<a href="http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/09/10/fo ... ampage_uk/" target="_blank">its here</a>
Now in a month or two will core 2 duo's be even cheaper? I hope so.
Is it right that gaming doesent use both cores? If not then whats the point?
Intel Core 2 Quadro 4 core cpu
Moderator: Dangerous Bob
certain games do, but most have to be told, and older games sometimes automatically pick them up, then over power the game, a good example of this being call of cthulhu.Nellyboy wrote: <a href="http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/09/10/fo ... ampage_uk/" target="_blank">its here</a>
Now in a month or two will core 2 duo's be even cheaper? I hope so.
Is it right that gaming doesent use both cores? If not then whats the point?
Wrong forum Nelly 
The benefits of Dual Core and now Quad Core are purely for multitasking - several different applications open at one time.
It's two (Dual Core) or four (Quad Core) processors on the one die.
So, as you're reading this with Firefox open you may also have Outlook, BF2 and another application open in the background for some reason... however many apps you have open at one time, they will all be making demands on your current single CPU. But, if you had Dual Core or Quad Core those apps would shared between the on die processors.
Instead of having two processor sockets on one motherboard as you may recall them, the processors are now in the same chip.
In summary, if you had four applications open on a Quad Core CPU you would get the same performance as if you only had the one app open on a same spec "single core" CPU.
Sorry if this was over simplified Nelly, I know your pretty much very savvy with this kinda stuff.
The benefits of Dual Core and now Quad Core are purely for multitasking - several different applications open at one time.
It's two (Dual Core) or four (Quad Core) processors on the one die.
So, as you're reading this with Firefox open you may also have Outlook, BF2 and another application open in the background for some reason... however many apps you have open at one time, they will all be making demands on your current single CPU. But, if you had Dual Core or Quad Core those apps would shared between the on die processors.
Instead of having two processor sockets on one motherboard as you may recall them, the processors are now in the same chip.
In summary, if you had four applications open on a Quad Core CPU you would get the same performance as if you only had the one app open on a same spec "single core" CPU.
Sorry if this was over simplified Nelly, I know your pretty much very savvy with this kinda stuff.
Last edited by Claw on Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Not really Nelly, it's poor value at the moment due to not many things taking advantage of it but with future games etc their going to be programmed to use multiple cores.
Very simply they could run scenery through one core, AI through the second and character movement through the third with the fourth left for secondary apps like teamspeak etc. Can you imagine how good AAO would look if their was a whole processor just dedicated to the way the scenery was rendered
think no neccessity for fog in alot of the maps. Add to this another core processing the complicated trajectory calculations to determine bullet drop and wind drift, that would make the no fog workable 
Now add a multiple cored grafics card and your looking at the ability to be able to seperate graphic rendering processes and allowing much higher frame rates for complicated grafics.
In the short term their is little gain but their is little choice but to go mutiple cores as the heat produced from current GHz chasing will eventually become too great for simple air cooling to handle and they can't reasonably start installing water cooling into the average Dell machine.
Claw's explanation is very simplified and really only true to days gone by. At the moment if you were using CAD programmes they'd be eating up a two processor system and pushing out some much quicker figures. With bumping the cores they can effectively add multi-processor capability to every computer without the need for running mission critical parts and motherboards the size of a full tower machine. It's also a logical extension to the 64bit systems as the capabilities of those systems is going to far outgrow the ability of current hardware.
The only major problem is that the software programmers just can't keep up. With the coding becoming much harder and more involved it's meant that they have lagged behind massively. I think claw mentioned a game which I believe started life in like 2002, thats 4 years and still not on the shelf, it better be bloomin amazing when it comes out and even then it's not going to use half the modern technology thats out atm. But my trusty AMD64 3200 on socket 754 will probably be below min spec by the time that a game comes out that uses the 64bit architecture that it was designed for
Very simply they could run scenery through one core, AI through the second and character movement through the third with the fourth left for secondary apps like teamspeak etc. Can you imagine how good AAO would look if their was a whole processor just dedicated to the way the scenery was rendered
think no neccessity for fog in alot of the maps. Add to this another core processing the complicated trajectory calculations to determine bullet drop and wind drift, that would make the no fog workable Now add a multiple cored grafics card and your looking at the ability to be able to seperate graphic rendering processes and allowing much higher frame rates for complicated grafics.
In the short term their is little gain but their is little choice but to go mutiple cores as the heat produced from current GHz chasing will eventually become too great for simple air cooling to handle and they can't reasonably start installing water cooling into the average Dell machine.
