Is this true? (re: GHz)

So I was told today that GHz don't matter anymore since the core 2 duo processors have such great caches and even turbo caches.... is this true? Specifically he said that "the core 2 duo 1.5 ghz 2mb cache
is about as fast as a pentium D 3.0ghz" What are your thoughts?

 

that's roughly true
speed/ghz is still important though

 

i see, so when thinking about what processor to choose with the Inspiron 1420...getting the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache) won't hurt my gaming?

 

from what I remember reading, having a 1.5ghz duo won't exactly mean you have a 3ghz processor or better.

the duo processors are better at multitasking. so instead of having one processor try to process streams of information, there are two that can each take a stream of information to process. some games are optimized for this "dual processor" and some are not.

look it up on wikipedia, i'm probably missing some info, but I think that was the gist of it.

 

Ghz speed is still important, it's just that you can no longer use it to compare different generations of processors. Like you mentioned, you can not compare a Pentium D with a Core 2 Duo, just because the Core 2 Duo does a lot more stuff for every tick of the clock than a Pentium D does.

But if you are comparing a C2D with another C2D then Ghz speed is still a decent indicator of the difference in speed.

 

In reality, you'd probably never notice the difference between a 1.8, 2.0ghz C2D (even with less cache on the 1.8).

A jump between 1.8 and 2.4 is probably noticeable, but truth be told, I bet if I did the switch under your nose, you wouldn't notice until you were told.

In short, don't sweat the CPU. I'd just recommend getting a 1.8ghz over the 1.5Ghz (slowest, less cache, slower FSB), but there's no need to splurge on more.

 

Great information everyone! Thanks for helping.. but I have another question.

Specifically, do most minimum requirements for games need u to have higher than 1.5GHz? Or, if I end up getting the Inspiron 1420 with 1.5GHz will I still be able to play all my games?

Thanks!!

 

What types of games do you play?

 

Command and Counquer 3 requies a 2.2 Ghz. Yes, that sounds absurd, but they don't specify dual core, so maybe 1.5 dual works fast enough. I'll be trying it out on my 2.2 later

 

Economics based games. My most favorite game is 1701 a.d. and i just bought Civilization IV. I also have Rise of Nations but it works on even my computer that has really low specs. I'm most concerned about being able to play 1701AD

 

Go for 1.8 at least. Even without Dual Core because Coreduo is so much faster. It would be like a 3.6Ghz Pentium D. Or if its well multitraded. its near a 5ghz Pentium 4.

But faster is always more futureproof 1.5ghz is pushing it now a year from now..

 

Be aware that its possible that some games can't handle multiple cores (although it shouldn't be a huge problem anymore).

Not a gamer... so I don't know too much about what games support what.

 

thanks so much!!

 

game requirements are listed in terms of the pentium 4 single core processor. 3ghz means a 3ghz p4 or an athlon 3000+.

you want something faster than that though, because a year from now that requirement is going to creep up.

i think a 1.5ghz core 2 duo would not have too much trouble keeping pace with a pentium 4 on a single thread. a core 2 duo, even at 1.5 ghz, would easily outpace a p4 with a properly threaded program...

but 1.5 is pushing the low end. if your processor has a t7xxx model number, you are definitely fine.

pretty much every game runs on dual core. some older games have compatibility issues (rainbow six 3) - but you can get around that by forcing the game to just run on one core.

most newer games (doom 3, quake 4, for example) are at least somewhat multi-threaded and not only support but actually perform better on dual core processors.

 

When you say "can't handle" dual processors, do you mean they aren't optimized, or they simply won't work at all?

 

Well as you know from the name the Core 2 Duo has two cores in it (basically two processors) that split the work load between them. But many games are coded to run as a single process in windows. This means they will only use one of the cores, and the other will be idle.

So if your game is not coded with "threading" support it will not run as fast as it could on a Dual core chip. But it will still run.

A multi-threaded game might have one thread (or process) for the AI, another for Physics, and another for Sound etc. When it's coded like that the Core 2 Duo chip can juggle the work load and keep both Cores working at full speed.

Single process games keep everything in once process, so all the work has to be done by that one process and can not be shared out.

That's why it is so hard to compare multi-core and single-core processors. Because a lot depends on what they are being used for. And that is one of the reasons why a Duo core processor does not provide a 100% speed boost over a single core processor running at the same clock speed.

 

the core 2 duos have a completely different architecture from the p4s/pent d's ..thats how a 1.8 is roughly equivilent to a 3.4ghz pent D or 4ghz p4

the core 2 @ 3 gig in my machine is equivilent to a pent d/p4 @ 5/6ghz

 

Even If its single threaded a 1.5 Core duo is a bout a 3ghz Netburst Pentium D. Or if Multi Threaded it could be near a 6ghz Pentium 4.

 

thank you EVERYONE!!!! so much great information that I didn't know before.

 

Based on this thread i just knocked my processor down and saved 120 bones.

 

GHz is as important now as it has been any other period. The higher the clock speed the faster the processor. The reason why lower clocked processors are able to able to outperform higher clocked processors is because of the differences in architecture. With clock speed also comes IPC or instructions per clock. You also have to take into account the size and latency of the CPU cache and other advancements to the architectures such as newer improved instruction sets. So even though one processor may have a higher clock speed, a CPU built on a different architecture may be noticeably faster at a lower clock all because it's architecture is more advanced and it is doing more work per clock cycle. These are all things to be taken into account when purchasing a processor. You need to just check out reviews for yourself and buy based on your intended needs of the CPU. Since most mobile reviews are lacking in the tests they run I would suggest checking out the reviews for the desktop counterparts instead and see how much difference clock speed makes and what areas the CPU excels in the most.