Dual Processor Speed Question

Mellon Head said:

whs said:

There are 6 core processors from AMD. But there are no programs that good make use of them. The same goes for quad cores. A fast duo core (e.g. 3.2GHZ) is preferable over a slower quad (e.g. 2.5GHZ) - at least for now. You have to run things an awful lot of times in parallel to notice a difference.

Spot on, but IMO, the best part of owning a quad core is being able to open 8 to 10 apps at the same time with no perceptible loss of performance.

It's gonna be years before the majority of mainstream apps can take advantage of more than a dual core. There aren't even many mainstream 64 bit apps, and we've had a viable 64 bit Windows version for more than four years, possibly more if you count XP x64.

Whats x64 mean?

NoGoodNamesLeft said:

Whats x64 mean?

64-Bit

32-Bit Operating Systems are often referred to as x86. :)

Why are 32 bit systems called x86? Why not x32?
Sorry im curious, lol.

NoGoodNamesLeft said:

Why are 32 bit systems called x86? Why not x32?
Sorry im curious, lol.

x86 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Intel generally (though there were exceptions) stuck with the processor-naming format ending in "86" through several generations spanning decades. They were often referred to by the generation number and the "86" suffix. (286, 386, 486). For marketing purposes, the 586 was named the "Pentium" (as in Pentagon, symbolizing 5th generation).

Scrolling down...

x86 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 64-Bit:

64-bit

Starting with the AMD Opteron processor, the x86 architecture extended the 32-bit registers into 64-bit registers in a way similar to how the 16 to 32-bit protected mode extension was done (RAX, RBX, RCX, RDX, RSI, RDI, RBP, RSP, RFLAGS, RIP), and eight additional 64-bit general registers (R8, R9..R15) were also introduced in the creation of x86-64. However, these extensions are only usable in 64-bit mode, which is one of the two modes only available in long mode. The addressing modes were not dramatically changed from 32-bit mode, except that addressing was extended to 64 bits, virtual addresses are now sign extended to 64 bits in order to disallow mode bits...

The part I highlighted in bold type explains why we now see 32-Bit and 64-Bit operating systems. The 64-Bit OS can use features of the CPU the 32-Bit version can't. :)

bobkn said:

whs said:

There are 6 core processors from AMD. But there are no programs that good make use of them. The same goes for quad cores. A fast duo core (e.g. 3.2GHZ) is preferable over a slower quad (e.g. 2.5GHZ) - at least for now. You have to run things an awful lot of times in parallel to notice a difference.

Instead of "there are no programs that good make use of them", I'd say that there are few games that make good use of them. There are applications that can exploit many threads simultaneously. Most reviews of 6 core CPUs will include them. Example:

AMD's Six-Core Phenom II X6 1090T & 1055T Reviewed - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

True.
But, even with a CPU intensive, Multi-Threaded application (like the x264 Video Encoder)


Another Benchmark shows:
The x6 Phenom still looses to a Core i7 930 at its stock 2.8.
OCd to 3.8 it just ties with it.

We are just now starting to see a few Games that are Quad threaded. I do not think 6 threads will be anytime soon.

Oh i see.
Hey this is kindof off topic but i dont wanna make a new thread so, in the task manger it says iTunes.exe*32, does that mean its 32bit version of itunes?

NoGoodNamesLeft said:

Oh i see.
Hey this is kindof off topic but i dont wanna make a new thread so, in the task manger it says iTunes.exe*32, does that mean its 32bit version of itunes?

Exactly.

If you look on your C: drive you'll also see two Program Files folders. The one with (x86) at the end contains the 32-Bit programs.

profdlp said:

NoGoodNamesLeft said:

Oh i see.
Hey this is kindof off topic but i dont wanna make a new thread so, in the task manger it says iTunes.exe*32, does that mean its 32bit version of itunes?

Exactly.

If you look on your C: drive you'll also see two Program Files folders. The one with (x86) at the end contains the 32-Bit programs.

Whoa,
Your right again! There is a folder (x86)
LOL

NoGoodNamesLeft said:

Whoa,
Your right again! There is a folder (x86)
LOL

By default, most non-native x64 applications (ones that run on both x32/x64) will be found here, so if you lose track of an applications main folder, you'll know where to look :)

smarteyeball said:

NoGoodNamesLeft said:

Whoa,
Your right again! There is a folder (x86)
LOL

By default, most non-native x64 applications (ones that run on both x32/x64) will be found here, so if you lose track of an applications main folder, you'll know where to look :)

Lol, Makes sence now