AMD And Intel Dual Core CPU ...

[Norman_Chan]

For AMD and Intel Dual cores CPU , at present pricing ...which will be a better choice for upgrade ?

 

Also a curious question is that if one of the cpu die , will the other cpu still work as a stand alone ?

 

By defaults is Intel dual cores cpu 64 bits ?

[Doggie Howser]

*ahem* potential dealer alert here, but I'll try to be as objective as I can...

 

Depends on which dual cores from Intel you are referring to:

 

Pentium D vs AMD X2s. No questions: AMD X2s beat Pentium Ds hands down. Should check out March issue of CHIPS magazine (Singapore edition). Even entry level 4400+ X2 beats Extreme Edition (top of the line Pentium 4 Dual Core XE)!!

 

If CPU fails, get it replaced. :) But with the level of integration, I doubt it. Depends on which part fails, I guess.

 

Intel recently announced their new Core 2 Duo (which is the replacement for Pentium Ds). This is closer in performance to the X2s.

 

Design wise, Intel went back to the older Pentium III type architecture so a 2GHz Core 2 Duo will run faster than a 3GHz Xtreme Edition

 

The Pentium 4 D and the (end of yr release) Core 2 Duo will be 64 bits

 

The current gen Core Duo (used in notebooks and Apple Macs) are only 32 bit.

 

 

 

 

[Norman_Chan]

So for Dual cores cpu , when it stated as 3 ghz ...does it mean each CPU is 3 ghz or combination of both CPU make-up 3 ghz speed ?

 

So those 8xx and 9xx series are the "D" series type , is this correct ?

[Norman_Chan]

Will there be a performance hit if still use back DDR400 ram instead of DDR2 type of ram ...and use back AGP card instead of PCi Express card ? Anywhere to read about such comparing ?

[Doggie Howser]

So for Dual cores cpu , when it stated as 3 ghz ...does it mean each CPU is 3 ghz or combination of both CPU make-up 3 ghz speed ?

 

So those 8xx and 9xx series are the "D" series type , is this correct ?

 

3GHz is for both cores but obviously 2x3GHz != 1x6GHz

 

Yes 800 and 900 series are D series.

 

I believe the difference is..

8xx is 90nm

9xx is 65nm

[Doggie Howser]

Will there be a performance hit if still use back DDR400 ram instead of DDR2 type of ram ...and use back AGP card instead of PCi Express card ? Anywhere to read about such comparing ?

 

Depends on the architecture of the CPU.

 

DDR400 tends to have lower latencies than DDR2

 

Current gen AMDs have stuck with DDRs for better price and lower latencies for the last couple of years.

 

Only recently have you been able to get more affordable high speed low latency DDR2. And AMD just announced the new gen X2s with DDR2 support.

 

IMHO, dual core X2 will benefit from the DDR2 but you need at least a low latency module with >= 667MHz. 800MHz CAS4 would be ideal.

 

With Intel Pentium Ds, I believe you have no choice. All of them run on DDR2.

 

You can still get some AMD 939 pin motherboards with DDR400 and AGP, though most are PCI-Express x16 now

 

As for AGP/PCI-E performance... depends on what your applications are. Minimum spec for HD decoding as recommended by Microsoft is 6600GT which is available in AGP format. I think there is an embedded Nvidia 6150 chipset for the AMDs which is equivalent of that card. All the new high powered 3D graphics cards would normally be available only in PCI-E flavors.

 

Also if you want to use PC based HD-DVD/BD drives, you would need a newer card that supports HDMI with HDCP and I suspect these will only be in PCI-E flavors.