Demand for Quad-Core Processors Increasing

[Polaris573]

After relatively slow start quad-core processors are beginning to rapidly gain popularity among various customers. Paul Otellini, chief executive of Intel Corp. said during a conference with financial analysts on Tuesday that shipments of chips with four processing engines topped three million units last quarter. Growing demand towards quad-core microprocessor is a result of relatively moderate pricing on them, which begins at $266 for Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 as well as availability of software that takes advantage of multi-core chips.

Current quad-core processors from Intel use multi-chip-package technique and incorporate two dual-core processors onto a single piece of substrate. Given that it is considerably easier to manufacture two relatively low-power monolithic dual-core dice than to produce one monolithic quad-core product, Intel's approach not only allowed the company to roll-out quad-core products back in November 2006, but also does seem to make more sense from economic point of view compared to monolithic designs praised by Advanced Micro Devices due to the fact that potentially such quad-core chips have considerably higher yields compared to AMD's. The new quad-core AMD Opteron and the forthcoming quad-core AMD Phenom processors use monolith implementation, which means that all the cores are incorporated into a single piece of silicon. AMD claims that its quad-core CPUs can deliver better performance and scalability.Since the demand towards quad-core processors is only likely to continue accelerating, AMD will have rapidly ramp up output of such chips in order to increase its average selling prices.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Richieb0y]

so quads are slowing become a standard mabye over a year

 

[Weer]

If it weren't for games, Quad Core CPUs would indeed be useless for most people.
But it's a good thing that games are multi-threaded now adays.

 

[newtekie1]

Now Intel needs to roll out even lower end quad-cores. Q4300/4400 and Q2160/2180 parts would be nice.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Does a lot of software REALLY USE a quad core? I'd be interested in a list of software that does.

NOTE that my question is different from the fact that if you can MULTITASK, ie, internet while encoding DivX while listening to MP3. etc.

 

[Disparia]

Pretty much any 3D modeler, certain video editors, some video codecs, etc. On the game side there's Supreme Commander, Hellgate:London, games using the Unreal 3 engine, maybe some others.

The list gets much bigger if you include games from the Hyperthreading era as well as games built for two cores.

 

[keakar]

where are those 8 core processors they promised?

i have it on my christmas shopping list!

 

[Disparia]

where are those 8 core processors they promised?

i have it on my christmas shopping list!

Xeon/Opteron x 2

 

[InfDamarvel]

Intel is coming out with quad cores that act as if they have 8 cores before they actually come out with 8 core cpus. AKA another form of hyper threading for intel cpus. Hopefully itll be more efficient for games.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Pretty much any 3D modeler, certain video editors, some video codecs, etc. On the game side there's Supreme Commander, Hellgate:London, games using the Unreal 3 engine, maybe some others.

The list gets much bigger if you include games from the Hyperthreading era as well as games built for two cores.

Thanks for the attempted list. But two-core or hyperthreading is NOT the question. We are talking about the jump from 2 to 4+ threaded software. Most "games" that utilise the "2-core" Core 2 Duo, do not scale when on a Quad core.

PCGH: It is well known that your engine supports multi core CPUs. What is the maximum number of threads the engine can calculate? What is the performance gain when you play UT 3 with a quad core CPU? Will the engine even support future CPU with more than four cores?

Tim Sweeney: Unreal Engine 3's threading support is quite scalable. We run a primary thread for gameplay, and a secondary thread for rendering. On machines with more than two cores, we run additional threads to accelerate various computing tasks, like data decompression. There are clear performance benefits to quad-core, and though we haven't looked beyond that yet, I expect further gains beyond quad-core in future games within the lifetime of Unreal Engine 3.

"In game", Unreal3 is only using 2 cores. Although during "load map decompression" it can use more, it is only using 2 in the "game".

The question remains open: which "single" software uses 4-cores?

 

[Disparia]

The additional threads Sweeney was talking about do come into play during the game.

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3127&p=4

Whether that minor increase qualifies it as a 'quad core' game is up to interpretation.

