Is single core still almost 3/4 the speed of dual core?

silverferro

Member
Nov 28, 2004
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I'm thinking of buying a new PC soon and was actully thinking of getting conroe but seems expensive(E6700) and i also read that AMD is gonna cut prices. So single core AMD will be even more cheaper when dual core AMD prices go down. I also read that dual core is not twice as fast as single core...so.... single core around 3/4 the speed of dual core? Thats not bad for the price to speed ratio.

Reports on conroe's 64 bit limitation and present software not written to make full use of dual core are all around. If thats the case I can wait a few more years to upgrade to either 4 or more core when multi core has become a norm and limitations/full utalisation issues have been solved....and at this moment just looking forward to a faster bootup and faster and more responsive PC. I can save the money from buying AMD dual core or conroe's "hype" price and just get a higher clocked single core on AM2 Something like AMD 64bit 3800 or above. I can get extra few more inches on my new wide LCD monitor or 2 or more GIgs or ram with the saved money.

Anyone thinks thats not such a good idea and have a better option for me?
 

Ika

Lifer
Mar 22, 2006
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Dual-core CPUs will help you in your multitasking (responsiveness, if you're running a CPU-heavy application), but other than that not too many applications can use two cores. However, if you're going to go dual-core, I would suggest that instead of getting an X2 3800+, you could spring for an E6300 (or whatever the lowest model is), depending on the price. Conroe has such good overclock potential that the price difference should pay for itself, as long as it's not too much more than the hype price.
 

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
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that is a terrible ratio, not all programs are made for dual core so in some instances u will get no gain and in others it will be double the speed. So to label it as 3/4 is terrible because it varies from application to application.
 

dexvx

Diamond Member
Feb 2, 2000
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Single Core is 100% the speed of a Dual Core in non-SMP aware apps. That is unless you run multiple CPU/Memory intensive stuff at once.
 

silverferro

Member
Nov 28, 2004
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So its better to go with the lower end conroe? Most of the sites have compard the higer end conroes, what about the lower end ones? How are their performance compared to present AMD chips? Any one got any idea?
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
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Originally posted by: silverferro
So its better to go with the lower end conroe? Most of the sites have compard the higer end conroes, what about the lower end ones? How are their performance compared to present AMD chips? Any one got any idea?

They trash the good majority of AMD chips. E6300 is better than my opty at 2.5ghz, and thats the lowest end conroe at the moment. E4300 specs are out i believe, so based on how the E6300 is you can guess how the 4300 will perform.