Dual-Core Chip Ends Pentium's Reign

[Onkel Neal]

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200607/kt2006072718435510220.htm

Intel on Thursday unveiled a lineup of new computer processors named Core 2 Duo, which is replacing its 12-year-old Pentium brand.


The company said that the new chips are about 40 percent more powerful and energy-saving than Pentium chips. Also known by the project name Conroe, the Core 2 Duo chips have two processing cores in a single unit, and are more efficient at running resource-demanding tasks like high-definition computer games.

Intel hopes that the launching of the new brand will help the firm regain its lost share in the central processing unit (CPU) market. The U.S. chip giant saw a 13-percent decrease in sales and a 60-percent drop in operating profit in the second quarter, compared to same period last year, as its archrival AMD prevailed in the low-end chip market for desktop and laptop PCs.

Core 2 Duo?? Their marketing guys must be asleep, that's not nearly as good a name as Pentium. :roll: You know it's a bad sign when they tout a CPU's power after riding up on Harleys ;)

[Skybird]

I am not willing to go beyond max 600W power consummation for the complete system... which already is 180W more than what I have now... The article says the new toy is power-efficient, let's see how that will be after that new CPU has seen several evolution phases... There is a reason why 1.3 kW PSU are laready on offer. Ridiculous, if you ask me...

Instead of maximizing performance with dual, triple and quattro solutions for graphics boards and CPU :lol: , I would like to see them concentrating on reducing heat and power consummation,, both of which have been a real problem for me recently. After having given back my Radeon 850, and changing it for a TI6800 due to techncial problems with the Radeon drivers, it took me just two weaks to burn that board - without overclocking, with open tower and a ventilator nearby, a good stream of air and and despite a room temperatur between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius a CPU temp of 37 in idle and 52-55 at max. I'm back on my old and highly reliable FX5900XT. It runs all I have, except Oblivion (that one only at 640 or 800 and low details :( )

The major complaint I have about Vista so far is that MS says to run it in standard graphcial presentation you need one of todays highend graphics cards. I beg you - a TI7800 just for running an OS...? Is the OS meant to operate a hardware, or is the hardware meant to run an OS...??? not to mention that without doubt the many problems with new Vista will be on at least the same scale as was the case with XP in the beginning. So - no Vista and no new supersystem for me in the forseeable future - I'll ride my current horse until it falls dead. Don't need all these gimmicks.

[kiwi_2005]

Always been a AMD fan. This new Pentium chip sounds a winer tho. One thing about the Pentium cpu is they're easy to clip onto the motherboard compared to the AMD. I once put a hole right through a mobo while trying to clip on an AMD chip! I slipped while pushing the clip down and my screwdriver went right through the board! :damn:

AMD AthlonXP :rock:

[scandium]

I am not willing to go beyond max 600W power consummation for the complete system... which already is 180W more than what I have now... The article says the new toy is power-efficient, let's see how that will be after that new CPU has seen several evolution phases... There is a reason why 1.3 kW PSU are laready on offer. Ridiculous, if you ask me...

Agreed. Any upgrades I make, other maybe to a faster but modest single core amd cpu or a 2nd hard drive, will mean a new PSU as well (to replace my 6 month old 350W that works perfectly - for what it powers now) and probably a high efficiency 500W, minimum, with lots of amps on the 12V line for these power crazy video cards and cpus of today.

[SUBMAN1]

Skybird - 600 Watts? I'm already there! I've given up on Watts and I am now counting in volts / rails. Where most systems only have 1x 12 volt rail, I now have 4! I just sold my old silent $110 400 watt PSU because it can't even start my video card, let alone my system!

kiwi - You'd laugh at my heat sink! Massive is an understatement. Largest all copper sink I can find.

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_xp90C.htm

-S

[jumpy]

Subman1, what symptoms did you get with having an underpowered PSU trying to run your gfx card? anything like the following:
1) very limited picture with trails left on the screen by the mouse
2) PC boots but the screen won't display - you can hear windows loading jungle and icons on taskbar 'poping'
I only ask as I'm addin an old ATI9600 to my GF's machine and that's pretty much what it does. I think that it's a PSU defficiency :-?

[SUBMAN1]

Subman1, what symptoms did you get with having an underpowered PSU trying to run your gfx card? anything like the following:
1) very limited picture with trails left on the screen by the mouse
2) PC boots but the screen won't display - you can hear windows loading jungle and icons on taskbar 'poping'
I only ask as I'm addin an old ATI9600 to my GF's machine and that's pretty much what it does. I think that it's a PSU defficiency :-?
No - you get the vid card beeps on boot up with a blank screen - as in my case that is.

