Dual Core vs Quad Core

ProPlaya2005 · December 24th, 2007

Hi I am planning on building a new pc and was wondering what cpu to get. It is most likely going to be either a dual core E6850 or a quad core Q6600. I know that a lot of applications aren't even optimised for dual core, let alone quad cores, but I want to know what cpu will be better for general computer use, ie not just one application needed to be using all of the cores. I plan to be using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and in the near future I will be running a webserver close to 24/7. Any help will be good help.

Many thanks

**refraction** · December 24th, 2007

Its a tough call, multiple threads could be useful for a server, if you are running mysql etc, you can push it all on different threads, making the resources more evenly ballanced.

altho the E6850 will give the performance now, it really depends how future proof you want to be. Evidently multiple threads are the future, but for the next year or so, you wont gain a massive benifit from having 4 cores.

only reason i got one is cos they were nicely overclockable n my E6600 sucked at it

Master_DX · December 24th, 2007

I would go for the Quad that way you don't have to upgrade anytime soon anymore, and u will benefit more if you plan on using it for heavy loading programs like Refraction said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by refraction

only reason i got one is cos they were nicely overclockable n my E6600 sucked at it

Not cool Refraction, I have an E6600 and from my experience, it overclocks nicely, I'ma tell ur mom or ur wife ur insulting me so one of them can give u a whip as a christmas present.

runawayprisoner · December 25th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Master_DX

Not cool Refraction, I have an E6600 and from my experience, it overclocks nicely, I'ma tell ur mom or ur wife ur insulting me so one of them can give u a whip as a christmas present.

Looking at yours and his specs, I can see he's quite correct.

fried_egg · December 25th, 2007

yeah seriously his cpu with four cores is clocked higher than yours with only two cores.in general, dual cores are better overclockers than quad cores, but with the g0 stepping the q6600's tend to fair a bit better than their older e6600 brethren.

Master_DX · December 25th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by fried_egg

yeah seriously his cpu with four cores is clocked higher than yours with only two cores.in general, dual cores are better overclockers than quad cores, but with the g0 stepping the q6600's tend to fair a bit better than their older e6600 brethren.

LMAO, that depends and how far u actually want to go, I use pcsx2 and all but it's just to play FFX, if I'm getting full speed already I don't see the point in taking it more far, I used to have it at 3.5GHz but I lowered it because the speed was too high, and I like to keep it in a state where I could use the AA to lower my speed to a reasonble 1 instead of using frame limiting, that way I can skip the boring stuff more faster.

Since, refraction is a coder and who knows what else he does, is more convenient for him to have it clocked like that.

Maybe, when I'm done with this game, and play a more demanding one, I will overclock it more.

runawayprisoner has a Core 2 Duo and he has it on stock speed, I guess he didn't feel like overclocking.

BTW : My current temp is at 35C idle and 40C on load, even though I only added a tiny bit of paste to my cooler, I still can overclock it way more.

WoodsieLord · December 26th, 2007

Hello there! I'm new to the forums.

I'm a bit sad... Looks like my setup does not 'fit' the requirements to perform good enough in PCSX2. I'm building a workstation that will cover many needs like analog video capturing and encoding to gaming. The machine will feature two opteron Barcelona processors (that means 8 cores total). Anyways that won't happen soon. Meanwhile, I'm seting up the PC with a single opteron dual core at 1.8 GHz (Call it a Dual Core athlon64 3000+ if you wish).

While I had the time, I've been trying (benchmarking/hogging) several computer builds with PCSX2+Budokai 3 for a year now. I worked since the last month in a computer store so I had the chance

.
Until now, the best speeds I achieved were about 28 - 45 FPS (in-game, battle) with a Dual Athlon FX 72 (Thats 2.8 GHz per processor, mother was no doubt Asus L1N64) and 8600GTS; although I had no chance to try a Q6600 yet!

Please take in mind that I'm no pcsx2 expert by any means! Is that so, that I never tried (knew) frame skipping methods at all. Just the multithread options and ZeroGS plugin to take benefit from the available threads.

Today, I tried out my system (4GB, 1.8Ghz, 8800GTS) and was much slower than I thought... I'm still wondering if the huge difference in FPS is clock bounded or thread bounded! What do you think? Too bad I don't have another 2210 to bench possible improvements :'(

Once I upgrade the CPUs, I think I will have a chance. The barcelona core is almost the same (a bit faster they say) clock by clock than Intel's Conroe. Right now, Core technology is at full blossom... I was looking at the forum member's signatures and everyone has C2D or C2Q... Nobody out there with phenom Cpus? (Just curious! phenoms share the same (K10) architecture with barcelona opterons).

