CPU Question?

Question

Hello I waswondering if I have An AMD Athlon X2 CPU That Runs at 2.0Ghz, does it actully run at 4.0Ghz because it is a dual core?I was wondering because you could have an AMD Sempron that runs at 2.0Ghz but would it be as fast as the Athlon X2? Thanks

Answer 1

AMD Athlon X2 CPU That Runs at 2.0Ghz, does it actully run at 4.0Ghz because it is a dual core? - NO, it's still 2.0GHz, but there are TWO. You see, if your software does not arbitrate the processing between the two processor, you do not see any GAIN.

Sempron - probably not as fast, but will use less power. that's the whole idea. This won't be available for some time. Probably late in 2007.

Good luck and Happy Computing!

Answer 2

You probably know this, but maybe it will help understand. Basically an Athlon X2 has two cores. Each is 2 GHz. They are separate, and your computer doesn't look at them as one 4 GHz core, but two 2 GHz cores. Most programs, including games, only will use one core because they haven't been designed to utilize two cores. That means that for these kind of programs, your computer is about the same as that Sempron 2 GHz system. It will be a little bit faster, because if one process is hogging one whole core, there is still another core to do other processes. Thus a dual-core system will be faster no matter what, just not that much faster... UNLESS you have programs that take advantage of both cores. These tend to be the higher-end programs like Photoshop or 3D-rendering stuff. Programs like this will be twice as fast with a dual-core processor.

My advice would be that if you are planning on playing a lot of games, and you can't afford an X2, go with a Sempron. You wouldn't notice that much of a difference. However, if you can afford the X2 or you want to use programs that will make use of both cores, then go for it. I recommend the X2 if you can afford it, because in the future almost everything will probably make use of both cores (CPU makers are now making pretty much everything dual-core, so I expect the software companies to keep up).

Answer 3

No. Each core runs at 2GHz. And a Sempron at 2GHz will be slower than an Athlon at 2Ghz because it has less cache- it is a budget processor, after all. In some cases a dual core processor can be almost twice as fast as the equivalent single core processor, but only when multitasking or when running programs optimized for dual cores (multithreaded applications), which are currently rare. In real world use, dual cores will give you a more responsive computing experience, though. And your system won't come to a crawl because of a scheduled virus scan running in the background or something.

Answer 4

Well... no it doesn't run at 4.0 GHz. The idea of having 2 cores is that you can do things that need two "threads" to run, or do two things at once better. So you should be able to multitask better, and encode videos faster, and in fact do almost anything in general faster with the Athlon X2 because the Athlon is better than the Sempron in general (it has more cache).

Answer 5

No
It runs at 2Ghz.

When an application allows it the cores will be able to run in parallel, splitting the processing load between them but this is not the same as doubling the Ghz rating.

It could actually be faster than a chip twice the speed (depending on pipeline sizes etc etc).

You are comparing apples and oranges.
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Answer 6

It still runs at 2.0 Ghz. But that is only the clock speed. How fast electrical pulses are given off. But the dual core allows the processor to process twice as much information in a given time. Making it twices as fast so to speak.

Answer 7

The difference lies in the cache speed. A 2g Athlon runs with a higher cache speed than a Sempron.

Answer 8

No. There's also another thing....


I have a Athlon 3800+ (single core, but it doesent matter)

IT's clock speed is 2400 Mhz, but because of it's cache and other measurements, it's "ranked" at 3800+ which means it is almost equal to a Pentium 3.8Ghz (excluding Core 2 Duo and Quads)

Answer 9

It doesn't work that way unfortunately. The advantage of the X2 or any other multi-core processor is that they can share the workload on applications that are optimized for them theoretically completing processes twice as fast.

Answer 10

no it runs at 2 ghz. with the dual core you have 2 running at 2 ghz. then you add the two equaling 4 ghz then divide by 2 equaling 2 ghz as your speed.