Intel Core i3 questions

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tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#72801 3-Dec-2010 01:43

When I brought my Compaq C62 from Harvey Norman a few months ago, the sales man told me i3 was the equivalent of a quad core CPU and showed me under device manager, under CPU that there were 4 showings of my cpu which meant it was quad core. When looking in System Information just now, because my computer has been a little sluggish lately, I saw next to CPU it said:
"Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 350 @ 2.27GHz, 2266 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)"
What does it mean by logical processors? I've never heard of that before, and does this mean that my cpu is only a dual core?

and are there any differences between Cores and Logical Processors in terms of performance in general?

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729 posts

Ultimate Geek

#412336 3-Dec-2010 06:48

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-threading

A logical processor is not the same as a true processor core and won't perform as such. Your i3 is only a dual core CPU.

sampler

446 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#412357 3-Dec-2010 08:48

As above, yes its a Dual core CPU, it has two physical cpus within.
Each of those physical cpu's has the ability to process two sets of instructions at the same time (hyperthreading).

While my example is VERY overly simple here goes ....

The speed of each physical cpu is lets say 3000mhz (3GHZ)
You have two physical cpu's giving a total of 6000Mhz worth of "computing power"

A physical Quad core cpu might be 2200Mhz (2.2Ghz) per core.
In turn, that gives 8800Mhz worth of "computer power"

Even if the cpu's have Hypertheading enabled, they can still only process the total amount of instructions they are given at the same speed.

There are lots of factors that change the above statements, however the basis of the example is right, and as such, if the sales person represented four processors in the system manager as being four physical processors in the computer/laptop then they have supplied you incorrect information which may have caused you to purchase something that was not best suited to your needs.

Cheers

Lee

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#412469 3-Dec-2010 12:48

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF thats really annoying. I spose its a bit late now then to go back and complain?

muppet

2572 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#412476 3-Dec-2010 13:05

I'd say so. Especially because it'd have only been verbal too. You could try.

But you say your system is sluggish "lately" as if something's changed.

Having 4 physical CPU's probably wouldn't be making much difference to sluggishness, unless you're compiling stuff on a regular basis etc. Even encoding usually only uses one core.

So your underlying problem won't be resolved.

But yes, sounds like you got told a white lie.

Audiophiles are such twits! They buy such pointless stuff: Gold plated cables, $2000 power cords. Idiots.

OOOHHHH HYPERFIBRE!

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#412479 3-Dec-2010 13:11

Ok, well I backed up all my stuff last night and during the back up was when I found that info because I thought maybe reinstalling the OS would make it faster, which I'd love to do but it uses recovery disks so I have to uninstall lots of stuff other wise I'd be like my mate who reinstalls atleast once a month with a retail copy.

kyhwana2

2566 posts

Uber Geek

#412507 3-Dec-2010 14:05

Depending on what it's doing, hyperthreading will do 0-50% the work of a real core.
Your i3 is only a dual core CPU, but it shows up as four cores because hyperthreading.

It's roughly the equivilent of 2.0 to 3.0 cores :P

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#412550 3-Dec-2010 16:29

kyhwana2: Depending on what it's doing, hyperthreading will do 0-50% the work of a real core.
Your i3 is only a dual core CPU, but it shows up as four cores because hyperthreading.

It's roughly the equivilent of 2.0 to 3.0 cores :P

Well its been working fine up until recently and I havn't changed any patterns, infact I've done less. It would cope with 4+ tabs open in Chrome, iTunes playing music, Skype running and in a call, MSN running, Google Talk running and Photoshop running. Now I only use really skype, msn, google talk all running, itunes playing music and playing omgpop and facebook in chrome. Stuffed as to what it could be. Cleared about 100GB of files last night I no longer use and it hasnt changed. AERO effects are all off.

Sharesies

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robbyp

1199 posts

Uber Geek

#412567 3-Dec-2010 17:05

tardtasticx:
kyhwana2: Depending on what it's doing, hyperthreading will do 0-50% the work of a real core.
Your i3 is only a dual core CPU, but it shows up as four cores because hyperthreading.

It's roughly the equivilent of 2.0 to 3.0 cores :P

Well its been working fine up until recently and I havn't changed any patterns, infact I've done less. It would cope with 4+ tabs open in Chrome, iTunes playing music, Skype running and in a call, MSN running, Google Talk running and Photoshop running. Now I only use really skype, msn, google talk all running, itunes playing music and playing omgpop and facebook in chrome. Stuffed as to what it could be. Cleared about 100GB of files last night I no longer use and it hasnt changed. AERO effects are all off.

The i3 is still a good chip, and is not that much different from the dual core i5 chips, apart from being cheaper. But they were wrong to tell you it was quad core

kyhwana2

2566 posts

Uber Geek

#412620 3-Dec-2010 20:20

I'd say that you problems would be software, rather than hardware..

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#412642 3-Dec-2010 21:03

kyhwana2: I'd say that you problems would be software, rather than hardware..

Ill do a system restore on Sunday then. Hope it doesnt mess it up :/

kyhwana2

2566 posts

Uber Geek

#412649 3-Dec-2010 21:25

Well, a "Restore" restores all your previous crap. Better to do a fresh windows install

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#412667 3-Dec-2010 22:10

kyhwana2: Well, a "Restore" restores all your previous crap. Better to do a fresh windows install

Sorry thats what I meant. xD

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#412716 4-Dec-2010 02:29

Well just used the HP support chat thing on their website (www.hp.com/go/hpchat) and the guy sent me a link for basic maintenance of stuff I've already done, like clearing recycling bin, clearing cache, defrag hd etc... then said I should do a system recovery. So thats what Im doing tomorrow it seems.

Redcrossfire

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#412978 5-Dec-2010 10:52

kyhwana2 just gave the real answer, for regular home/office use a laptop with core i3 would be good enough, however those pre-build OS always came with heaps of junks, running recovery CD or use hard disk recovery would be helpful, suggest you do a fresh installation if you can, that will make things much better.

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#412980 5-Dec-2010 10:56

Redcrossfire:
kyhwana2 just gave the real answer, for regular home/office use a laptop with core i3 would be good enough, however those pre-build OS always came with heaps of junks, running recovery CD or use hard disk recovery would be helpful, suggest you do a fresh installation if you can, that will make things much better.

Yeh I did a fresh install and it works ok now, but i've only installed Chrome, the new Windows live messenger, skype, and iTunes. I want to put a retail copy of Win7 on it but HP told me that voids the warranty for some stupid reason.

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