Claw's explanation is very simplified and really only true to days gone by. At the moment if you were using CAD programmes they'd be eating up a two processor system and pushing out some much quicker figures. With bumping the cores they can effectively add multi-processor capability to every computer without the need for running mission critical parts and motherboards the size of a full tower machine. It's also a logical extension to the 64bit systems as the capabilities of those systems is going to far outgrow the ability of current hardware.
The only major problem is that the software programmers just can't keep up. With the coding becoming much harder and more involved it's meant that they have lagged behind massively. I think claw mentioned a game which I believe started life in like 2002, thats 4 years and still not on the shelf, it better be bloomin amazing when it comes out and even then it's not going to use half the modern technology thats out atm. But my trusty AMD64 3200 on socket 754 will probably be below min spec by the time that a game comes out that uses the 64bit architecture that it was designed for
The general populace won't be using quad-core processors for the next twelve months at least - unless they're really dumb or have a real, real need for it - and that said I think they will only be a flash in the pan. Was there ever a big move towards dual processor motherboards? Nothing to speak of.
The question has got to be asked... what do people use their PC's for these days, how much is that going to change in the next 3 years? Everything in th IT market is just in overkill mode.
The "Cell" in the PS3 has 16 cores on the one die... I wonder how long it will be before we're talking about cores in the same way transisters were spoken of... it looks like we already are.
The question has got to be asked... what do people use their PC's for these days, how much is that going to change in the next 3 years? Everything in th IT market is just in overkill mode.
The "Cell" in the PS3 has 16 cores on the one die... I wonder how long it will be before we're talking about cores in the same way transisters were spoken of... it looks like we already are.
Last edited by Claw on Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Claw the general populace has just about figured out what the on button on their PC is for, in a year they might actually find out how to use it 
I don't think the IT market as a whole is in overkill, software in general has a long way to go. But the mainstream apps have certainly reached that point, Hardware manufacturers are going to start hitting sales barriers on new products, with low take up.
Hardware wise my company starts at the lowest available from the likes of dell and orders that for cost. Haven't met too many people who can max the typing buffer yet
Actually I see the biggest growth market in lower power items not necessarily faster. Electricity is becomeing a major factor in business bills, especially with price hikes. I'd also say data storage is another problem. We spend a decent wage every year on on site backups, let alone the offsite ones.
I don't think the IT market as a whole is in overkill, software in general has a long way to go. But the mainstream apps have certainly reached that point, Hardware manufacturers are going to start hitting sales barriers on new products, with low take up.
Hardware wise my company starts at the lowest available from the likes of dell and orders that for cost. Haven't met too many people who can max the typing buffer yet
Actually I see the biggest growth market in lower power items not necessarily faster. Electricity is becomeing a major factor in business bills, especially with price hikes. I'd also say data storage is another problem. We spend a decent wage every year on on site backups, let alone the offsite ones.
Eve-online (mmorpg) when dual cores started coming out the client had issues running on dual cores so they did a little work on it and now it can use more then one core. As its an mmorpg the company writing it is continually updating the client. My cpu useage isn't even 60% on both cores (both cores usually have independant changing useage) which is handy as I run other apps like Teamspeak at the same time. Frame rates are 40-60 during the busy times and upto 240 at other times.Claw wrote: Which one is that then?
Last edited by Thane on Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
There isn't a great deal in the IT market that is making a lot of difference - there chundering out the same stuff with only a minor improvement. As I mentioned in another thread there is going to be a slow down due to the increase cost in chips in general which will be a good thing in one way to sorting this out... but I can't think of any major leaps in technology for a long time... but I haven't put a lot of thought into that and you'll see why in a mo...Myocardial Infarction wrote: I don't think the IT market as a whole is in overkill, software in general has a long way to go. But the mainstream apps have certainly reached that point, Hardware manufacturers are going to start hitting sales barriers on new products, with low take up.
Actually I see the biggest growth market in lower power items not necessarily faster. Electricity is becomeing a major factor in business bills, especially with price hikes. I'd also say data storage is another problem. We spend a decent wage every year on on site backups, let alone the offsite ones.
One of the biggest problems resulting in the issues you mention for electricity and backups... all I can say is once again, poor IT education but I shouldn't be saying too much about that at the moment.
Anyways... didn't want to appear to ignore what you said here Myo cos I always enjoy hearing your thinking on these matters, I've adjusted my thinking on several occasions because of your contributions - but I've rushed this response because in the time I have taken to write it we as a family have decided to head off to Anglesey again to the beach... got some friends who have just phoned and told us how nice it is there at the mo...
See you all Sunday.
Just be a nutter... life becomes much more exciting, and people won't expect anything more of you...