Quad core laptops & software to take advantage of them?

Question

I had previously asked if there was advantage in using 4 cores in a laptop via 1 quad core or two dual cores.

Several items I'd like to clarify. Dell (and I will research this further) did announce a two dual core laptop (two sockets). what they did to jerryrig the motherboard I guess we'll find out in its debuttante ball.

There are indeed quad core laptops. Toshiba Qosmio G50, the Rock xtreme SL8, a brand new lenovo thinkpad (need to get model number), the Xtreme 917V. In fact the 917V has not just extreme processors but Xeon processors (corp server grade).

In fact, Intel announced some new upocming 6 core processors. but that's science fiction stuff as far as we consumers are concerned.

But doesn't the software OS and especially the applications have to be written to support multithreading? If this is true then I would liken this to playing a mono record on a stereo player. you can hear music in both speakers but you don't get the full effect. Is this true?

Answer 1

ilaptops~

http://ruggedlaptop.com/

Answer 2

I don't see why you keep insisting Dell showcased a two-socket laptop. It never happened and I know, because I keep up with these things daily. It would be bigger news.

And logically, it doesn't make sense to do that currently, because if two processors were to be on one motherboard, the laptop would be too hot.

Toshiba G50- Montevina dual-core.

Rock extreme- I won't consider this a laptop.

Lenovo W700- Same as the Rock SL8. I wouldn't consider this to be laptop if it weights 10lbs and has 30min. battery life.

Extreme 917- same as above

Quad-cores are useful for rendering images, models, and the likes. Programs that can use more than one core and are CPU-intensive. In basic use, there's not that big of a difference in performance.

Gaming only takes advantage of 2 cores currently, so 2 cores with a higher GHz will outrun the quad-core at a lower Ghz. Because only 2 cores can be and are used. This goes for most programs, stopping at 1 or 2 cores.

In the future, they'll have to make software multi-threaded. Developers would probably need a new method to efficiently run their software on quad-cores.

Quads on laptops will 1) suck up 40-50% more power 2) produce more heat and 3) not useful to the majority of users.

Answer 3

So far there are very few programs or games available for consumers that would need a quad core computer.  I imagine this will change in the future but for now dual core is the industry standard and all most people will need.  I can tell you from experience that with the exception of the game Crysis I haven't noticed any real difference between my dual core and my quad core computers for everyday usage.