dual core

[Gatecrusher]

I was wondering if procesor that is labeled 4400+ dualcore is running at 2200 each core or both cores at 4400, (the actual clock on AMD is probably different I know).
basicaly if the clock of the two cores adds up to the actual speed of the CPU ro if the cores both run at top CPU speed..
Or is it totaly different.?


thanks

 

[Lonyo]

It's just a number designed to represent the speed.
But the cores do happen to be 2x2200MHz. But it's just a happy coincidence.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

The model numbers have absolutely nothing directly to do with the clock speed. That the 4400+ has two cores running at 2200MHz is pure coincidence.

AMD model numbers are a guide for letting users know which CPUs perform best. However, they are not interchangable with any other numbers, including clock speed or model numbers of other processor families.

For example, the lineup of Athlon 64 X2 (dual core) processors ranges from 3800+ to 4800+. The higher the model number, the better the performance. However, they are not comparable to the classic Athlon 64 (single core) processors. The Athlon 64 3800+ is totally different from the Athlon 64 X2 3800+.

Likewise, Sempron model numbers are not comparable to Athlon 64s'. The Sempron 3000+ is much slower than the Athlon 64 3000+.

Finally, AMD model numbers aren't comparable to Intel clock speeds, either. The Pentium 4 3.0 GHz is not at all comparable to the Athlon 64 3000+.

If you want to see which processors are fastest, the best thing for you to do is to look at benchmarks. Anandtech, Xbitlabs, Tomshardware and other sites offer such testing.

 

[Gatecrusher]

hmm but AMD did begin with this way of marking theyr CPUs to compare to Intels Cpus, Athlon XP 3000+ is suposed to be equivalent of P4 3.0Ghz. I take it its no longer acurate?

btw I'm kind of new to the whole dual core setup, is it as good as Multiple CPU setup? Also how does Dualcore compare to single core of the same speed rating in Non-Multitasking computing test?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Gatecrusher
hmm but AMD did begin with this way of marking theyr CPUs to compare to Intels Cpus, Athlon XP 3000+ is suposed to be equivalent of P4 3.0Ghz. I take it its no longer acurate?

You can't compare the old AXP speeds to the new A64 speeds (an AXP 3200+ is not as fast as an A64 3200+), and they don't match up as well to the P4s as they used to. Plus now you have single-core and dual-core P4s, and ones with different cache sizes...

Even the AXPs got pretty inaccurate after the P4-B and P4-C CPUs came out. The PR numbers haven't corresponded exactly to Intel in a *long* time.

btw I'm kind of new to the whole dual core setup, is it as good as Multiple CPU setup? Also how does Dualcore compare to single core of the same speed rating in Non-Multitasking computing test?

If you are running a (single) singlethreaded program, it's as good as a single CPU of the same speed (for instance, the 4200+ would perform like a 3500+). But the 4200+ can run two singlethreaded programs at the same time at roughly the same speed (because of shared cache/RAM it's probably a ~75-90% improvement rather than 100%), or one multithreaded program 50-90% faster than a 3500+ could.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Gatecrusher
hmm but AMD did begin with this way of marking theyr CPUs to compare to Intels Cpus, Athlon XP 3000+ is suposed to be equivalent of P4 3.0Ghz. I take it its no longer acurate?

btw I'm kind of new to the whole dual core setup, is it as good as Multiple CPU setup? Also how does Dualcore compare to single core of the same speed rating in Non-Multitasking computing test?

Athlon XP's never corresponded to Intels chips at all, they were apparently supposed to correspond to the old athlon thunderbird. I.e, an athlon XP 3200+ would be the equivilent of a 3.2 ghz thunderbird. It wasent really very accurate anyways as many people would assume the 3200+ is the same as a 3.2 ghz p4, which it wasent, the p4 would maul it.

The whole rating just sorta went out the window when the athlon 64's came along. Now theyre just performance number to differentiate between the 64 series. Not really related to the p4 or the thunderbird at all.