More Cache - What good is it?

All about them.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

RULE OF THUMB

Post by ces » Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:23 am

RULE OF THUMB
alecmg wrote:My rule of thumb is

1. Cache is good for gaming

2. Number of cores is good for encoding

3. GHz is good for responsiveness.

4. memory frequency/timings are important in all three

5. Memory amount only matters when its not enough.
NICE SUMMARY (though doesn't cache also help encoding?)

ilovejedd
Posts: 676
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:14 pm
Location: in the depths of hell

Re: RULE OF THUMB

Post by ilovejedd » Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:35 am

ces wrote:NICE SUMMARY (though doesn't cache also help encoding?)
Not as much as extra cores. In a well multi-threaded application (e.g. x264), you get an almost linear increase based on the number of cores:
e.g. FPS of 2.40GHz quad-core = 2x FPS of 2.40GHz dual-core

Shamgar
Posts: 454
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:49 am
Location: Where I Am

Post by Shamgar » Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:51 am

ces wrote:
Jay_S wrote:
ces wrote:MS Security Essentials???? That is against my religion.
May I ask why? Just because MS is the company we all love to hate? :)
Yeah sort of. Everyone has their own reasons, I have mine.

Each person's particular reasons may differ, but they all rhyme.
Windows is the default OS for most people. We are stuck with it for one reason or another. Mainly because we have been brought up with (forced to use) it at school and/or work. It is hard to be delivered from Windows and MS Office especially once you are imprisoned. But we have a choice when it comes to the applications we use on a day to day basis. I avoid MS apps as much as I can. Besides Windows and occasionally Office and MS's patches, I don't install anything else MS. I would prefer to remove all trace of WMP, IE, Movie Maker, Windows Mail/Outlook Express or whatever it's called nowadays and all the rest of MS's slavery. It takes up useless space on my system. Some of these "features" can't be removed without problems since they are so tied to the OS and/or third party software is so tied to it. I support independent software writers, most of them freeware/opensource. Much more interesting and you can often contact the writer directly or on open forum.

For antivirus, I use avast! which has always had a good reputation. New version has a much improved interface and uses less processes and memory. Tried about a dozen or more of the free or paid for AV scanners. I keep going back to avast!. It doesn't treat you like an idiot like most of the commercial products. You can turn off the warning messages if you've disabled a certain feature so you don't get those annoying messages that say, "Your system is NOT secured. You are going to face utter destruction... since you are an idiot etc..".

On the original topic... the typical/average/office/home user would be well served with any modern dual core CPU (as long as it's not Atom: nobody wants to called an Atomite) without any significant hindrance to their usage. Hey, this market can be well served by a 10 year old single core CPU for that matter! As others have pointed out, there are many factors to consider now including whether the processor has virtualisation technology, hyperthreading, its power consumption etc. Price is not the be all and end all, but if something is clearly a ripoff or not worth the trouble, sensible people tend to avoid it.

Sometimes, whether we like to admit it or not, there is an emotional decision involved in purchasing computer parts. While some people couldn't care less, others don't want to use a "bottom of rung part", no matter how cheap or good value it is, or whether it would serve us just fine for what we need it for. To some, 1MB or 2MB cache seems like skimping or a cost cutting measure, which it probably is anyway, especially if it's a quadcore CPU at the lower end of the market.

colm
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:22 am
Location: maine

Post by colm » Thu Aug 05, 2010 4:28 pm

L2 is exponential to multi tasking.. the multi core stuff is for people who like to make graphs and charts and giggle over nano pennies saved.

13.4 mhz crystals and fake collider is every pc known to man.
multi core means nothing but business orientation.

if one is going to brag up their multi core video encoder around me.. (getting to be an old pro).. give it up.

there was a fear of consumption like a 396 chevy.. it was the best and they had to kill it somehow..

I sincerely stopped at the prescott. Keep your benchmarking numbers.. I want a fine thread as strong as my 30fps 10mbit video.
and if you have not noticed, the fantastic encoding of "new" is not exactly all over the internet. It died.. because they lied.

even for todays users just browsing, etc.. the os is in the background with many threads attemtping realtime. L2 cache and higher mhz is for everybody..
I may get to a newer setup some day.

Post Reply