It's the same for Hellgate:London, Supreme Commander. Big gains from single to dual, then minor increases as you increase the number of cores.

 

[WarEagleAU]

I tested a Pentium C2D Q6400 at Best Buy a few months back. Compared to my dual core opteron now, that thing really did fly. Of course, it had one or two drawbacks, but I rebooted the system and did all sorts of things. They even had a COD demo on there. I was very impressed.

 

[Wile E]

Does a lot of software REALLY USE a quad core? I'd be interested in a list of software that does.

NOTE that my question is different from the fact that if you can MULTITASK, ie, internet while encoding DivX while listening to MP3. etc.

A lot of video encoding/decoding apps. ffmpeg and mencoder jump to mind immediately. Also, things like 3dsmax.

 

[effmaster]

If the new Nero 8 supports it then I will be happy

 

[JrRacinFan]

Nero?! WTF?

q2140? That would be something I would be interested in but not many people really listen to me!

 

[effmaster]

STFU theres nothign wrong with nero it my preference of software

 

[hat]

Hm... A quad 2160 would be nice for a folding rig

 

[newtekie1]

The question remains open: which "single" software uses 4-cores?

It was already answered in the first part you quoted. Supreme Commander and Hellgate:London are just two GAMES that use 4-Cores, and Supreme Commander really puts those cores to work sometimes too!

Of course Folding@home and most of the other distributed computing programs use them, along with a lot of Video editing programs, video encoding/decoding programs, and 3D rendering programs will use 4 cores.

 

[JrRacinFan]

STFU theres nothign wrong with nero it my preference of software

Not what Im sayin man. I use Nero alot too. But a need for quad core for Nero!?

 

[Wile E]

Not what Im sayin man. I use Nero alot too. But a need for quad core for Nero!?

Nero Recode

 

[JrRacinFan]

Who in there right mind would use Nero Recode (which takes 50% longer than) when they could use DVD Santa or WinAVI?

 

[effmaster]

Who in there right mind would use Nero Recode (which takes 50% longer than) when they could use DVD Santa or WinAVI?

Because that could be their preference of software Im not trying to be rude about it but seriously there is a rather large following for Nero and besides who would want more than one kind of software that does the exact same thing? Just stick with the one you like and be done with it till a later date should you choose to replace it.


BTW sorry for telling you to STFU I got a little upset there

 

[JHOG]

Nero Recode with a quad core is very very fast. It uses all 4 cores at 90% load. I compared it to CloneDVD and it was actually 4 times faster.

I recoded Transformers (Main Movie without extras) from 6.33GB to 4.35GB using a single hard drive from one folder to another. CloneDVD took 12 minutes and Nero Recode took 3 minutes.

I left Speedfan open while doing it and could clearly see from the CPU usage monitror that CloneDVD only used 1 of the cores while Nero Recode used all 4 at almost full load.

I have not tried recoding with any other apps but I have to say that I am thouroughly impressed with Nero Recode. I would love to find out more applications that are capable of using all 4 cores like this other than things like 3D Max.

 

[effmaster]

I recoded Transformers (Main Movie without extras) from 6.33GB to 4.35GB using a single hard drive from one folder to another. CloneDVD took 12 minutes and Nero Recode took 3 minutes.

That cant be legal can it?


Also doesnt Nero recode come with the regular Nero software kit you can buy at computer stores, I.E. Nero 7.0 I believe it is now?

 

[JHOG]

Well, as far as legality goes. I am led to believe that it is legal as long as I own the original of course. That is the case for me.

As for Nero. Yes, you are correct that Nero 7.0 includes Nero Recode. At least the version I have does which is Nero 7 Premium.

It also includes some nice easy to use audio editing software as well as Nero Vision for authoring home DVD's with menus and so on. I also really enjoy the Nero Tools such as Nero Drive Speed that allows you to slow down your DVD read speed for watching your movies more quietly. (handy for media center PC's especially). As you can see I am a big fan of Nero.