A smple question

[Bill Kunert]

How does the speed of one core of a dual core, say an A64 X2 3800+, compare to the speed of an A64 3800+? Are they close to equal? The reason I ask is that some current games, like Silent Hunter 4, run best with one core of a dual core disabled.

Thanks

 

[myocardia]

Any single-threaded game will run much better with a single-core A64 3800, since it's 400 Mhz faster than an X2 3800. That's assuming that the game itself isn't gpu-bound, of course.

 

[Bill Kunert]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Any single-threaded game will run much better with a single-core A64 3800, since it's 400 Mhz faster than an X2 3800. That's assuming that the game itself isn't gpu-bound, of course.

OK - If the X2 is overclocked to 2.4GHz will one core of it run with the 3800+ at stock 2.4GHz?

 

[AnotherGuy]

If an X2 is overclocked both cores get overclocked... u cant overclock only 1 core of it.... u are already a step ahead of AMD... they might put this feature on the next banrcelona chips... or even later maybe... not sure

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Bill Kunert
OK - If the X2 is overclocked to 2.4GHz will one core of it run with the 3800+ at stock 2.4GHz?

If you have RAM that can run @ 240 Mhz, then the X2 will be considerably faster, since it's memory will be running 20% faster. If not, then they would be nearly identical in speed. Of course, if we're only talking about gaming, then how fast your memory will run doesn't make much of a difference, especially compared to which video card you're using.

 

[Bill Kunert]

Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
If an X2 is overclocked both cores get overclocked... u cant overclock only 1 core of it.... u are already a step ahead of AMD... they might put this feature on the next banrcelona chips... or even later maybe... not sure

I'm aware of that. I'm just curious if, with one core disabled, the X2 will run with a 3800+, both at 2.4 GHz.

 

[Aluvus]

If you have an Athlon 64 and an Athlon 64 X2 at the same core clock (for instance, an Athlon 64 3200+ Orleans and Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor, both of which are at 2 GHz), and they have the same amount of L2 cache available to each core (as the above 2 do), and a lot of other things are the same... then yes, disabling 1 core of the dual-core processor would yield something very much like the single-core processor.

Note that a lot of simplifying assumptions go into that. Note also that Athlon 64s and Athlon 64 X2s with the same PR rating (such as the two 3800+ products discussed above) will have different stock clock speeds, and some Athlon 64s with the same PR rating have significantly different specs.

The Athlon 64 3200+ and Athlon 64 X2 3800+ on Socket AM2 would be about the same. If you have a different X2, that would be a factor.

 

[Bill Kunert]

Thanks Aluvus, that's basically what I was wanting to find out. Appreciate your time.