Question about multi threading...?

Question

Ok, I heard that Core 2 duo's and Quads Can run programs that are multithreaded at light speed. What about the ones that arent multi threaded? will a prgram like MS word go just as fast on a P4 at 2.0ghz as MS word on a Core 2 duo at 2.0 ghz? Also, Will the Quad beable to run 4 not-multithreaded programs simultaneously?

Answer 1

A program with one thread will only run off one core. So having a dual core really has no advantage in that case.



Depending on your motherboard, different thread will be distributed to different cores. As long as the feature is supported your MS Word, for example, will go to the first core, and your IE will go to the second core. There is usually an uneven distribution between cores though. Once the first core is loaded to some point, second core kicks in. You can see the difference in the performance manager :).

Answer 2

> What about the ones that arent multi threaded?

In this case, the OS will send seperate threads to seperate cores. E.g if you're running MS word and photoshop at the same time, the cpu will (ideally) tell one core to work on ms word and the other to work on photoshop.



>will a prgram like MS word go just as fast on a P4 at 2.0ghz as MS word on a Core 2 duo at 2.0 ghz?

depends on what else you're doing at the time. If you're not doing anything else, the difference will be too small to notice. But if you're doing some other intensive task at the same time, you WILL notice a difference.



> Will the Quad beable to run 4 not-multithreaded programs simultaneously?



That's the MO of the multicore chip: if it doesn't have a multithreaded program, the single threads are distributed (ideally evenly) among the cores.

Answer 3

MS word won't run faster, becasue it's at a point where us humans are the limiting factor. granted it might load faster, I can't think of a time when i had to wait for Word to display what i wrote. A quad core will be able to run 4 single threaded applications better than a P4 becasue it has 4 cores to spread the application processes onto.

Answer 4

There can be a difference...just dont ignore it. You would see more the difference based on its CPU usage...