I'm no programmer or emulator expert, but it looks like there might be three or four threads total, one for the emulator iteslf, two for the graphics and one for the sound (not sure). Graphic multithreading takes a nice speed bump. Lets hope someday this benefit will rise more with aditional threads!

Thanks for reading and please forgive me, I know my english is not pretty good.

December 24th, 2007	#1 (permalink)
ProPlaya2005 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: UK Posts: 36	Dual Core vs Quad Core Hi I am planning on building a new pc and was wondering what cpu to get. It is most likely going to be either a dual core E6850 or a quad core Q6600. I know that a lot of applications aren't even optimised for dual core, let alone quad cores, but I want to know what cpu will be better for general computer use, ie not just one application needed to be using all of the cores. I plan to be using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and in the near future I will be running a webserver close to 24/7. Any help will be good help. Many thanks

December 24th, 2007	#2 (permalink)
refraction PCSX2 Coder $refraction's Avatar$ Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 9,780	Its a tough call, multiple threads could be useful for a server, if you are running mysql etc, you can push it all on different threads, making the resources more evenly ballanced. altho the E6850 will give the performance now, it really depends how future proof you want to be. Evidently multiple threads are the future, but for the next year or so, you wont gain a massive benifit from having 4 cores. only reason i got one is cos they were nicely overclockable n my E6600 sucked at it __________________ http://www.generalemu.net/ Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.4Ghz (425x8), Leadtek GTX 280 1Gb, 1.8Tb HDs, 2Gb Corsair DDR2-800 @ DDR2-1020 5-5-5-18 Dual Channel, 14605 3dMark 06 Points CPU-Z Link 3dMark06 Score Link Dont PM me for help, use the forums, thats what its for!
$refraction is offline$

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December 25th, 2007	#5 (permalink)
fried_egg Registered User Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: indiana Posts: 394	yeah seriously his cpu with four cores is clocked higher than yours with only two cores.in general, dual cores are better overclockers than quad cores, but with the g0 stepping the q6600's tend to fair a bit better than their older e6600 brethren.

December 26th, 2007	#7 (permalink)
WoodsieLord Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Argentina Posts: 5	Hello there! I'm new to the forums. I'm a bit sad... Looks like my setup does not 'fit' the requirements to perform good enough in PCSX2. I'm building a workstation that will cover many needs like analog video capturing and encoding to gaming. The machine will feature two opteron Barcelona processors (that means 8 cores total). Anyways that won't happen soon. Meanwhile, I'm seting up the PC with a single opteron dual core at 1.8 GHz (Call it a Dual Core athlon64 3000+ if you wish). While I had the time, I've been trying (benchmarking/hogging) several computer builds with PCSX2+Budokai 3 for a year now. I worked since the last month in a computer store so I had the chance . Until now, the best speeds I achieved were about 28 - 45 FPS (in-game, battle) with a Dual Athlon FX 72 (Thats 2.8 GHz per processor, mother was no doubt Asus L1N64) and 8600GTS; although I had no chance to try a Q6600 yet! Please take in mind that I'm no pcsx2 expert by any means! Is that so, that I never tried (knew) frame skipping methods at all. Just the multithread options and ZeroGS plugin to take benefit from the available threads. Today, I tried out my system (4GB, 1.8Ghz, 8800GTS) and was much slower than I thought... I'm still wondering if the huge difference in FPS is clock bounded or thread bounded! What do you think? Too bad I don't have another 2210 to bench possible improvements :'( Once I upgrade the CPUs, I think I will have a chance. The barcelona core is almost the same (a bit faster they say) clock by clock than Intel's Conroe. Right now, Core technology is at full blossom... I was looking at the forum member's signatures and everyone has C2D or C2Q... Nobody out there with phenom Cpus? (Just curious! phenoms share the same (K10) architecture with barcelona opterons). I'm no programmer or emulator expert, but it looks like there might be three or four threads total, one for the emulator iteslf, two for the graphics and one for the sound (not sure). Graphic multithreading takes a nice speed bump. Lets hope someday this benefit will rise more with aditional threads! Thanks for reading and please forgive me, I know my english is not pretty good.