This is to settle a discussion

If I have a phenom AMD 9500 quad-core processor with 2.2 GHz.

does that mean its 2.2 overall or is it 8.8?

8/15/2008 6:54:15 PM

1.21 jigga-watts

8/15/2008 6:55:05 PM

it means you have a processor that has 4 physical cores, each running at 2.2ghz. you could give an additive flop count of the 4 cores and be correct in giving a metric of what your cpu is theorectically capable of. your processor is capable of 8.8 billion operations per second (8.8ghz) or close to it, but you cannot have a single thread processed by all 4 cores simultaneously, rather only a single core, which operates at 2.2ghz. you basically have 4x 2.2ghz processors, not a single 8.8ghz processor.

[Edited on August 15, 2008 at 7:10 PM. Reason : .]

8/15/2008 7:09:55 PM

my post would consist of everything smoothcrim said.

8/15/2008 7:15:14 PM

thats what i thought
thanks

8/15/2008 8:58:46 PM

so IOW, a single 8.8 ghz processor would be faster than 4 x 2.2 ghz processors when working on a single task? but if working with multiple applications, the 4 would be faster?

thanks.

8/15/2008 9:06:10 PM

^ assuming your OS properly distributes threads per core and the applications you're running don't do stupid shit like dead lock a core while waiting on input from another process.

8/15/2008 10:01:17 PM

Quote :

"If I have a phenom AMD "

this means you have a shitty cpu

8/15/2008 10:43:38 PM

hah

this is also true

8/15/2008 10:46:12 PM

i lol'd

8/15/2008 11:22:19 PM

Quote :

"1.21 jigga-watts"

8/15/2008 11:54:18 PM