Dual core chips

[USMC_BEANS]

Any body have any experience with them yet?  I built my first pc only one year ago and already I want to build another one.  I think I will do it once I move to Seattle next month and get all settled in.  I am hoping to get one of the AMD X2 chips and was wondering if any of you have purchased one yet or have heard anything positive or negative about them.  Let me know.

[USMC_BEANS]

Also I was thinking about doing the SLi thing with the dual video cards, does it make enough of a difference to pay that much?

[ctjoyce]

Personally I think that if your running a gameing system your not going to need a dual core chip yet. Too much money, for not the right preformance. However SLi for gameing pretty top notch. Getting two 6800 Ultras or even 7800GT's would blow just about everyone away with FPS, and to some extent even graphically. While your 3DMark05 score may be in the 20,000's just remember that SLi will cost about $500+ more than a standird setup. Another thing to keep in mind is that its not just the graphics card that does the work.

Cheers
Cameron

PS. Wait for ATi Crossfire technology to come out to go for dual cards.

[the_autopilot]

I have several dual core machines (See specs).

For games specifically, they offer no performence boost because games don't make use of them...yet. They will eventualy and then you will see a boost. Dual cores do offer much better multitasking ability though and its also great for multimedia like video, audio editing, or compressing HD video, etc.

I also have SLI, which is great, but pricey.

No game today requires SLI. A single 6800 GT or above will handle any game out there today at decently high resolutions. With SLI though, you can set everything to maxiumum and expect it to run smoothly. I've never seen below 45 fps on any game on my systems.

Its really up to you. BTW, no stock SLI will get your 20000 in 3dmark05. My stock 7800 GTX SLI does around 12000 in comp 2. You need overclocking to get it that high (which I will do eventually).

And don't bother with crossfire. Its not worth the wait (the long wait, it was annonced when SLI came out and still isn't out yet). cross fire allows you to use two x850 xt pe at the same time, but keep in mind that one 7800 GTX is equal in power to two x850 XT pe. So SLI'ing ati video cards is kinda dumb when better performence can be gotten from nvidia. What you should be waiting for from ATI is its r520s will indeed rock the gfx world.

[congo]

This is the board I wanted but I ended up with an A8n SLI because of availability and lack of patience.

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3 ... odelmenu=1

You are better off with a faster single core CPU for the money unless you will use the X2's multitasking ability with compatible software.

The individual cores on X2's are slower than on a comparable single core cpu.

I have always maintained that SLI is a "fad"...... time will tell.

[richardd43]

I agree with Autopilot is the fact that dual core is not the answer to gaming, but it does not hurt either.

Most games today are more graphics card dependent than CPU.

For Flight Sim I use two 6600GTs which are not top of the line gamers but they do work pretty good for the Sim.. I also have 4 monitorsd installed. It is great to have your Sim spread all over the place.

For the tougher games the 6600GTs in SLI mode do a pretty good job.

For HalfLife2 and Far Cry my other computer has a 7800 GTX with a single core +3500. The 7800s are a lot of overkill for most stuff but it really is fun to run 3Dmark05 on a single card and watch it top out over 8200 with no overclocking.

[congo]

I agree with Autopilot is the fact that dual core is not the answer to gaming, but it does not hurt either.

Actually, it can hurt. If the game runs on a single core of an X2 CPU which is slower than the single core of a comparable "XP" CPU, then not only do you get slower performance, but you pay for the privaledge as well.

Most games today are more graphics card dependent than CPU.

I can assure everyone that most modern games are dependent on all performance related system resources, and comments like this are simply not true.

CPU technology has yet to "catch up" with software demands placed on the processors of today.

I believe the misconception above stems from the fact that many people, with very inadequate video cards, have seen dramatic improvements when upgrading their video cards, as compared to mediocre performance gains from CPU upgrades. This does not preclude the fact that modern games are very much "CPU driven".

For Flight Sim I use two 6600GTs

Ok, now I'm confused......

I thought that FS9 was not SLI compatible?

[richardd43]

Actually, I did not say I ran FS9 in SLI mode. I use two graphic cards with 4 monitors.

As far as the CPU's go, put a FX57 chip in your computer with a 6600GT and look at your FPS, then put a +3500 in with a 7800GTX and compare FPS rate.

I did not mean that the CPU was not a factor as all related components are indeed important. Match the FX57 with the 7800 graphics card and you have a killer machine. But I would put more weight on the graphics card than the CPU when it comes to gaming.


My wording was wrong but the concept was right.

[the_autopilot]

Actually, it can hurt. If the game runs on a single core of an X2 CPU which is slower than the single core of a comparable "XP" CPU, then not only do you get slower performance, but you pay for the privaledge as well.

Yeah, but dual core chips are cheaper ironically. The fx-57 is more expensive than the 4800+. Both are top of the line in single core and dual series, respectively. And when games start using that second core, that single core will die in agony.

I can assure everyone that most modern games are dependent on all performance related system resources, and comments like this are simply not true.

CPU technology has yet to "catch up" with software demands placed on the processors of today.

I believe the misconception above stems from the fact that many people, with very inadequate video cards, have seen dramatic improvements when upgrading their video cards, as compared to mediocre performance gains from CPU upgrades. This does not preclude the fact that modern games are very much "CPU driven".

Quite true, a good example of this is Half Life2 or battlefield 2 where there's plenty of non-gfx stuff to process like physics. Memory also plays a crucial part, especially in bf2 where 2 gigs is recommended.

Ok, now I'm confused......

I thought that FS9 was not SLI compatible?

Fs9 will run in SLI mode, but you lose quite a bit of fps.

[congo]

Here is my current supplier's prices (in Australian dollars) for the Athlon 64 3500+ and the X2 4200+ cpu's....

Both CPU's use core speeds of 2.2ghz and this is my "real world" comparison.

Athlon 64 3500+ = $325

X2 4200+

[Ivan]

[quote]Any body have any experience with them yet?

[USMC_BEANS]

Haha, sounds like I will just sit on my money for a while until there is an acutal need for dual cores and SLi.  Damn computers are so freaking confusing!  I think I will stick to designing airplanes instead.

[Dan]

Before you upgrade anything involving socket 939, read this.
Dan  ;)