To duo or not to duo?

I am interested in getting a laptop. I've basically come down to the MSI 1039 or the Asus z92j as they become available. They are pretty comparable with the biggest difference being the Asus will be dual core and the 1039 will not.

How much should the prospect of a dual core processor sway my decision? I realize it will have some bugs and may be a little bumpy at first but that is a risk I'm willing to take if it will be the better option for the long haul.

I will primarily be using the laptop at school and to game. This laptop will be better than my current desktop so I do plan on doing all my gaming with it. Should either processor sway me considering this?

Duo's don't provide a great advantage unless software is specifically designed for it correct? Does anyone think games will be doing this, or more importantly, does anyone envision games evolving to the point that a dual core will be necessary anytime within the next 3 years since I would at least like my laptop to be competitive for that long.

Throw in the fact that there will likely be a few bumps in the road getting a duo as soon as it releases, not to mention the possibility of a higher price tag and maybe more importantly - lower speed offerings initially - is there any reason I should be seriously persuaded to get a duo? Should I even be concerned about the lower processor speeds?

Thanks

 

If you are worried about games going just to duo...then no don't worry. I am sure some games will release patches to take advantage of it. Somewhat like the Quake patch for HT-p4's and 64-bit patches.

I don't think it will matter that much. I know there is always a discussion about this, but in my opinion you will be good. If you are looking for something like 64-bit...get the Turion...if you are looking for a good single core gaming and battery life laptop check out the Pentium-M, it is nice with the 533Mhz FSB.

Hope this helps!

 

You're correct - in single-threaded applications, you won't see a signifigant performance boost with the Core Duo. However, in multi-threaded, the difference is clearly evident.

I would go for the dual-core if you can, but not if it throws you over your budget. There are already some games that can take advantage of it, such as Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2. I have a Pentium 4 3.2GHz w/HT Tech in my desktop - I applied the Hyperthread/Dual-core patch for Call of Duty and Quake 4 - noticable performance increase.

Processor speeds aren't really that important these days, I would not base your decision off of that. I would try to get a 1.86GHz Pentium M or 1.83GHz Duo, those have a pretty good price/performance. The Duos are expensive right now because they were just released, they will go down gradually.

You may consider conpleting our "What Should I Buy" FAQ in the What Should I Buy forum so we can give you some recommendations.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have been frequenting the boards for the last 2 weeks and I've always found your posts to be really informative and helpful.

I do play cod 2 quite a bit so there is one case, as you mentioned, that dual core will prove its worth. I'm not too concerned about going over budget, the duo's are within my price range (just wasn't sure I wanted to spend $600+ on one).

I've pretty much narrowed it down to the Asus z92j and the MSI 1039 mentioned above. Portability is a concern of mine and I don't want to make the leap to a 17 inch screen but I would also like more power than most 13 and 14 inch laptops. The w3j is very, very tempting but I'm a little concerned about heating issues and the 1.6 ghz processor was scaring me off a bit, plus I don't really want to wait till late march but I would be willing.

Thanks for the replies, they helped a lot.

 

I've had my core duo for a week now, and was very interested to see how the two cores get used by applications and games. Here's what I can tell you - all applications use both cores, the only difference is the usage ratio between core 1 and core 2.

Mind you, this is fairly subjective (just me watching the performance viewer graphs)!

Most apps use the cores with a 80:20 to 70:30 ratio - i.e. they will use the first core for 80% of processing and the 2nd core for 20% of processing.

Heavily multiuthreaded apps use the cores with a 50:50 to 40:60 ratio (yes, the 2nd core can be worked even harder than the first).

Games use the cores in a fairly even 50:50 split, no exceptions to this so far.

 

Thanks for the info TM

 

Does the 1.86GHz Pentium M have Hyperthread?

 

Nope, no Pentium M has HyperThreading. Pentium 4's do.