Dual-core and/or 64-bit processors... Pointless?

[Durandal]

From a personal standpoint, I find my dual-core processor very convienient. I can offload a fuckload of programs (AIM, Opera, AV, Winamp, etc) to the second core and play a game on the first core with zero slowdown.

No, "you" can't. That's the operating system's responsibility. Depending on how many threads your other applications spawn, your game (which is most likely single-threaded) might only get, say, 75% of one CPU's time.

[Uraniun235]

Sidenote: Looking at the latest benchs, Intel is slowly but surely closing the gap between them and AMD, esspecially with the latest Pentium D 9xx series, however, it dosn't change the fact that anyone who cares for his power bills would stay away.

Depends on how expensive electricity is in a given area, I guess, but I doubt an extra 40 or even 80 watts of power consumption in a computer is going to matter much in the pocketbook.

Personally, when I consider my big 21" CRT and the electricity it uses, I just figure that I originally bought it for $220, and that I'll also pay a certain amount over time in the form of electric bills for using it - but ultimately, it will still have been cheaper than the up-front cost of buying an equivalent LCD.

It's amusing, actually: I remember that the Intel 64-bit processor that never made it to the market (IIRC) could only execute 64-bit code, unlike AMDs offering.

Intel's current processors (not Itanium) are capable of executing 64-bit code.

[phongn]

No, "you" can't. That's the operating system's responsibility. Depending on how many threads your other applications spawn, your game (which is most likely single-threaded) might only get, say, 75% of one CPU's time.

Well, you can force CPU affinity in Windows but you're better off letting the scheduler do its thing.

It's amusing, actually: I remember that the Intel 64-bit processor that never made it to the market (IIRC) could only execute 64-bit code, unlike AMDs offering.

Intel's current processors (not Itanium) are capable of executing 64-bit code.

Um, surely you mean and Itanium?

[Master of Ossus]

No, "you" can't. That's the operating system's responsibility. Depending on how many threads your other applications spawn, your game (which is most likely single-threaded) might only get, say, 75% of one CPU's time.

Regardless, that'll be more CPU time than the game would likely receive on a single-core processor.

Atheos: if you're going to eBay the computer, why not just use a 3800+ which is in that price range and offers better performance than the Intel?

[Uraniun235]

No man I heard Itanium was going 16-bit.

Yeah, I meant "in addition to Itanium".