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OBIO
August 16th, 2010, 21:06
I am looking at various computer parts for the day that my ship sails in and I can afford to build myself a new system...not holding my breath for anytime soon though.

I have run into something that I have wondered about for a while. Dual core and Quad core processors and their clock speeds. One MOBO and Processor combo I am looking at, just window browsing, come with a Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Processor with a clock speed of 2.66Ghz. Is that total clock speed, or speed of each independent core?

My current system has a P4 3.0gig single core processor. How much more processing power would the Q9400 have over my current P4? How much of the Q9400 would Windows XP 32-bit be able to use? How about FS9 and CFS2?

OBIO

stansdds
August 17th, 2010, 01:59
Each core runs at 2.66 GHz, but processing loads, if the software allows, is spread over multiple cores. This tends to speed up processing. Because of the improved chip architecture and bus speeds, a Q9400 would blow away a P4. A good Core2Duo can blow away a P4 for the same reason.

FS9 and CFS2 do not use multiple cores, but it is possible to set up your system so the OS uses one core, other apps like TrackIR use a second core, and FS9 uses a third core.

JoeW
August 17th, 2010, 06:01
I had a core 2 duo ( E5200) at 2.6 and replaced it with a Quad at 2.6 (Q 9400). It didn't make it any faster but it sure went smoother ..... like it's powered by diesel power. It made a big difference.