new generation 2 core- any opinions ?

[cyflyer]

Suddenly noticing the computer ads for the new generation intel chips. Anyone got one yet ? What are they about, and they any better than the outgoing P4 jobs ? Is it worth chucking in the P4 for the new boys on the block ?

[JohnnyMalaria]

The difference between a single core P4 and the latest dual core processors is very dramatic.

The P4 was a technological mistake (but a marketing success)! When the P4 was launched, Intel's own benchmarks showed it to be inferior to the PIII at the same clock speed. The problem - at the time - was that the manufacturing process had reached a brick wall as far as the PIII architecture was concerned and it couldn't be made to run faster.

However, things eventually progressed and, now, Intel has resurrected the PIII architecture, added SSE2 instructions etc and created a dual core processor. The P4 architecture has finally been killed off.

By way of example, a single core P4 laptop at 1.8GHz is slower than a Pentium M at 1.5GHz. The Pentium M is a direct descendant of the PIII.

[jagabo]

Most video encoders are multithreaded and can take advantage of dual core processors. You typically see between 50 and 100 percent increases in conversion speeds (comparing one core to two).

When I upgraded from a 2.8 GHz P4 to a Core 2 Duo E6300 I ran some benchmarks. TEMPGnc rendered about 100 percent faster. CCE rendered about 70 percent faster. VirtualDubMod with Xvid rendered about 30 percent faster.

Games and single threaded apps typically don't benefit much from dual cores. Some single threaded applications benefit if they are CPU bound and you can run two instances at the same time. In the benchmarks above VidtualDubMod/Xvid didn't improve by much. But I could run two instances of VirtualDubMod at the same time (ie, converting two videos) to double the overall throughput.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_knocks_out_athlon_64/

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795

[INFRATOM]

It looks like this is one of the computer milestones so if anyone wants to build a new computer in my opinion should go with this technology. All businesses conquer the top speed by a model like even auto industry and then make a killing in sale on a cheapo model that is not as good as advertised model. But economy rules so you go for the best you can afford or my disliked phrase " best bang for the buck" . It never pays to invest in an obsolete technology after all price wise you end up paying the same. In these days brand names are making a killing on configuration that could be put together for lets say $300 goes for around $600 as a ready made brand. Some years back a good computer configuration would be around $4000, in these days is $2000.

[cyflyer]

Thanks for the links jagabo, the links and explanations are what I was looking for. All very interesting, and time to start saving some pennies for upgrade me thinks. So it seems making the jump to the next generation is worth it (jagabo seems to be the only one here so far ?). It also appears that there are superduper bargains for the last P4 setups to be had out there if anyone is considering upgrading to that level.