By the way - ATI 9600 has hardly any power draw. Try loading in safe mode (Hit F8 on startup) to see if you get a clear pic then. If so, you know its a driver issue. That is assuming you can see your system post correctly.

Issues that I have seen where there is lack of power involve very long boot times - like 5 to 10 minutes to boot as XP recovers from error after error. Not saying that it's the same across the board since lack of power has weird results like you describe, just that I haven't see a situation like yours. Only time I have seen a situation like you describe, though not as bad, is with a dying vid card that was fried (probably bad RAM on the vid card) from static electricity.

-S

[SUBMAN1]

Hahaha! It looks like someone else is having the same circuit breaker problems as I had with my power hungry computer!

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/21/the_graphics_state_of_the_union/page2.html

-S

[Skybird]

To be honest, I more and more feel that in the future I want a small notebook only, since I play less and lesser flight sims and hardware demanding stuff, but stick to Steel Beasts and some strategy things of archaic age and spartanic hardware demands anyway, and only want Word, Chess, a bit of digital picture processing (camera) and internet. From system to system i found it harder to keep myself informed about what to buy, and compatabilities, and standards. The chase is no longer worth it for me, I think.

[SUBMAN1]

To be honest, I more and more feel that in the future I want a small notebook only, since I play less and lesser flight sims and hardware demanding stuff, but stick to Steel Beasts and some strategy things of archaic age and spartanic hardware demands anyway, and only want Word, Chess, a bit of digital picture processing (camera) and internet. From system to system i found it harder to keep myself informed about what to buy, and compatabilities, and standards. The chase is no longer worth it for me, I think.

You know why? You aren't getting the qaulity sims like you used to get anymore. I mean, what is there after Falcon? You aren't going to get anything close to it. Occasionally a SHIII slips through and you are blown away by it, but for the most part, there is nothing new that is worth your time.

I got sick of my ATI 9800 AIW on a XP3200, and my ATI gave me problems, so I spent a boatload upgrading it. Now I have an uber system and nothing to play on it. I am rather disappointed. Oblivion was the only game that was decent lately and the only thing that wouyld use the hardware.. THe only new game out that might be entertaining is Prey, but that is just a Doom 3 engine and I can make that engine fly. Dunno. UPgrading now is not a major need for most people with what is available on the shelf right now, or even in the near future.

The best way to descibe it - I am bored with gaming in general right now. So I feel probably the same way.

-S

PS. ALl my new system is good for with now is turning my hot summer room into an even hoter one with all the power is sucks in.

[Skybird]

The magic is gone. We're getting older, computer games are nothing new anymore, we do not get surprised by new worlds anymore - they are standard, they are routine. There may be a future to live, but the magic is gone and it ain't gonna come back. :lol:

[Ducimus]

Intell charges too much as it is already. They'll want an arm, a leg, and your next unborn kin for that chip. I'll stick with AMD. Comperable, or even better performance, at a reasonable price.

[SUBMAN1]

The magic is gone. We're getting older, computer games are nothing new anymore, we do not get surprised by new worlds anymore - they are standard, they are routine. There may be a future to live, but the magic is gone and it ain't gonna come back. :lol:

No jaded would be a better word - we've seen it all and know whats good and bad, and the industry is flooded with a lot of bad right now - cookie cutter games. We grew up in a generation of always new and revolutionary. Now new and revolutionary is tosed in the name of making what they know will sell vs. taking a chance to make something that could be the next big thing or a flop. What you see is the movie industry mentallity on the gaming world.

As you might guess, I don't watch many movies anymore either.

-S

PS. SOmething new and revolutionary will eventually come down the pike and you will want to play it. Only problem is, it will be a long wait.

[SUBMAN1]

Intell charges too much as it is already. They'll want an arm, a leg, and your next unborn kin for that chip. I'll stick with AMD. Comperable, or even better performance, at a reasonable price.

I already paid an arm and a leg for my X2 4400+, so whats the difference? :)

-S

[Spoon 11th]

Here's something newish:

http://www.kickasskungfu.net/en/

Might be too physical for real couch- and mouse potatoes though.

[Onkel Neal]

You guys are arguing about technical stuff, I was just lamenting the cruddy name :oops:

[SUBMAN1]

You guys are arguing about technical stuff, I was just lamenting the cruddy name :oops:
Yes, the name sucks, but the chip doesn't actually.

Threads are full of a wealth of information these days! ;)

-S

PS. One more though - it could be worse! Like, what was NVidia thinking when it came up with GeForce? That is the dumbest name yet in the computer world!

