Real world Conroe

D

Dennis Gordon

Gawd
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Messages
590
Okay, these have been out for a week now; time for some systems to be built and online. But all I read is O/C stats, a few random benches and lots of carping because some vendor is temporarily out of stock or has raised the price a few bucks (it's called supply and demand, not gouging).

But surely someone by now has closed the case, put the machine on his desk and is actually working with their new Conroes. So after all the hysteria, what's the immediate consensus? Are these things noticeably better performers or do they just get better numbers? Has anyone done the old Photoshop radial blur test that's floatin' around here? How does it feel when you're actually doing something?
 
Make sure you also post what you are comming from since this is asking about a noticable (subjective) performance increase. Someone like me getting a conroe is going to praise much harder than someone comming from a newer processor.
 
Dennis Gordon said:
Okay, these have been out for a week now; time for some systems to be built and online. But all I read is O/C stats, a few random benches and lots of carping because some vendor is temporarily out of stock or has raised the price a few bucks (it's called supply and demand, not gouging).

But surely someone by now has closed the case, put the machine on his desk and is actually working with their new Conroes. So after all the hysteria, what's the immediate consensus? Are these things noticeably better performers or do they just get better numbers? Has anyone done the old Photoshop radial blur test that's floatin' around here? How does it feel when you're actually doing something?
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Dude it is fast , you throw anything at it , you can run a anti virus and play a game at same time and you wont see a performance dip.

It is amazing and deserves all the hype and lives up to every little detail.
 
Sir Robin said:
Actually my Core 2 Rig won't be here till Monday, an E6600.
Click to expand...

"Actually"? Did someone ask you when your rig is coming? It sounds like you are answering
a question when you begin a statement with the word "actually".

Example. Actually, I weigh 200 pounds.
/grammar patrol

Are the parts arriving or did you order a sweet prebuilt system?
 
nooh said:
Dude it is fast , you throw anything at it , you can run a anti virus and play a game at same time and you wont see a performance dip.

It is amazing and deserves all the hype and lives up to every little detail.
Click to expand...

I thought you didn't have a mobo yet :confused:
 
nooh said:
you can run a anti virus and play a game at same time and you wont see a performance dip.
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You can do that with any dual core CPU.
 
I'll be coming from the system in my sig to this:

E6600 under Big Typhoon on P5W-DH Dlx
7950GX2
2GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
2x150GB Raptors
PC P&C 510 ASL
X-Fi Fatal1ty

I'll be sure to post back this weekend when the rig is built the differences between the two. I'm sure it'll feel like butta :)
 
Coming from my A64 3200+ @ 2.8ghz, it feels pretty good.

Everything you do is instant - BUT, it really was instant before. My Athlon was definitely not slow.

In general operating, you really don't notice a huge difference. (aside from the dual core/multitasking aspect), but that's because any lag you have is coming from your hard drive, not the processor, is what you tend to notice.

To be honest, it doesn't 'feel' much different. When Vista comes out? I'm sure it will probably be a much larger difference.
 
Dennis Gordon said:
Has anyone done the old Photoshop radial blur test that's floatin' around here?
Click to expand...

Point me to the test and I'll be happy to run it on my E6400 tonight.
 
I just did a quick search of the forum but didn't come up with it. I'm sure it's hiding somewhere. It was that JPG of the horse. You applied the radial blur at the highest settings. Most of the X2s were hitting around the 40 second mark to render, which was about twice as fast as the older P4s.
 
DarkSi said:
Coming from my A64 3200+ @ 2.8ghz, it feels pretty good.

Everything you do is instant - BUT, it really was instant before. My Athlon was definitely not slow.

In general operating, you really don't notice a huge difference. (aside from the dual core/multitasking aspect), but that's because any lag you have is coming from your hard drive, not the processor, is what you tend to notice.

To be honest, it doesn't 'feel' much different. When Vista comes out? I'm sure it will probably be a much larger difference.
Click to expand...
12 posts, 1 answer :p
Anything really noticable in gaming. A64 3200+ isn't a slouch, but it supposedly gets "pwned" by your new chip.
 
