What really is the difference in L2 cache sizes?

[SirFelixCat]

Basically, what real-world difference is there between 2 x 512 L2 Cache and 2 x 1MB L2 Cache? There is a considerable price difference, so I'm thinking it DOES make a considerable difference, but someone explain it to me, please?

 

[StrangerGuy]

~5% difference in performance IIRC, not worth the price premium.

 

[Ayah]

It's essentially ultra small uber fast memory. extremely quick access times (almost none), and huge transfer rates.

 

[SirFelixCat]

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
~5% difference in performance IIRC, not worth the price premium.

Really? For true?

 

[Amplifier]

Originally posted by: SirFelixCat

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
~5% difference in performance IIRC, not worth the price premium.

Really? For true?

fo sho brah

 

[Furen]

more like 5-10% in games and close to nothing in all other applications.

 

[sammyunltd]

So, the X2 5000+ (2X512) is not better than the old X2 4800+ (2X1M)

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: sammyunltd
So, the X2 5000+ (2X512) is not better than the old X2 4800+ (2X1M)

only thing 5000+ has is the 200Mhz clock speed increase over the 4800+.

 

[theteamaqua]

very very very little, its the cores that need to do the calculation, logic ... L2 cache is like 1GB of RAM vs 2GB of RAM, which in games it doesnt matter that much, not sure about otehr apps

 

[SirFelixCat]

TY everyone for the timely and idiot-proof answers.


After reading about Conroe, though, I can't imagine buying an 4600 x2 from AMD, when I could spend $200 more, in a couple of months, and get a chip that is so much more superior (4MB vs 512 L2) in every single way.

Thanks again, y'all.

 

[Bobthelost]

Well before you spend that extra, are you going to need that much computing power? Games don't use it, let alone need it, video encoding does benifit nicely but again it's not needed. If 20 mins saved on a 60min job is worth $200 then go for it, otherwise i'd just buy beer.

The 4600X2 was a monster of a CPU a few months back, now it's half the price and still just as quick.

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: SirFelixCat
TY everyone for the timely and idiot-proof answers.


After reading about Conroe, though, I can't imagine buying an 4600 x2 from AMD, when I could spend $200 more, in a couple of months, and get a chip that is so much more superior (4MB vs 512 L2) in every single way.

Thanks again, y'all.

The X2 4600+ has 512 KB of L2 per core, versus the 4 MB total of Conroe (and 2 MB total of the lesser Core 2 Duos).

It's not really practical to make comparisons about cache size between microarchitectures. 1 MB of L2 cache on an Athlon 64 is not necessarily the same as 1 MB of L2 cache on a Pentium 4, or a Pentium D, or a Pentium M.

This is of course not to downplay the impressiveness of Conroe performance. But cache seems to influence it relatively little.