amd 64 with dual core power?

Hey im in the market for a new laptop and i am unsure to go with a amd or an intel. so this leads me to my question which is "can i get dual core power with out a dual core" see what i was think was if i add 2gb of ram will that take care of the debate between the 64 v. dual core.

thanks for any input.

 

Having 2GB RAM will maximise the potential of the cpu but will not help in increasing the processing power.

Depending on your uses I would suggest buy a cpu which will provide good processing power for what you are looking to do. It does not necesarily have to be dual core or even 64bit. Also with dual core you can probably see some benefits right away. As for 64 bit you wont see any tangible benefits until probably a few months after Vista is released or even later as and when 64bit becomes mainstream.

 

ok so if i were to increase the ram it would have no effect on the processer. well actually let me ask another question. what is ram and what does it do. and what is a processer and what do that do. maby this will help clear things up in my mind a bit

 

RAM will have some effect on the performance of the cpu, but it cannot really change the actual processing power of a cpu. Thats why I said it will maximise the cpu potential but not increase the processing power(how much work a cpu can do).

What is RAM? It is memory just like your hard drive except that it is much faster but the memory stored is temporary. There are different kinds of memory in a system. The HDD is typically the largest but is the slowest, the RAM comes next and then comes the cache(typically there are 2 cache levels) which is located on the cpu itself. This is extremely fast but has limited capacity. So when a cpu needs data it searches through all of these. So it will be fastest if the data is on the cache and slowest if it is in the hard drive.

A cpu is what process the data and issues the commands required to get the other components to work. Anything you do on a laptop/desktop will involve the system sending binary code to the cpu which will then decode it and do the needful.

This is a bare basic explanation on how these work. It is ofcourse more complicated and is practically impossible to explain in a single paragraph. Hope my explanation makes some sense to you.

 

Think of RAM as a workbench. This is the computer's workspace. Having a larger workspace (more RAM) will increase the potential amount of work that can be done at one. This is good if you have 2 things going at once. Keep in mind though that having a huge workbench will do you no extra good if all you do is small simple tasks (You'll have all of that extra space just sitting there doing nothing).

Now think of a processor (CPU) like yourself. You actually build whatever is on the workbench. Having a larger space to work with is good, but it will only help you to a certain extent.

Having a dual core CPU is like having two people working at the same time. You can have two things going at once, assuming the workbench is large enough to have two things going at the same time. Now some programs are written specifically for dual core CPUs, in which case both people at the workbench can work on the one project (or program) at the same time, thus completing it faster. On the other hand, a program not designed for dual core CPUs will not benefit from this, because one CPU (or worker) will execute the program (build the model or whatever) and the other will sit there either not being used or working on something else, so you won't complete the project any faster.

Now a 64 bit CPU is only 1 CPU, but it can read the directions differently (Get more done, only if the program is designed for it). I don't know too much about the 64 bit CPUs so maybe someone else will step in and help explain how they work exactly.

Hope this helps!

 

Read this excellent thread for more info on both 64 bit and dual core processors.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=45655

 

To tell you the truth the core duo only works solo without the power pluged in. It is only a marketing thing from Intel because they are Lagging behind in 64bit technology. If you want a computer that has future potential (64bit) you should buy a 64bit AMD that is "Vista ready", or you can wait till Intel comes out with a 64bit technology later this year. If you dont care just buy the core duo.

 

Core Duo only works when it's plugged in? Why is that? Where did you find this out? I know that the Core Duo can shut down one CPU to save power, but I hadn't heard about it shutting down simply because it's unplugged. Can you show me the article where you found this out? Thanks!

 

If you can afford it (around $4000) and don't mind a big (like 12 pounds) laptop then there actually is an option of an AMD laptop with Dual Core. It is the Sager 9750. There has been a recent review of it by Albsterama on NBR as well as a more recent review of the Alienware M7700 by Chazman. The Alienware M7700 is the same basic machine as the Sager 9750 just with different exterior looks. You can find the Sager 9750 at www.pctorque.com. Good luck!

 

The way I see it, the benefits of having 64bit (higher precision, possibility of addresing more memory, etc) would not touch everyone -checking email and writing Word documents in a Sun Ultrasparc machine is a waste of resources- but dual core would benefit almost everyone, at least leaving all the useless background processes to one core and your main applications to the other.

Recall that Apple just switch from a 64bit one core processor (G5) to a 32bit dual core one, just wait a bit and see the benchmark in native applications and everyday use. It may proved wrong all the hype about 64bit code and computers.

 

Man I really wish that the pentium D would fit inside my z81sp. I mean, I still have a decent processor (Pentium 4 630 EM64t) but It would be alot nicer to have dual core.

When games begin to utilize 64bit, can i expect to see significant performance gains?

 

hey thanks alot you guys. mostly Miner and Dkokelley those two expliantions helped greatly.

 

Depends what you mean by significant. However, we're more likely to see games coded for multi-thread sooner than 64 bit. All the current OS's support multi-threaded applications(and dual core processors). 64bit OS's are a ways off...and will only apply to Vista's 64bit variants. Would make more sense for software companies to cater to the dual core market first....but we'll have to wait and see.

Software that's designed with multi-thread support will still work fine on single core processors. It's simply a feature that can be used or not. 64bit software though needs to be written with that in mind to fully utilize it. Of course, some titles have demonstrated that you can write a "patch" to modify a program to support 64bit, but I'm betting it many software programmers won't be too keen on that idea. They usually prefer to write the program once, the way it's gonna be run. Patches tend to create problems.