Question!

i feel like an idiot asking this but does Intel Core 2 QUAD Q9550 2.83GHz w/ 12MB L2 Cache - 1333MHz FSB mean there 4 2.83GHz processors?

 

It means it has 4 2.83 cores in one processor.

 

yes........

 

sorry bout that im not smart with some things xD

 

It's not about being smart. This is just information.

 

Code:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X      X       X
X  C1  X  C3   X
X      X       X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X      X       X
X  C2  X  C4   X
X      X       x
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

This is what it would look like, every core is 2.83GHZ

 

is it like sli for graphics cards?

 

No.

.......​

 

can u elaborate some more

 

Its 1 processor x 4 cores...

Back in the day of Hyper-Threading the processor would trick the computer into thinking there was 2 cores, now processors don't need to "trick" the computer because they really have 2 cores and now 4 cores and soon 6 cores. The cores are the power centers, so having a quad core 2.8ghz is like having 4 separate 2.8ghz processors bundled into 1 tight little package (i think) which increases its performance. At least that's my understanding of it? I am sure there's a more techie explanation tho.

so a quad core 2.2ghz (8.8hhz) is more powerful than a dual core 3.0ghz (6Ghz) and stuff..(again I THINK!)

 

As far as I understand...
SLI is 2 seperate GFX cards working together in unity within your system.
Quad !CORE! is 1 CPU with multiple cores. Consider a rope... multiple strands of whatever, braided together to form one rope. CPU is the rope, cores are the strands. Quad core means you have 4 seperate cores (strands), that TOGETHER form the CPU (rope).

Unlike SLI in that it is one unit as opposed to two units working together.

Hope that is not too much of a simplification.
For a more elaborate one... there are multiple threads on the topic of Quad vs. Dual core, where the role of cores is really detailed.

~E

 

basically one processor, and can do 4 completely different tasks independant of eachother (for the most part) Wheras a single core processor, the individual tasks have to wait their turn (all happening at split second times)

Pretty vague analogy, but in short, dual core and quad core are the way to go

 

SLi for a processor would be the LGA771 Skulltrail platform.

Quad Core is essentially 4 processor cores in 1 processor as a whole. So yes, it would be 2.83GHz x4 if the program you are using is capable of taking advantage of all 4 cores.

 

The SLi analogy is interesting, but I don't think it really has much explanatory power viz the current quad-cores.

Where the analogy does connect is the fact that the current quad-cores are basically two dual-core dies glued together to form a pseudo-quad-core. "Pseudo" in the sense that the four cores are not all peers - cores 0 and 2 are on one die, cores 1 and 3 on the other; as a result, communication between cores 0/2 and cores 1/3 must take place across the FSB, e.g., cache coherency transactions, which adds a remarkable amount of bus-latency to the system - it adds latency because, since cache coherency is very high priority, the FSB is effectively monopolized by the core caches during that time, and nothing else can be sent over the bus.

However, the analogy falls apart because (a) the arrangement is mandatory, not optional, so there are none of the headaches associated with having to deal with various optional arrangements, (b) multi-core processing is actually much better developed than SLi GPUs, although it's only recently moved to PCs and notebooks, and (c) the four logic cores are intended to be treated as separate entities whose workings need merely to be co-ordinated, but overall still form part of only one component and therefore do not ever have to be regarded as completely separate, stand-alone components, as opposed to in SLi, where you have two GPUs - each of which is capable of providing full GPU functionality on its own - that are supposed to be melded together as a single, uniform component (from the perspective of the rest of the system) and therefore must be able to on their own take unitary signals from the CPU/system and figure out which parts go to which GPU (BTW, it is this requirement that the GPUs be seen as one undivided component that, effectively, does not permit the system to "see" all of the graphics memory on each of the cards - that is, if you have two GPUs, each with 512MB of onboard memory, in SLi, you don't end up with 1,024MB of graphics memory, but still only 512MB, essentially, the system can only "see" the onboard memory for whichever GPU is the "parent" GPU).