why is dual core make so little difference in netbooks

[OBLAMA2009]

id like to get a new netbook but the performance benchmarks on the dual core atoms are so minimally higher than for the single cores that it really isnt worth the battery life hit. in practice does anyone who has a dual core the think it was worth it?

 

[WildW]

I imagine that the normal workload for a netbook is mostly single-threaded. Are any of the major web-browsers multi-threaded these days? I'm fairly sure that Firefox only uses a single core.

Sometimes I wonder if Intel would've been better off cranking Atom to 3 GHz rather than making a dual and staying down at 1.6 or so. Maybe the power consumption is lower with multiple slow cores.

Wait for the new AMD Zacate/Bobcat netbooks to start appearing - can't be long now.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

I imagine that the normal workload for a netbook is mostly single-threaded. Are any of the major web-browsers multi-threaded these days? I'm fairly sure that Firefox only uses a single core.

Sometimes I wonder if Intel would've been better off cranking Atom to 3 GHz rather than making a dual and staying down at 1.6 or so. Maybe the power consumption is lower with multiple slow cores.

Wait for the new AMD Zacate/Bobcat netbooks to start appearing - can't be long now.

yeah im looking forward to the zacates but im always a little worried about amd stability. every time i see the neo netbooks in office depot they are locked/frozen

 

[Vette73]

Here is the new 11.6" zacates system with dual core and a good video card for about $420 or cheaper

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1072825/

I would not touch atom now these are out.

 

[podspi]

yeah im looking forward to the zacates but im always a little worried about amd stability. every time i see the neo netbooks in office depot they are locked/frozen

Having worked in one of those stores, I can tell you the 'floor models' of everything get far too much abuse to be able to use them as quality indicators. If anything, it is a measure of popularity :-D Seriously though, I wouldn't worry about the stability of AMD chips. They cleared up all the compatibility issues a long, long time ago.

 

[evident]

because atoms are crappy processors for netbooks, period. looking forward to the amd brazzers platform

 

[tweakboy]

Well laptops have a budget CPU that is why. You cant compare mobile chips to desktop chips. thx gg and gb.

 

[Phynaz]

Having worked in one of those stores, I can tell you the 'floor models' of everything get far too much abuse to be able to use them as quality indicators.

I had a furniture salesman tell me this once for a wobbly kitchen table. My wife dragged me out of the store and I'm glad she did, because this excuse is BS.

Seriously, what are customers doing to abuse a display system that has nothing but a manufacturers image on it that wouldn't occur in a home or office environment?

 

[tweakboy]

because atoms are crappy processors for netbooks, period. looking forward to the amd brazzers platform

Wow good info I didn't know about Brazzers.


But ya currently ATOM chips are much slower then their desktop line. thx gl

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

atoms get raped by i3s. its kinda sad.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Wow good info I didn't know about Brazzers.


But ya currently ATOM chips are much slower then their desktop line. thx gl

Not to be a pedant, but it's Brazos. Protip: don't google Brazzers at work or with your wife looking over your shoulder...

 

[OBLAMA2009]

atoms get raped by i3s. its kinda sad.

yes we all know that. i was wondering why dual core atoms are not much faster than single core ones

 

[Zap]

Seriously, what are customers doing to abuse a display system that has nothing but a manufacturers image on it that wouldn't occur in a home or office environment?

Intentionally break stuff? Seriously, go to any Fry's Electronics and look at their motherboards on display. Every single last one of them has physical damage.

In any case, don't know about the AMD notebooks in particular. I do know that my wife's has had zero problems that were not caused by the preinstalled McAfee.

yes we all know that. i was wondering why dual core atoms are not much faster than single core ones

You can only go as fast as one of the cores for most tasks. Think of it this way. An Atom is a moped doing 30MPH on a highway with a 65MPH speed limit. If you get a new moped that has a back seat, then on occasion you can take a passenger with you (preferably attractive and on friendly terms). In these instances you can get two persons to the destination at the same time. However, whether you ride just yourself or have a passenger with you, neither of you are going to get to the destination any faster because the moped still doesn't go faster than 30MPH. It is just that sometimes you can take a passenger with you.

 

[grimpr]

id like to get a new netbook but the performance benchmarks on the dual core atoms are so minimally higher than for the single cores that it really isnt worth the battery life hit. in practice does anyone who has a dual core the think it was worth it?

These are all i would care about for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-ns5f2dV4
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/p...20e/index.html
http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/satellite/C650/C655D-S5139

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

 

[IntelUser2000]

They have the Z series single core chips, the Z560 clocks at 2.13GHz.

 

[Brunnis]

There's a huge difference in performance between a single core and a dual core Atom. Check Anand's benches:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/79?vs=91

Workloads that require high performance from a single thread obviously won't feel much faster on a dual core Atom, but why would you expect that anyway?

 

[OBLAMA2009]

These are all i would care about for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-ns5f2dV4
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/p...20e/index.html
http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/satellite/C650/C655D-S5139

are they out yet?

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I imagine that the normal workload for a netbook is mostly single-threaded. Are any of the major web-browsers multi-threaded these days? I'm fairly sure that Firefox only uses a single core.

Sometimes I wonder if Intel would've been better off cranking Atom to 3 GHz rather than making a dual and staying down at 1.6 or so. Maybe the power consumption is lower with multiple slow cores.

a single core can only be throttled so much when not being stressed, extra cores on a multi core processor can just about be shut off entirely in order to save power, the key is finding the proper balance

besides, the more the market is flooded with multicore processors the more reasons software developers have to design apps that exploit multiple cores

 

[dbcooper1]

Are we talking about a true dual core here or one with HT? Haven't seen many true dual core Atom netbooks.