Motherboards

[MrDas]

I was recently told when I went looking to buy An ASUS mobo with dual processors, that the only way it works is if the programs you load/games you play will support it. I guess I don't understand how using 2 processors can effect what games I play or programs I load, after all it's all about speed, (at least I think) Help me to understand. thank you for your insight and wealth of knowledge

Mrdas

 

[dunklegend]

Are you talking about 2 processors or a 2 core processor?
Sometimes it can help because one core runs one program and the other can run a different program or as you were told an application that takes advantage of the 2 cores.

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[fishmahn]

The dual core system (or dual processor system - the differences are minimal in this context) will work just like a single core system on games & programs that aren't multi-threaded.

If a program is multi-threaded, then the program will run up to twice as fast (depending on the efficiency of the multi-threading of the program) on your dual core system than on a single-core system of the same clock rate.

If you are running multiple programs at the same time, say for example downloading a file, running a virus scan and playing a game all at the same time, then a dual core/processor system will make a lot of difference because its like having 2 computers available to do all that - it plays the game using one core/processor and the other one does the other stuff (download the file and run the virus scan) instead of interrupting your game to do that.

The disadvantage of dual cores is that they dont' run as fast as their single-core counterparts - Intel dual cores run at 2.8 to 3.2ghz, but you can get a 3.8ghz single core. For today's (not multi-threaded) games, you get better performance on the faster single-core than you do on dual core.

Mike.