Dual Core? Quad Core? What's best?

[Anti_Bodies]

I was hoping you smarties at the hive (I consider the smartest forum users to be at the Hive) could teach me a little bit about processors. I am not a noob (I don't think). I know anything clocking at 4.0 GHz is a god, but 3 is pretty good, and 2.5 is decent. However things have gotten complicated in my head when you have multiple cores. I am looking into buying a custom gaming laptop (yes i know it wont be as good as a desktop) and I never really know what is best, bang for buck. I've noticed that compared to dual cores, quad cores run at a lower frequency. So If I get a quad core that runs at 2.2 GHz, would I have troubling with games?

Any kind of information would be useful since I want to learn more about this stuff. Thanks!

 

[Zarathustra]

There are a lot of variables that go into how "fast" something runs. Clock rate is just one of them. Speed depends on hardware, the operating system, and most importantly the program itself. It has to be written in a way that allows it to fully use the hardware.

I'm sorry that I can't tell you how this applies to gaming, though. I believe, but I'm not sure, that rendering graphics is something that should be easy to parallelize - i.e. make it go much faster when distributed across multiple cores. I don't know how the games are written, though.

If it's any indication, I do computational chemistry research but when I buy new computers, I look at consumer reviews before specs.

 

[Joe-black-5]

moved to tech support.
Btw, I'd also like an answer to that D: thinking about getting a new laptop.

 

[Anti_Bodies]

All I was talking about is sheer processing power. Obviously RAM, the graphics card, and various other components make up how fast a computer is. My friend was just telling me that in most cases with modern games, a quad core running at 2.2 GHz is faster then a duo core at 2.7 GHz. This is because it splits up the work amongst the cores. But again, this only works if the game uses all the cores.

Some come with Turbo Mode (at least alienwares do), where if a game doesn't use all the cores, it will shut off the unused ones and overcloack the used ones.

Edit: Is this a good processor? Intel Quad Core i7 2820QM 2.3 GHz (3.4 Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)

 

[Dr Super Good]

Processors are extreemly hard to judge the speed of.

More cache means less memory I/O so threads are put on hold less waiting for memory I/O.
Faster clock rate means more instructions executed per unit time. Clock cycles will get wasted if a thread is stuck waiting for memory I/O.
More cores mean more simultanious threads running at any time which means almost a linear performance increase. Reality is a different case as you still are limited to 1 memory I/O meaning that it is possible to have all processors stuck waiting for I/O at any time and each thread has less cache for it to use.
Hyper threading means that while 1 thread is waiting for memory I/O, another thread can be run reducing the number of wasted clock cycles. The extra threads that are waiting load cache more heavilly and it is still possible to have all cores and their hyperthreading partners stuck witing for memory I/O.
Tri channel support means that 3 memory modules can be accessed at the same time granting superiour memory performance.

On top of that, the clock of the DDR3 main memory also is important. Higher clock rates reduce the time for each memory I/O. Be aware that processors support only up to a certain memory clock rate.

Currently, the I7 range is about the best you can buy for performance. It includes everything you need for a good processor, from multi cores and huge cache to hyperthreading and tri channel support.

The processor "Intel Quad Core i7 2820QM 2.3 GHz (3.4 Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)" seems good. Do not expect desktop performance though as the "M" indicates a mobile chip which usually are lower performing than their desktop counterparts (but are more efficent energy wise).

 

[Anti_Bodies]

Alright thanks for that. Its a little complicated but I can wrap my head around most of that. Could you tell me what you think of these builds? I dont need a lot of harddrive space but I want SSD for the noise and weight reduction, as well as the boost in speed. The 3D is a perk I want but it is not a dealbreaker.

XPS-17 3D $2500

2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2820QM processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.40 GHz
8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics
256GB SOLID STATE DRIVE

Or with
2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2620M processor 2.70 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.40 GHz
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics
For $2200



Alienware M17x 3D $2600

Intel® Core™ i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (4DIMMS)
1.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M
256GB Solid State Drive



CyberPower: Xplorer Xtreme S1 Notebook $2900 (-5% discount)

Intel Core i7 960 3.2 GHz 8M
12 GB Triple-Channel DDR3
NVIDIA GTX 460M 1.5 GB (X2 in SLI Mode)
160 gig Solid State Drive

 

[Dr Super Good]

I advise you look up benchmarks for the components in question. You are the best judge of performance as you know what you want the system to do and benchmarks test components using tests to mimic what they are expected to do in reality.

What I can tell you though is the reason for the large amount of RAM is due to the lack of page memory from hard disk (everything has to be in RAM) as paging is aweful for SSDs.

Also all "M" graphic cards are not as strong as their desktop counterparts. Do not expect it to run games as well as a desktop could.