I'm ashamed to say that, with my new computer, I actually find that I don't understand its proceccing power. Maybe I'm getting old.
Anyway, since Jane (It asked for a name, so I named it after the Ender's Game character Jane) has a "Core 2 Duo," I find myself constantly second-guessing whether or not she can run games that require a high-speed proceccor.
My current dillemma centers around The Orange Box. The games in this package require a 1.7 ghz proceccor, and I have 1.7 ghz dual proceccors. Poking around the Internet has gotten me mixed answers as to whether or not The Orange Box's games will run slowly, or if they will run just fine, under these conditions.
From what I know about multi-core proceccors, they have an advantage only with programs that are made to take advantage of multiple cores, but this is a simplistic view made from skimming whatever I could find with Google.
Hopefully, one of you can enlighten me?
Two proceccors? :0 :0 :0
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TheOrange Box will not work with Dual processers as well as it would with a single processor, as the origional game coding was developed with only a single procesor in mind. Those that are developed with dual processors in mind have specalised code that enables the two processors to devide the work and comunicate more effectivly than those that don't. It will still work, just not as well. A lot of newer games would run faster than it however, as they are formated to be bual processor compatable.
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Zolem is 3/4 right.
A dual core processor means that on a single chip, there are two processors. Your Core 2 Duo has two cores, each running at 1.7ghz.
This also means that your effective ram if 1/2 what your total installed ram is, since each core will take half for itself. Also, the Core 2 Duo likely uses DDR2 ram, which is faster than DDR ram, which is what most single cores rely on.
Anyways, you can expect to run roughly as fast as a single core, assuming you have the same ram available to each core that you would on the single core.
My thoughts are: if for some reason it's running crappy, make sure you have a gfx card that is above the minimum requirements, updated drivers, and then make sure you have 2gb of ram for each core (or 4gb total). Also, installing a gaming sound card may help some, but don't expect a huge gain from it like the ram or gfx.
Also, you 'should' be able to do other stuff while the game is running, and not have as significant decrease in performance as you would with a single core. In case you decide you hate the music and wanna like, run itunes or something.
A dual core processor means that on a single chip, there are two processors. Your Core 2 Duo has two cores, each running at 1.7ghz.
This also means that your effective ram if 1/2 what your total installed ram is, since each core will take half for itself. Also, the Core 2 Duo likely uses DDR2 ram, which is faster than DDR ram, which is what most single cores rely on.
Anyways, you can expect to run roughly as fast as a single core, assuming you have the same ram available to each core that you would on the single core.
My thoughts are: if for some reason it's running crappy, make sure you have a gfx card that is above the minimum requirements, updated drivers, and then make sure you have 2gb of ram for each core (or 4gb total). Also, installing a gaming sound card may help some, but don't expect a huge gain from it like the ram or gfx.
Also, you 'should' be able to do other stuff while the game is running, and not have as significant decrease in performance as you would with a single core. In case you decide you hate the music and wanna like, run itunes or something.
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This is probably a bit late to add, but I'd recommend googling for the Dual Core timing fix if you're running XP. AMD has released a specific upgrade for Windows to fix this, but I'm not sure about Intel. It kinda stops Windows looking at the processor and saying "lol how i use dual core??"
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*<3 his one single very fast proceccor*
But, yeah, it should run okay, unless you encounter other problems.
1.7 ghz dual proceccors does not mean that you have two 0.85 ghz proceccors that make up 1.7 combined. >>
But, yeah, it should run okay, unless you encounter other problems.
1.7 ghz dual proceccors does not mean that you have two 0.85 ghz proceccors that make up 1.7 combined. >>
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I'll just have to point out not to listen to Valve's games when you have Dual Core if they flag up your processor as insufficient. The speed it picks up is for one core only. Half-Life 2: Episode Two is coded with knowledge of Dual Core, but the older games haven't been updated with this, AFAIK.