will handle multi-tasking much better and will run multi-threaded applications much better. a single core processor will handle single-threaded applications better (most existing applications are single-threaded)

2. - you cannot simply compare a 2.4GHz with a 2.8GHz as there are most important factors that determine how fast a processor is besides it's clock speed. for example, a 1.8GHz Intel Core2Duo dual core CPU is faster than a 2.2GHz Intel Pentium-D dual core CPU.

hope this helps clear it up a little, because there is no simple answer to your question. cheers :wave:

EDIT: lol, I must have typed too slow. gnomeofdeath beat me to it. but you get the idea anyways