Which applications are CPU-dependent ?

Hi, Everyone says Centrino is last generation one, core duo is good but it is better to wait for core 2 duo. SuperPi tests show that the order is as everyone says, for simillar speed. BUT, if core duo 1.66 is about 20% faster in superPi test than centrino 1.86, centrino 2 GHz is also faster than 1.86.

I think speed should be chosen according to the needs, IF, i want a notebook for office works, listening to MP3, normal playing, etc, I THINK there should not be so much difference even between centrino 1.5 and core 2 duo 2 GHz.

So, please tell, clearly, which applications/tasks, REALLY need or benefit from core duo or core 2 duo CPUs, EVEN in future, that 64 bit applications are released. THANKS

 

Games usually take advantage of all the CPU speed they can get. (But usually run on slower CPU's anyway, so that only qualifies as *need* if you absolutely want the best performance you can get. It is, however, one of the few applications where you'll be able to see a performance difference. Like you said, listening to MP3's or working in MS Word won't show a difference.

Other than that, MatLab and other scientific apps tend to require lots of CPU power.

For programmers, compiling is a CPU-heavy task as well (although it's also bottlenecked by the harddrive speed)

Media encoding/decoding as well.

And a couple of days ago, someone here said that his Excel macros took lots and lots of CPU.

That's about it. Games are the only *realtime* app I can think of that really makes use of that much. For everything else, it's pretty much only tasks you start, and then you wait for them to finish. That also means that everything other than games can make do with ridiculously slow CPU's if they have to. It'll just take ages to finish, but they don't become "unusable" like games do.

 

Higher speed is always better, why not, but i mean if the speed of a 2 GHz centrino is equale to a 1.66 core duo, why core duo is regarded better. I know that core duo can do multiple tasking, but i dont think many users do many multiple taskings all the time. In other words, why buying a centrino CPU, even a high speed one, today, is regarded something wrong? So, which applications or tasks really need core duo, or C2D where centrino owners wish they should have the other one?

 

First, keep in mind that Centrino isn't really a CPU. It's marketing name for an:
- Intel mobile CPU
- Intel Motherboard with Intel GPU
- Intel Wifi
(Possibly one or two other requirements, but those are the main bits)

So by Centrino, I'll assume you mean the Pentium M that came before Core Duo.

A 1.66 Core Duo is potentially a lot faster than a 2GHz Pentium M. Performance in single-threaded applications is about the same, give or take (I'd expect the 2ghz to be faster there, actually, but haven't tested it or looked it up), but the Core Duo is a dual-core CPU. So if we take your single-threaded app, and run two of them simultaneously, the Pentium M will roughly halve performance for each instance of the app, while the Core Duo would run both at full speed.

And yes, you're right, most users don't need that. Refer to the above post for some of the tasks that might be able to take advantage of it.
Also, combinations like, say, scanning for viruses while playing a game requires a dual-core CPU if you want acceptable performance in the game. But again, like you said, most users don't need it.

Buying a Pentium M today is regarded as something wrong *here* because this place is mostly made up of enthusiasts who want the latest and greatest. That's the main reason. For most people and for most purposes, you're right, a plain old Pentium M would serve fine, and they probably wouldn't even notice the difference.

Hope that answers your question.

 

YES, now i feel better since i have recently ordered an ASUS W3V with 1.86 Pentium M. Thanks.

 

Jalf deserves a reputation point for his in-depth clarifications!

 

Another question, since Pentium M's have 2MB cache while core 2s have 2*1 cache, isn't it possible that in some applications, not multitasking, PM be faster, because of cache ?

 

Keep in mind that many programs that are CPU-intensive also often rely heavily on the speed and amount of RAM you have.

 

Intel Core (2) Duo CPUs use a new shared cache architecture - both cores use the same cache, unlike AMD processors, which have separate caches for each core.
The 2MB of L2 cache in a Core Duo can theoretically be used by one core, but that probably won't happen. Each core can use as much cache as it needs to an extent.

 

In theory, yes, it's possible. I wouldn't expect it though. As Chaz said, both cores have access to the full cache, so it's not like they're at more than a very slight disadvantage in that case. (And it's more than compensated for by all the advantages the chip has)

 

thank you for the replies. So core (2) duo is in all ways better than Pentium M, but i wont regret, it is still adequate for me.

 

Then the Pentium M wins in the most important category.
It does what you need.