Seeking clarification concerning processor cores


  1. Posts : 1
    Windows 7 Home Premium (x64)
       #1

    Seeking clarification concerning processor cores


    I have a Core i7-720QM. My understanding is that there are four cores that handle my computer's processing. When more power is needed, the cores start hyper-threading which makes it as if there are 4 more cores in my system.

    Seeking clarification concerning processor cores-cores.png

    When looking at the task manager, I can see these 8 cores.

    If I were to just number them from 1-8 straight across, would I be correct in thinking the cores are linked in the following way?:

    Core 1 - Core 5
    Core 2 - Core 6
    Core 3 - Core 7
    Core 4 - Core 8

    The term "linked" above is just my way of saying the second core is derived from the first.

    My reason for asking has to do with some desktop customization I've been playing with recently. I'll be able to monitor the usage and temperatures of my cores (to an extent). The hyper-threaded cores can have their own levels of usage, but I don't think they'd have a temperature associated with them since they don't actually exist. Because of this, I'd like to know which hyper-threaded cores to associate with which temperatures.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 5,795
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
       #2

    That's how I would take it to be, but I can't say for sure.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 7,878
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #3

    You end up seeing 2 graphs for each CPU core as Windows detects 2 logical processor cores. When Windows sends an instruction to the "logical core", it really just hits the actual CPU core itself. If execution resources within the CPU are not being used by the current task, the CPU can scheduler can execute something else to increase efficiency. The gains of hyperthreading range from 15%-30%. I'm unsure of how or why temps would differ between the 2 logical processors in the same physical processor core..since they share the same physical processor core.
      My Computer


 

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