After announcing the release of the new core 2 duo conroe for desktops and merriem for laptops intel has said that they are going to release a quad-core processor by the end of this year. So if you were waiting around to buy a core 2 duo or an amd 64 X-2 than you will be waisting your money. This is becuase by the time youve had your new processor for a couple of months it will be completley obsolete.
So far the reviews about the core 2 duo have shown nothing but the best. I have heard that there wasnt that much difference in gaming performance but they didnt say what kind of graphics cards they were testing it with. This is a pretty rediculous time in processor development I cant imagine how well the quad-core is gonna do on the benchmarks.
Now im not so sure I would be able to afford either of these cards but im guessing the good news for me is that the pentium D will be come cheaper which is powerful enough for most of my computer needs. I would like to get a quad-core but im not exactly rolling in the money for it. SO LOOK AT MY BLOG AND GIVE ME THAT PRIZE. Just kidding but it doesnt hurt to try. So basically if you still have a pentium 4 and have been waiting to be able to afford something better this will probably be your chance I would wait a couple months into the core 2 duo release if you want a pentium D and then I would do the same if you want the core 2 just wait until the quad core is out and then as usual prices will drop as new products come out. Plus if your gonna buy a computer from a company like Dell they will probably be stocking their machines with the newest intel products. Although they did sign a deal to start selling AMD processors as a choice in their systems.
Even if you invest it a Core 2 Duo now, it certainly won't be obsolete when the quad-core stuff comes out. My theory is that they're going to be aiming at power users initially and then _slowly_ roll out different models/specifications across the board. Intel aren't stupid, and very much doubt they're going to want to alienate their existing customers who have just invested in a Core Duo/Core 2 Duo system.
Whatever computer system you buy, you buy because you need it now. If we just stood around waiting for the next greatest thing to come along, nobody would be getting anything done ;)
M.
well perhaps obsolete isnt exactly the right term I should of used. I just mean why buy something and pay such amount of money if in 6 months for roughly the same money you could get something twice as powerful or get the previous version for less. I doubt the average user really needs anything faster than a pentium 3 for all those word documents and emails they send. I agree about they will release other versions of the same thing like their other new processors they will release like a gaming edition, a workstation edition, and whatever.
If I did that, I'd *never* be able to buy a computer. There's bound to be something bigger and better in x number of months. You've also got to consider that when these new machines come out, they're going to be expensive in comparison to the current range of machines. To buy these new quads at current prices, I'd have to wait for quite some time while Intel and the manufacturers start slashing prices.
M.
I wouldn't worry about it, like movielad said, there is always a better model in a couple of months, and this has been the case since the creation of the computer. I'm actually waiting for the octo-core's ;), which are probably already in development.
oh shut up scott.
If you always hold off to buy the next announced CPU or GPU you'll never buy one.
As to gaming performance, there's indeed not that much difference YET between single core and multi-core CPUs, but that's mostly because most games to this day aren't programmed to make use of multi processor (or multi core) systems, thus all but one core will be idle while the game runs.
Where I have noticed a difference when running MS Flightsim 2004 together with helper programs is when forcing those helpers together into one core and letting FS take the other.
FS is extremely CPU hungry, so giving it a core of its own helps.
Upcoming games will make better use of multi-core systems as they're ever more programmed for it.
Some games already have that feature, like Call of Duty 2 has (had) a seperate verision to optimaly run on computers with dual core (v1.01) before they released the newer version, and Battlefield 2 has support for dual core which is good, cause like flightsim it is a resource hungary game, and there was a much noticable difference when I play BF2 on my dual-core computer, then on my friend's single core running at the same speed (and both comps are pretty much the same other than the processor type).
Actually the only thing you'll notice in BF2 with dual core as opposed to single is a very, very slight higher average frame rate (1-4). it runs a tad smoother with DC, but that's all negated if you only run 1 gig of ram as oppoed to a gamer that runs 2 gigs on a single core processor. It's of very slight benefit at best, but fairly soon it should be of even more benefit.
Well omen's computer is pretty beast mode neways like 3 gigs of ram
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