Question re: clock speed of dual core CPU

schrodinger's cat <sc.TakeThisOut@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> processor, more RAM, etc. The notebooks I'm most interested in have
> Intel Core 2 processors, typically the T5600 or T7200. My question is
> this: if the T5600, for example, is rated at 1.83 GHz, does that figure
> apply separately to each core, or is it a total for both cores combined,
> meaning each core by itself would only run at .915 GHz?

Speed ratings are per core on all the current Intel and AMD dual and quad
core chips.

> processor is an AMD Athlon 1 GHz, and it doesn't seem to me that these new
> CPU's would give me much in the way of a performance boost if each core is
> only half the listed speed, especially since most of my working apps are
> older programs that probably don't much utilize multi-threading.

Well, two things:
1) *Each core* of a Core 2 Duo (or Athlon 64 X2 or single core Athlon 64 for
that matter) is going to be clock for clock faster than an old
Athlon/Athlon XP. Depending on what you do, this could be a fairly
moderate margin or a huge one.

2) For non-gaming stuff, there is almost always a pretty big *perceived*
responsiveness improvement from a second core (or second processor)
because many OS tasks get offloaded to other threads, even if you are not
heavily using.

> I would also be interested in opinions as to whether the T7200 at 2.0
> Ghz with 4 MB cache is worth the extra cost over the T5600 at 1.83 GHz
> with 2 MB cache.

How big is the price difference now, and how much is the laptop?

It was about $140 when I got mine last fall, and on a $1300-1400 laptop, that's
not a huge difference, but it would be a much bigger one if the difference
was on a laptop that would otherwise be $700 vs $840.

> I don't do gaming, and very little in the way of multi-media editing.

I wouldn't bother. You're likely to be quite pleased with the T5600

> I guess what I would like to know is what kind of percentage increase over
> my current speed could I expect from both the T5600 and the T7200, so that
> I can determine if the difference between the two is worth a couple of
> hundred bucks to me.

If the difference is a couple of hundred bucks, don't bother.

Also, you might want to wait a couple of months for the new Santa Rosa based
laptops to hit the channel - they're just coming out now; official "announce
date" is May 9 but several manufacturers are jumping the gun.

They'll have similar processors, but the slightly higher bus speed should
help some and they some other nice tweaks (ie Robson flash cache) to support
Windows Vista. They may also help push down prices a bit on older models.

--
Nate Edel http://www.cubiclehermit.com/

"What's the use of yearning for Elysian Fields when you know you can't get
'em, and would only let 'em out on building leases if you had 'em?" (WSG)