Well yeah, my opty 170 and 3800x2s are real fast too, and I just built a [email protected] for someone that ain't no slouch either. I'm just wondering if we're hitting another one of those periods where the hardware is outpacing the software for performance needs. I want to hear what a Vista or XP Pro 64 bit user is seeing when running real apps. I mean, my 3800x2 is an Ebay special ($135 for the chip, $40 for the Epox 9NPA+ Ultra) and it is really fast at 2.8, benching 15% faster than a 4800x2 and near Conroe speeds (in Sandra). Of course, I want a Conroe eventually, but why spend $300-500 to get 10-15% more performance I'm not likely to notice most of the time. This isn't meant to flame the enthusiasts who buy the first day. I'm just waiting for some freakin' incredible real world results....
 
I can say my E6400 setup at stock feels much more responsive than my laptop (2GHz PM with 2GB). I also notice a big difference between the 3GHz HT P4 at work and the E6400.

I'll try to find the photoshop test tonight and run it. Let me know if you find it before I do.
 
mentok1982 said:
"Actually"? Did someone ask you when your rig is coming? It sounds like you are answering
a question when you begin a statement with the word "actually".

Example. Actually, I weigh 200 pounds.
/grammar patrol
Click to expand...

Actually this:
Dennis Gordon said:
Okay, these have been out for a week now; time for some systems to be built and online.
Click to expand...
is why I used actually.


mentok1982 said:
Are the parts arriving or did you order a sweet prebuilt system?
Click to expand...
I ordered an Ultimate X9 II through ABS. Not a bad turn around time, ordered on August 3rd, shipped on August 9th, and should be at my door by end of day August 14th.
 
bassman said:
I can say my E6400 setup at stock feels much more responsive than my laptop (2GHz PM with 2GB). I also notice a big difference between the 3GHz HT P4 at work and the E6400.

I'll try to find the photoshop test tonight and run it. Let me know if you find it before I do.
Click to expand...

OK Here's the pic:

http://www.geocities.com/dgordon_wjinc/test.jpg

The test requires that you open it in Photoshop and apply the Radial Blur filter at the highest settings (100 / Spin / Best) I just tried it with my opty [email protected] and it took about 33 seconds give or take a couple...
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
I thought you didn't have a mobo yet :confused:
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The first one i made was my nephews and overclocked it , enjoyed it very much and was amazed by its power.

Formine though i want a board that promises a better future with more options for tweaks and what have you , mind you the E6300 i clocked was on a p5b which were not that bad.

Using my sons pc which is overclocked to 4200mhz petium d 930 (he is 8 years old) also got some XMS modules ltwo days ago and they work at tight latencies too.
 
Met-AL said:
You can do that with any dual core CPU.
Click to expand...

Actually your right you can but you still get a bit of a performance hit , this is the reason why it is what it is and you do not get any performance hit, well not as bad as you do with the past Dual CPU.

Give you a example run two 32meg pi one on each core and you will see that it will be about 20% more than when you do it alone or more sometimes , nowyou do that on conroe you get about 2-5% hit.

It is really good and amazing, i have overclocked about 7 pentiumd's and seen them work at 4.3ghz but this is like 1.9ghz is equal to a 4ghz pd and even then it kicks the daylight out of multitasking.
 
For feel, I'd say its hard to tell the difference. Older cpus are still more than enough to run the vast majority of programs out there. A newer cpu would just provide greater performance headroom. Sure Conroe benchmarks dominate and stuff, but there are so many other components that keep everything basically within performance reach for another recent cpu. And not all of it is about the performance either, there are other factors such as heat and power consumption which makes the Conroe a generally better cpu. Real world performance increases always come in smaller steps. But the C2D is a huge improvement over the Core Duo, enough to leapfrog its former competitor.

