How does upgrading to a multi-core CPU speed up a computer?

4 thoughts on “How does upgrading to a multi-core CPU speed up a computer?”

1. pisces19522000 says:

   October 9, 2009 at 6:50 am

   for argument sake you have a single core processor working it little bum of at say 1.75 Ghz, go to a dual core at say 3.0 Ghz, you have two cores working at 3.0 Ghz clock speed, how fast do you think your computer will multi task? compared to a single core? Quad cores faster again? Speed up will not occur if you have got to many programs open and running, you can still max out you CPU and freeze your PC. Consider more Ram for dual core processors say a 1Gb for each core for XP, 2 Gb for Vista on each core?

2. Tucker says:

   October 9, 2009 at 6:50 am

   an easy way to understand this is to relate it to your body, more specifically your arms. So you have two arms now and can, for the most part anyways do two different things with your arms at the same time, and your brain knows what is going on at each hand, typing and drumming are good examples for this. Now imagine if you had 4 arms that you could control independently and use at the same time. This is the same benefit that you get with a multi core processor it can do more things at once, there by making the things that you are running seem to go faster. The cost is not that bad if due a lot of multi tasking, i.e. streaming music outlook open, internet open, office open etc all at the same time it that sounds like you then the cost is well worth it.

3. Nimz says:

   October 9, 2009 at 6:50 am

   It allows the computer to handle the same amount of tasks twice as fast. For example a single core 4.00GHZ processor would be equal to a Dual core 2.00GHZ processor.

4. Rodolfo R says:

   October 9, 2009 at 6:50 am

   well you can see a multi-core as having several different CPUs. So, a dual core 2.66GHz in theory could be twice as fast as a single core 2.66GHz one. I said in theory because, unless the applications are programmed to use the different cores, they will only use one. It’s still better because the OS (Windows, Linux, whatever) can at least spread the processes running in the background between the # of cores.
   The question gets more complicated when comparing, say, a dual core 2.66GHz versus a quad core 2.0 GHz (just example numbers). You would think 4×2.0 is faster than 2×2.66, but like I said, if the applications are not programmed to take advantage of the extra cores, you’re actually going slower.
   The cost depends, the motherboard needs to accept the CPU, so you may need to upgrade the CPU and the motherboard.

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