Quick question...

[Tyberious]

ok, so for example:

an AM athlon 64 X2 3800+, the 3800+; is this a reference to the combined speeds of the cores on the chip? or is the 3800+ the individual speed of each of the two cores?

the reason I ask is this: I understand that dual core processors only fed a thread to each core individually, and thus, if a program is run, it will only use one core until the second core is needed for aditional threads. Hense, dual core processors are excelent for multi-tasking, but I want to make sure that the advertised speed relfects the speed one will get out of their processor should they only be running one program, i.e, GAMES!

 

[Tom Mask]

I'm no expert, but I think that it would make sense.

If your game takes up an entire core (which would be pretty big) your computer would still have room to manipulate data 'behind-the-scenes'.

I would think that it wouldn't affect game-play because of the second core.

But again...I'm no expert...

 

[Grafficks]

The "3800+" in "Athlon 64 X2 3800+" is irrelevant to the clock speed of the processor.
3800+ is just a model number in the Athlon line of products.


Most games still use only one core even when run on a dual-core processor. And like you said, multi-threaded applications use both cores, whereas single-threaded applications use one core.

but I want to make sure that the advertised speed relfects the speed one will get out of their processor should they only be running one program, i.e, GAMES!

Both cores run at the same clock speed, and that clock speed is the advertised clock speed.

For example, if a dual-core processor has an advertised clock speed of 2.0GHz, then both the cores are running at 2.0GHz. It is not two cores each with 1.0GHz, it's two cores running at 2.0GHz. This means that when you run a single-threaded application (like a game) then it will run on one of the 2.0GHz cores.
So don't worry, you are getting your advertised speed when running games.

 

[Slowjo]

Ok, sorry to put this the topic but I got a question along the same line.
If a game only uses one core would it be better (cheaper) to buy a faster single core if all i'm going to use the computer for is to run games? No mutli-tasking, just one game at a time. Or would the dual core help with lag by reducing the amount of process on the single core.

 

[Tedster]

in the athlon 64 line of CPUs, the # refers to the model #.
in the athlon XP line of CPUs, the Number refers to the equivelent Intel speed.
AMD stopped using comparible #s to intel chips with the 64 series.