Dual Core/Quad Core Processors???

Question

I currently have in my system a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+. I'm thinking about upgrading to a AMD Phenom X4 Quad-Core 9500 but I'm not entirely sure about the differences between the two other than the obvious that is 2 additional cores, but the dual core processors work at a higher frequency than the quad core ones so I'm not entirely sure whether the difference will be significant or not? any info on the improvement i might get would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is a copy/paste from another yahoo question I posted which is similar and may kind of set you on the right path.  Before that however, I must say that currently it would not really make sense to upgrade because you have a really nice processor and you wont need tri or quad core for awhile.  Only a handful of programs can really take advantage of multicore anyway and the actual performance you experience between the 2 processor will be unnoticeable in real world usage for the most part.

Things that may improve your performance are ram or better hard drive (like if you have a IDE hard drive with 8mb cache and upgrade to a sata hard drive with 16mb cache then you would notice an overall noticeable increase in performance, or if you upgraded from 512mb ram to 2gb ram as examples).

Another thing to take into consideration is that over time windows registry kind of starts decaying, just like a body organ.  Fresh reinstall with fresh drivers might speed it up, but boosting ram helps as well.  Your best buy for a processor upgrade would be when they start phasing out the current phenoms and start making a new line of them, youll be able to snag a decent quad core for a low price.

Make sure your motherboard can accept a phenom processor btw, most motherboard manufacturers have a list of what processors work (sometimes have to upgrade your bios before a new kind of processor will work).

-----pasted from other answer (something may help you out)----

I would recommend the Core2 duo system because Intel has already voiced their intention of staying with the LGA 775 socket. AMD has made the same promise numerous times in the past and not followed through (socket 754 and 939 as examples). By sticking with Intel you are pretty much guaranteed upgrades in the future.

Another thing is all the hype placed on Quad and Tri core processors is still a bit premature. There are only a handful of processors that will currently take advantage of multi core processors. Some folks love to have bleeding edge technology but the fact remains that you will most likely be able to upgrade to a 4 or 8 core processor in the future for much less than the going rate (and by then there will probably be better support for multicore processors). It just doesn't make sense now. Furthermore, because of all the revisions and constant competition re: AMD vs Intel, you will probably be able to snag a much more power efficient/green friendly CPU 1-4 years down the line than the current available ones. The fact that we have gone from 90nm to 45nm processes in the last few years further backs this claim.

Another thing I wanted to point out is the whole SLI/Crossfire hype. Everyone associates multi GPU with extreme gaming but the fact remains that just 1 decent GPU will suffice for most gamers and users alike. In most cases it is even cheaper to buy an X2 version of a video card rather than 2 separate cards (and about the same performance).

Your title said you wanted medium level gaming and I can tell you that you can get a pretty darn stellar gaming experience without even having to delve into crossfire or SLI.

I myself am running a 9800gtx and even though there are more powerful cards available at the time of this writing, I probably won't have to upgrade for at the very least a year. Some good single cards you may want to consider:

ATI hd4850

ATI hd4870 (or 4870x2 if you want guaranteed overkill)

Nvidia 260 based

Nvidia 280 based (260 offers more bang for the buck to be honest)

The ati cards you mentioned arent bad either. Almost anything will be better than that 9300GE, heh

As for the question about your power supply, yes, the video card you choose will impact your power supply needs. My 9800gtx does require quite a bit of power but the 260 and 280 based cards (newer) don't need quite as much juice. Whether you are buying a video card in a retail store or online it should clearly state how many watts your power supply needs to be in order to run. Pay attention to this because different board manufacturers have different requirements. As an example, you can see 3 different versions of a 4870 ati card for sale and one might require a 400w power supply, another might require 500watt etc etc.

Best of luck

One more thing, if you are running a 32 bit operating system, your computer will not see past 3 or 3.5 gigs Ram (unless you go with a 64 bit version of the operating system, which tend to have difficulty with availability of some drivers) so keep that in mind when buying or upgrading your ram. 1 or 2 gigs should be more than enough for XP

Answer 2

Just change your mobo to LGA 775 and CPU to Intel and it will be faster regardless.

Answer 3

older computers have single dore procesers dual makes it go twice as fast loading games software internet a quad core would be twice as fast as you have now i really dont mind waitingthe extra .3 second but if you do get it

Answer 4

For games and regular apps like web browsing/music, a  higher-clockspeed dual-core outperforms a lower-clockspeed  quad. For DVD encoding, movie editing and rendering in 3d design programs, quad-cores perform much better.

These two CPUs are pretty close in gaming performance- only 1fps difference in Prey, and 4fps in quake- in both cases the 5600+ is the winner.

Going to an Athlon X2 6000+ would provide a nice boost, while switching motherboards and going with a Core 2 Duo E8400 would give a much bigger boost.



Take a look:

Answer 5

need more details like how much ram and if you have a graphics card and are you on high speed or high speed light

you have a decent dual core so i would look to getting 2 sticks of matched ram ( at least 2 GB but maybe even 4 GB if your mother board supports it) and a decent graphic card

what kind of budget do you have because if you go with the intel idea posted above it could get very expensive

a raid array in striped configuration will help some in load times

Have you tried over clocking?

maybe you have to many programs running in the system tray . .  taking off a few might help your system be faster

do you have any malware on your system this could also be slowing it down