Dual Core Vs Single Core!

[dizman]

No this isn't another post asking the difference between or recommendation of either. I guess maybe it "could be" a post for a comparsion of, perhaps, I don't know how much my roommate would want to particapate.

Here's the deal me and my roommate just both built new computers within days of each others (mine took a bit longer thx to poor instructions on some parts). They are VERY similar as you will see below (as he mostly waited for me to figure out what I wanted and copied most of it) with the only major difference being I went dual core (as I figured I would take advantage of it's multi-tasking abilities) and he went single core (as he wasn't really sold on a whole dual core thing, it wasn't what he needed). We both game a lot, him mostly WoW, with some FPS and RTS and me a mix of things with some games reoccuring like BF2

After waiting 12 days for a replacment CPU I've finally got mine running. I haven't finish installing everything yet (Keyboard, mouse, games, storage HDD) but I did get it up running 3DMark03. I haven't ran the rest like my roommate as I'm out of town now for a few days.

So here are My system specs then followed by my roommates

Mine:
AMD Opteron 165 Dual-Core stock @ 1.8Ghz w/ Zalman CNPS9500
2x 1GB OCZ Platinum EL DDR400 w/ 2-3-2-5 timings
DFI Lanparty UT NF4 DR SLI Expert
2x XFX 7800GT's in SLI
X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS
WD Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA
Plextor 716SA DL DVD-Burner SATA
Enermax Liberty 620W Modular PSU

Roommate's:
AMD A64 4000+ San Diego stock @ 2.4GHz w/ Stock Opteron Heatsink (yea I gave him mine since I wasn't going to need it and the Opteron stock has heatpipes)
2x 1GB OCZ Platinum EL DDR400 w/ 2-3-2-5 timings
Asus A8N32 SLI x16
2x XFX 7800GT's in SLI
X-Fi Extreme Music
WD 200GB SATAII
Lite-On 16x DVD-Burner IDE
Hiper 580W Modular PSU

I believe those are all the major parts. Oh and we both are using Klipsch 2.1 Promedia speakers and Gateway 21" Widescreen LCD Monitor

He has run all the 3DMark's so far as I've only done 03 but here are our results on all stock stuff

Roommate's 3DMark03 score: 25052
My 3DMark03 score: 24566

So he beat me in the first test but not by much. I find it interesting that even with my cpu being 600Mhz lower than his it kept it super close. I'm no expert so I don't know if that's cause it's dual-core or just shows importance between the different types of cores (San Diego vs Denmark vs what not).

I do plan to overclock eventually and since my chip is known to overclock like crazy I hope to crush him eventually :twisted: But we will see, when I get back in a day or two I'll run the other 3DMark's to see how they stack up.

 

[mpjesse]

CPU's do not make a huge difference in 3DMark05 (or 03). Especially if they're similar. Though 3DMark05 does do a CPU test, it's a very, very small percentage of your overall score.

Do a comparison of your processor (or similar, like a X2 3800) to his 4000+ using the CPU charts. Pick 3DMark05. Better yet I'll do it for you.

There's a 49 point difference. Observe here:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=237&model2=240&chart=60

So don't get your hopes up, it doesn't really mean shite. His score was slightly better than say 50 points 'cause he is using the A8N32-SLI, currently it's the fastest Socket 939 board on the market. Not to mention the Athlon 4000+ is still the best choice (currently) for gaming.

I haven't finish installing everything yet (Keyboard, mouse, games, storage HDD) but I did get it up running 3DMark03.

One more thing, how the hell did you run 3DMark05 without installing a keyboard or mouse? How did you get Windows installed for that matter?

-mpjesse

 

[ShortyNumber45]

Opteron's are not so good if they're running at stock maybe that's one of the reason why he beat you.

 

[mpjesse]

Agreed. 3DMark is a bad test to run if you want to compare CPU's. Real life games benefit from CPU's more than 3DMark does. They should fix that...

-mpjesse

 

[knightrous]

Instead of creating another thread, I thought I'd ask here, since my question is relative to the topic in a sense. With a dual core processor, when a program becomes none responsive, will the computer freeze up like a single core will, or will it keep running because it can direct programs and data through the other core while it spends a bit of time either making the program become responsive again or closes it.

It's just something I'm curious about, because I'm upgrading to an Opteron 165 soon from my 3200+ and I quite often bog the 3200+ right down and have a program or two lock the whole thing up... (Ever seen your computer pull 1.8GB of ram when it locks up rendering a 250mb CAD file to a 1280x960 image )

 

[mpjesse]

Actually, I can't honestly remember my computer "locking up" or getting a BSOD since I got my X2. Programs have crashed- sure... but the OS still functioned fine after I terminated the process or application.

I'm not sure if that's the answer you're looking for.

-mpjesse

 

[knightrous]

It's not quite the answer, but it's a start Maybe a few stress test session when I get my Opteron 165 (I need a drool emoticon) I'll give it a flogging and see if I can kill it. I'll be really happy if I can cause programs to become non-responsive and still be able to do a virus scan or defrag in the background without the rest of WinXP dieing in the ass. The reason I asked this was last night I was testing out Opera 9 Preview 2 (It's very nice, about 30% faster then Opera 8.51) and when I arrived at the Blender 3D website, the whole computer slowed right down and reminded me of the crappy days with Internet Exploder and losing multiple windows when it all crashed. Anyway, Opera came to a grinding halt and so did most of my computer, with the exclusion of MSN... :roll:

So I hope with a dual core, my whole computer will keep rocking along, doing everything else in the background and allowing me to detonate any locked up programs with no real hassles.

**Opera 9 P2 is working fine this morning, went back to the Blender3D site and no issues, must have been a momentary glitch**

 

[dizman]

I haven't finish installing everything yet (Keyboard, mouse, games, storage HDD) but I did get it up running 3DMark03.

One more thing, how the hell did you run 3DMark05 without installing a keyboard or mouse? How did you get Windows installed for that matter?

-mpjesse[/quote]

Sorry I meant I haven't installed my WIRELESS keyboard and mouse, used a super old/crappy non-usb keyboard and mouse to install windows and the drivers. The mouse doesn't even have a mouse wheel

And the chart you linked doesn't have Opterons on it