Computer thinks dual core i5 has 4 cores???

[eshepard]

Hello,
I have a laptop with a core i5 m520 processor, which I am quite certain is dual core. Every system monitoring program or gadget I run says I am running 4 cores, even task manager itself displays 4 graphs for cpu usage. I am really confused, could some one tell me what is going on??

 

[WR2]

What you're seeing is two real cores and two virtual cores. It's how Task Manager displays Hyper-Threaded CPUs.

 

[Timop]

^Yup
Core i5 dualies have a feature called hyper threading, which enables them to handle 2 threads per core.

 

[hell_storm2004]

Maybe because your proccy is multi-threaded and has 4 threads running! Do you have your processor specs? I couldnt find it anywhere.

 

[Timop]

Maybe because your proccy is multi-threaded and has 4 threads running! Do you have your processor specs? I couldnt find it anywhere.

Its the i5 520M.
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47341

 

[WR2]

Some background on your CPU
THG article: Intel’s Mobile Core i5 And Core i3: Arrandale Is For The Rest Of Us

 

[eshepard]

Thanks, that makes sense

 

[eshepard]

Best answer selected by eshepard.