Obviously upgrading from the latest AMD chips to the latest Intel chips will deem unoticeable real world performance increases. But coming from a performance tier that is substantially lower where one is about to upgrade from; then that person will more than likely goto whatever is the faster chip. The way I see it, if AMD does release a new architecture and if it is really faster than what Intel currently has, I wouldn't expect substantial real world differences either. And again, if a person is building a computer from scratch at that time, and that person should opt for whatever is the better CPU for their needs.

And obviously bias does come into effect (some more than others), thats just human nature. To me, you really can't go wrong either way. The skill here is to nitpick their very differences, so perhaps a what may seem small 10% performance gap should be realized as a larger difference.

So an advice to upgrading: Compare what you have now to what you will be upgrading to. Don't compare what you will be upgrading to to whatever is second best. Sure that comparison will help pick what you will be getting, but besides that, who cares.
 
AeonF1 said:
For feel, I'd say its hard to tell the difference. Older cpus are still more than enough to run the vast majority of programs out there. A newer cpu would just provide greater performance headroom. Sure Conroe benchmarks dominate and stuff, but there are so many other components that keep everything basically within performance reach for another recent cpu. And not all of it is about the performance either, there are other factors such as heat and power consumption which makes the Conroe a generally better cpu. Real world performance increases always come in smaller steps. But the C2D is a huge improvement over the Core Duo, enough to leapfrog its former competitor.

Obviously upgrading from the latest AMD chips to the latest Intel chips will deem unoticeable real world performance increases. But coming from a performance tier that is substantially lower where one is about to upgrade from; then that person will more than likely goto whatever is the faster chip. The way I see it, if AMD does release a new architecture and if it is really faster than what Intel currently has, I wouldn't expect substantial real world differences either. And again, if a person is building a computer from scratch at that time, and that person should opt for whatever is the better CPU for their needs.

And obviously bias does come into effect (some more than others), thats just human nature. To me, you really can't go wrong either way. The skill here is to nitpick their very differences, so perhaps a what may seem small 10% performance gap should be realized as a larger difference.

So an advice to upgrading: Compare what you have now to what you will be upgrading to. Don't compare what you will be upgrading to to whatever is second best. Sure that comparison will help pick what you will be getting, but besides that, who cares.
Click to expand...

What do you mean older?

I can run some benchmarks on a P3 650 if you like? Too bad the AXP 2700+ just died or I could compare it? Yes, there are common every day apps that show little difference. But most apps like Windows Media player, Windows Movie Maker II, Photo Shop Digital Photo Albums and etc.. for Joe Six pack will show differences. Just as many of us Using LAME, Divx MPeg, WinAMP and etc shows far more than a stinkin' 10% differences.

Guys there NO frackin' way to soften the blow AMD is taking=P I built a 3500+ rig to use for main games. It out did my Bud's overclocked to 3.5GHz and we both had the same video card and very similar RAM. Yet, my stock 2.6C kicked the crap out of it when running MUlti-tasking and running streaming apps like DivX, Wav conversion with Creative's Wave studio, and yes making those same Digital photo Albums with Photo Shop complete with background music. Parsing Photos in 60% of the time is very frackin' easy to notice.
 
I had a venice before the new pc i have in my sig , which i havent built yet but i ahve had the chance to mess around with a e6300 and its faster than the 2700mhz venice i used to have.
 
mentok1982 said:
"Actually"? Did someone ask you when your rig is coming? It sounds like you are answering
a question when you begin a statement with the word "actually".

Example. Actually, I weigh 200 pounds.
/grammar patrol
Click to expand...

Actually.........who's cares ??
 
