W3J duo core 2...does it make a difference?

Will it make a difference when the W3J comes out with the Core 2? Will it help with gaming? I'd rather see them put in the X1700... that doesnt exist
What do you guys think?

 

Did you read the article in this thread that reviews a few gaming benchmarks, etc on the Merom in a Z96J w/o new BIOS? There doesn't seem to be a huge improvement on this front.

We can probably expect similar effects in the W3J after it gets the new proc, since the Z96 is also running the x1600. Not quite sure how a BIOS update would improve gaming framerates very much with the same gpu.

 

I have also debated this question, but I don't think merom would really matter... why?

as you implied yourself, games nowadays are mostly GPU bottlenecked, (ie, having an X1300 with an X2 3800 or having an X1300 with an Conroe would have very very very tiny improvments on the latter if any)

Becuase I assume you're using the W3J for gaming (If not there are much cheaper dedicated alternatives...) I believe even with the new merom you will see little if any improvments... unless you're looking at synthetic benchmarks such as 3Dmark or that aqua benchmark (sorry, haven't used that a long time and forgot the exact name)... becuase those benchmarks combine both CPU performance and GPU performance, thus by increasing CPU power you will see overall score increase but in real life, I doubt a GPU limited game (FEAR, NFS: MW, Oblivion) would see any improvement.... HL2 probably since it's pretty easy on the GPU.

BUT, if you're into video editing, photo editing, compiling, complex CAD, 3dmax and CPU intensive applications, perhaps you should wait... I mean, I hear merom comming out at mid-augest with ASUS models a bit later.... and there's always no harm in waiting (unless you wait forever) in the computer world as when merom comes out, the W3J's price will fall.... and mid-augest ain't that far away either.

PS: I'm assuming the merom would be roughly as good as conroe is an improvement to normal processors. Oh yea, I like calling them merom and conroe instead of core 2 duo becuase it's confusing and becuase merom and conroe just sound so much better then the clumsy name of Core 2 Duo.... the duo part sound so gay.....

 

I gave a very indepth answer to this same sort of question for others debating the issue..... honestly, if you debate it much longer you won't have a choice anyway, but nevertheless... if you search the forum, or at least look through the last weeks' worth of posts, you'll find what I was said and my opinion on who's going to need it and when........ basically what it came down to is that most people will be buying a new system (2-3 years down the road) before they can benefit from true 64bit.

 

The difference probably won't be phenomenal until applications that use the 64bits become mainstream, which will take some time. However, I believe that using one of the Merom's with a 4mb Cache could make a bit of a difference, but nothing substantial. You should also consider how long it will actually take for Asus to release those models - not only do they have to manufacture the notebooks and bios, but they have to send it to all their resellers, and then you'll need to purchase them. Meroms, being such a last minute release decision, probably won't be widely available for another few months. If you want to wait, expect to pay a premium for the better processor.

On the other hand, you can just buy the w3j now, wait a year or so for processor prices to drop, and then purchase the merom processors and switch them yourself.

 

64 bit is pretty much useless. what makes core 2 duo so good is that it is 20% faster clock for clock then the core duo. it also scales much higher

 

I had to get a laptop before July, so even though I wanted to wait for core2, I was forced to get a w3j with a core duo...am I frustrated?

Nope, even though core duo might have been a stopgap measure until merom was ready, it still isn't a shabby processor in it's own right. My laptop does everything I ask of it with ease.

If I'm envious of anything, it's that merom is 64bit, but if 64bit Vista is anything like 64bit XP, I'll happily stick with 32bit...thanks to drivers.

I can't wait to get my hands on Conroe or the 4core(forget what its called) cpu for my next desktop build.

 

It's not just about 64-bit. One of the main feautures of Core 2 Duo is the 4MB cache pool being fully available to both cores. This results in a huge performance gain. With Core Duo, each core only has access to its own 2MB of cache.

For example, let's say that you are doing something that only requires a single core on the CPU. Your CPU will basically function like a single core CPU with 4MB of L2 cache, whereas a Yonah would only be able to utilize 2MB of cache in the same situation. Of course, this 4MB cache pool will also benefit multi-threading applications and tasks. Huge benefit, huge performance gains. Add that to 64-Bit capabilities, and you have a bad ass CPU.

 

I'm having difficulty in seeing the big hype about Merom. Surely, it's the best mobile CPU on the market, but is the difference to Yonah really that big? People are talking about 20%, but none of the benchmarks I've seen came close to a 20% lead over Yonah. And even so, how often would those 20% be needed? How many Yonah owners push their CPU to the max. on a daily basis? Of course, with the same pricing as Yonah, everyone should choose a Merom, if they were available, but I don't really see anything that would justify a wait, if you need the laptop now...

 

Waiting for 800mHz Santa Rosa and X1700. Hopefully in the W1J form.

 

Did you guys not see some of the benchmarks for Merom? Look at this http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3076

For Super Pi to 1M a fairly high end Merom calculated it in 24 seconds, while a high end Core duo usually gets around 35 seconds. Thats quite a nice jump there if you ask me.

 

From what I understand, one of the big attractions is that 64 bit spices up Windows Vista quite a bit. As soon as Vista releases, software developers will have much, much more incentive to write 64 bit software than they do now.

 

im interested in this little baby too! i spoke to a pretty rude UK suppiler the other day and said the W3J wont be coming out with anymore processors higher than the one they sell now a T2400 1.86 !!!!!

Heres a good review with Merom T7400 VS T2600 & T2500, it doesnt live upto Conroe standards im afraid, looks like Santa Rosa is the way forward