Are Dual-Core Processors Necessary?

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/processors/3d-studio-max-9,369.html

so yes, they are necessary

No, they aren't neccessary, but they can put good use for videogaming!

No, they aren't neccessary, but they can put good use for videogaming!

GodofKilling08

I have been thinking about this question. I remembered in the past that dual-core processors would cause crashing or performance problems to games. But now people are using them. Are the new processors rid of the these problems?True_Blu3

As far as I remember it was more of a software issue regarding dual cores and the game code, pretty much all new games are built with dual cores in mind or at the very least able to take advantage of their power.

I have been thinking about this question. I remembered in the past that dual-core processors would cause crashing or performance problems to games. But now people are using them. Are the new processors rid of the these problems?True_Blu3

Well if your not doing gaming or cpu-intensive activities then no, they aren't. But most-likely your atleast gaming and dual cores perform phenomenally in games. And even if you don't you wills till see a significant increase in average performance because you have, ofcourse, two processors.

No, they aren't neccessary, but they can put good use for videogaming!

GodofKilling08

Tell that to FunCom. You need a dual core proc to play Age of Conan. Welcome to the 21st century.

[QUOTE="True_Blu3"]I have been thinking about this question. I remembered in the past that dual-core processors would cause crashing or performance problems to games. But now people are using them. Are the new processors rid of the these problems?36O

Well if your not doing gaming or cpu-intensive activities then no, they aren't. But most-likely your atleast gaming and dual cores perform phenomenally in games. And even if you don't you wills till see a significant increase in average performance because you have, ofcourse, two processors.

[QUOTE="36O"]

[QUOTE="True_Blu3"]I have been thinking about this question. I remembered in the past that dual-core processors would cause crashing or performance problems to games. But now people are using them. Are the new processors rid of the these problems?Nibroc420

Well if your not doing gaming or cpu-intensive activities then no, they aren't. But most-likely your atleast gaming and dual cores perform phenomenally in games. And even if you don't you wills till see a significant increase in average performance because you have, ofcourse, two processors.

They do. The system that Intel used at first (the so called Pentium 5) was a failure and couldn't compare with AMD's system but C2D use far superior and it is faster than even two separate cores same in performance. Also, multiple separate cores use only servers or workstations and if you look at the latest processors almost all of them are dual core, quad and so on. The era of single core is gone no matter how you look at it and there isn't a single core processor that can outperform even the cheapest C2D processor, not even the 1.5 ghz model.

Dual core is the new standard. Quad core is good too, only if there are games that actually scales with it.

Best gaming chip would be an overclocked Intel E21XX. Video games are the only thing that doesn't care for the L2 caches. At 3.0 GHZ, the only thing that matters is the video card. Get the new ATI 4850!

To get your best performance/dollar, yes a dual core processor is required. CPUs manufacturers have hit a dead end with clock speed so in order to get more performance out of newer CPUs they have decided to add more cores. You get a huge performance bump going to a second core because you can run your OS and all your malware (my definition of malware is anything that steals CPU cycles from my games) on one core and your game gets an entire core to itself.

As others have said, in order to get a benefit from more than 2 cores the game must be specifically written to take advantage of it.

You are right that earlier dual CPUs provided questionable benefit to gaming and had stability issues. Like SLI video of today it was more for the technical challenge and bragging rights. There really was not any consistant measurable benefit that justified the cost, work, or aggravation to the mere casual gamer.

There's a big difference between dual CPUs and dual cores though. 1. Dual cores are in a single CPU component with one interface to the motherboard. The motherboard doesn't have to understand or deal with threading logic. Threading decisions are made inside the CPU. 2. Multiple cores have quickly become the standard (multiple CPUs in desktops were rare) so the bugs with OSs are discovered far more quickly and given far higher priority.