[mog]

The magic is gone. We're getting older, computer games are nothing new anymore, we do not get surprised by new worlds anymore - they are standard, they are routine. There may be a future to live, but the magic is gone and it ain't gonna come back. :lol:

Yeh. :cry: My favourite games of all time are some of the first I ever played, like Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and Monkey Island. The graphics were terrible, but it didn't matter!

[jumpy]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.60GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-172-AM)
The 3 main changes on the AM2 are that it will now use DDR2 Memory. A new pin out configuration which requires new heat sink fan configuration is also required. AM2 heatsinks will be available shortly and all our AM2 processors are retail boxed supplied with heatsinks and fan.
Below are the following recommended memory configurations:-
AM2 FX-62 DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 (PC2-6400 - PC2-8500)
AM2 Dual Core X2 DDR2-667 or 800 (PC2-5300 or PC2-6400)
AM2 Athlon 64 DDR2-533 or 667 (PC2-4200 or PC2-5300)
AM2 Sempron DDR2-533 or 667 (PC2-4200 or PC2-5300)


Price: £189.95 (£223.19 Including VAT at 17.5%) Yay, looks like the one for me soon. Only trouble is I'll need a new motherboard (£150.00), 2GB DDR2 RAM (£200.00), PSU (£50.00) and graphics card (£200.00 - 300.00) to go with it :(
All told it will take about 700 or 800 quid to upgrade - which is what my 'old' computer cost about 3 years ago.



NINJA EDIT:
what the hell happened to my font?!

[Skybird]

Madness. Those latest RAM bars easily consume Watts one fifth of their memory size alone, if not more. Add to that the obligatory double graphics board. Dual core CPUs. Imagine the heat all this will create. More fiddling around with cooler methods. Really, makes me loose any interest in computers. It's beyond reasonable standards.

[SUBMAN1]

Madness. Those latest RAM bars easily consume Watts one fifth of their memory size alone, if not more. Add to that the obligatory double graphics board. Dual core CPUs. Imagine the heat all this will create. More fiddling around with cooler methods. Really, makes me loose any interest in computers. It's beyond reasonable standards.

I told you mine was already a little heater - which is real great lately. I just so want to be warmer in all this hot weather - can't get enough of it! Sweat dripping - the works! THe 2 GB of mem, dual core CPU, and my super heater - the x1900XTX, the dual HD's, Triple optical drives, need I go on?

I almost want my older slower computer back!

[Whistler]

I have a first Gen Core Duo Centrino in my laptop and I will never go back to a single core processor. Its like night and day when it comes to multitasking...

[scandium]

kiwi - You'd laugh at my heat sink! Massive is an understatement. Largest all copper sink I can find.

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_xp90C.htm

-S Those first generation heat pipe HSFs are last years technology, though that's one of the newest and prettier models of that generation. I picked up one of these in February: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/cpu2.php?idx=80&disc=

It is suitably massive and has a nice car radiator look to it that I like, though its actually lighter than it looks and is one of the smaller coolers of this design type (the advantages of this design, aside from the heat pipes, is the orientation of it that pulls cool air from the front through the heat sink then across the capacitors at the edge of the board and out the rear exhaust.

The only probablem I'm having now is that with the hot summer heat and poor case design, my ambient temps inside the case are so high these days (41C case temp when I'm gaming) that even this cooler can't keep my modest 35% OC CPU stable anymore. :cry:

[scandium]

The magic is gone. We're getting older, computer games are nothing new anymore, we do not get surprised by new worlds anymore - they are standard, they are routine. There may be a future to live, but the magic is gone and it ain't gonna come back. :lol:
Well, the games have (IMHO) gone downhill for the following reasons:

1. New games require so much code that much of it is recycled from other previous titles, giving most games a similar look & feel to many other games;

2. The market has changed. The major market for PC games used to be the 20+ enthusiast/game crowd, now the market is much bigger and many titles simply pander to the lowest common denominator for the largest masse appeal possible;

3. Related to #2 is the growing share of the console market and desire to port PC titles to the machines, meaning they have to conform to their limitations and appeal to the same audience;

4. The technology has gotten so good that games are getting increasingly realistic, and there is more and more demand for 'realism', but often it seems this translates into superficial eye candy at the expense of actually making the game 'fun' or interesting, let alone novel or unique;

5. All of the above explains why there are dozens and dozens of RTS clones and 3-D shooters, which require only improvements to existing code/graphics, and pander to the widest possible audience so game makers get the maximum return on minimum risk. Doing something different, novel, is risky and potentially much less profitable.