is a dual core better than a single core no matter what?

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soldine

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#1 soldine
Member since 2007 • 1980 Posts

/topic.

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Luminouslight

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#2 Luminouslight
Member since 2007 • 6397 Posts
Well I had one of the best single cores on the market and it was not a very enjoyable experience with games now a days.
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aeatyes

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#3 aeatyes
Member since 2004 • 131 Posts

Yeah, dual-core trumps single core at every turn.

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LiftedHeadshot

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#4 LiftedHeadshot
Member since 2009 • 2460 Posts
Yes, unless it was a .15 GHz dual core vs a 4.0 GHz single core.
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BeavermanA

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#5 BeavermanA
Member since 2003 • 2652 Posts
Pretty much yes these days as to my knowledge they are no longer making any single-core cpus that would be considered ok for gaming. If they did have i7 single-core 4ghz cpus they might be better than a lot of stock quads for many apps, but that just isn't the case. Could even try it yourself with a program like CPU Control. Force everything to run on one core at a high clock rate and run some benchmarks, then clock it back down to stock and run it on 2-4 cores.
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RayvinAzn

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#6 RayvinAzn
Member since 2004 • 12552 Posts
There's no absolute answer to your question, but by and large the answer is yes.
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Iantheone

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#7 Iantheone
Member since 2007 • 8242 Posts
Depends. MY 2.0Ghz single core was faster then my friends 1.7 dual core. It also depends on the game and such. If it isnt optimized for multiple cores then a single core with a higher clock speed willget better results than a slower dual core
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theragu40

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#9 theragu40
Member since 2005 • 3332 Posts
Almost always, unless you're comparing two completely different classes of processors. For instance, the old 3.2ghz Pentium 4 I used to have blows the socks off of the C2D 1.6's that are in the tablet PCs we get at work. However, almost always you'll see the dual core take the lead in benchmarks.
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fynne

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#10 fynne
Member since 2002 • 8078 Posts

As long as the software takes advantage of multi-cores, the answer is a definite yes.

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imprezawrx500

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#11 imprezawrx500
Member since 2004 • 19187 Posts
dual core is old news, you should get a tri or quad now they are cheap.
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imprezawrx500

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#12 imprezawrx500
Member since 2004 • 19187 Posts
dual core is old news, you should get a tri or quad now they are cheap. [QUOTE="Iantheone"]Depends. MY 2.0Ghz single core was faster then my friends 1.7 dual core. It also depends on the game and such. If it isnt optimized for multiple cores then a single core with a higher clock speed willget better results than a slower dual core

and I bet you have more slow downs than my quad when running at 800mhz. Even when modeling in maya it only jumps to 3ghz for half a sec before going back to 800mhz. The fact is one core of a phenom/core/i5/i7 murders a athlon 64/pentium 4
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NLahren

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#13 NLahren
Member since 2009 • 1927 Posts
yes
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theragu40

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#14 theragu40
Member since 2005 • 3332 Posts
[QUOTE="imprezawrx500"]dual core is old news, you should get a tri or quad now they are cheap. [QUOTE="Iantheone"]Depends. MY 2.0Ghz single core was faster then my friends 1.7 dual core. It also depends on the game and such. If it isnt optimized for multiple cores then a single core with a higher clock speed willget better results than a slower dual core

and I bet you have more slow downs than my quad when running at 800mhz. Even when modeling in maya it only jumps to 3ghz for half a sec before going back to 800mhz. The fact is one core of a phenom/core/i5/i7 murders a athlon 64/pentium 4

That's true, but it all has to do with the architecture of the processor. So he might not be lying if that dual core 1.7 is a mobile dual core. Those are a lot slower (at least in my experience). The dual core tablets we use at work are markedly slower and less responsive than my single core netbook.