OP - I'll give you an idea on 8/15. I'll be replacing my 4400+ x2 @ 2.55 with an E6600... and I'll post some SLI bench's on the P5N32-SLI SE, which is already here :-D
 
Dennis Gordon said:
Well yeah, my opty 170 and 3800x2s are real fast too, and I just built a [email protected] for someone that ain't no slouch either. I'm just wondering if we're hitting another one of those periods where the hardware is outpacing the software for performance needs. I want to hear what a Vista or XP Pro 64 bit user is seeing when running real apps. I mean, my 3800x2 is an Ebay special ($135 for the chip, $40 for the Epox 9NPA+ Ultra) and it is really fast at 2.8, benching 15% faster than a 4800x2 and near Conroe speeds (in Sandra). Of course, I want a Conroe eventually, but why spend $300-500 to get 10-15% more performance I'm not likely to notice most of the time. This isn't meant to flame the enthusiasts who buy the first day. I'm just waiting for some freakin' incredible real world results....
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You should be seeing X2 3800 for $99 ;) You can forget that 15% and 10% stuff, the processors you're talking about will get stompped on by 60 to over 100%, yes even that Opty at 2.5GHz. $260 average price for the 6400 makes buying AMD an act of loyalty that's pretty hard to swallow. MSI 965P.
 
I've built far more Intel boxes than AMD. I have no loyalty towards either of these massive corporations. The fact is the first 3800x2 I built cost me $460 for CPU and mobo last October. The one I just built cost $175 for the same parts *and it runs better* (2.8 vs 2.5) than the one that cost me $300 more 10 months ago. So, other than the obvious thrill of having the hottest hotrod in town, there isn't much more performance I *currently* need. Of course, as we move inevitably to the 64 bit world that'll change, but right now there is a bonanza of incredibly powerful and low cost processors out there....
 
I think i'll see a lil improvement from my current setup when i get e6600 and probably oc atleast 3ghz. See sig.
 
nooh said:
Dude it is fast , you throw anything at it , you can run a anti virus and play a game at same time and you wont see a performance dip.

It is amazing and deserves all the hype and lives up to every little detail.
Click to expand...

Until you run into hard drive limitations, which is a problem with any processor.
 
ThirtySixBelow said:
12 posts, 1 answer :p
Anything really noticable in gaming. A64 3200+ isn't a slouch, but it supposedly gets "pwned" by your new chip.
Click to expand...

For gaming - There IS an improvement, in memory and cpu limited games. But, 2 issues I have with really extracting this thing's potential:

1 - I have but a single 7900GT. Woe is me. :p All of the newer games are still WAY GPU limited anyway.

2 - Most of the games I actually play aren't that demanding. Final Fantasy XI, WoW, etc. In those two, in particular, I DID notice a huge difference in crowded towns. For anyone familiar with FFXI, I can now run past the auction house in Lower Jeuno without dropping a single frame-per-second. (according to FRAPS)

The other game I play most of the time is Halo. If I turn off V-Sync for a change, that game runs at some RIDICULOUS frame rates.
 
Dennis Gordon said:
I've built far more Intel boxes than AMD. I have no loyalty towards either of these massive corporations. The fact is the first 3800x2 I built cost me $460 for CPU and mobo last October. The one I just built cost $175 for the same parts *and it runs better* (2.8 vs 2.5) than the one that cost me $300 more 10 months ago. So, other than the obvious thrill of having the hottest hotrod in town, there isn't much more performance I *currently* need. Of course, as we move inevitably to the 64 bit world that'll change, but right now there is a bonanza of incredibly powerful and low cost processors out there....
Click to expand...

Please note, I didn't mean to imply that you were some kind of AMD-Fan:) I just made a general statement that it would be hard to go AM2 right now. I was asked by several buds about getting faster processors for their Sc-939s. I said yes, I might upgrade my 3500+ for sure to Dual Core:) But IMHO, buying a whole NEW AM2-X2 is silly to say the least.

Last Oct my bud built an 3800+ with an Asus A8N SLI, $139 for the mobo and $369 for the Processor. 3800+ was still like $339 when I bought my $210 3500+ in Nov-05.
 
Dennis Gordon said:
Yeah, AM2 seems pretty much pointless to me, given its modest performance benefits...
Click to expand...

You mean as an upgrade from 939? I'd agree. But for me building a brand new desktop it was either Conroe or AM2. 939 didn't make any sense.
 
Dennis Gordon said:
Yeah, AM2 seems pretty much pointless to me, given its modest performance benefits...
Click to expand...

Last 15 rigs was 9 AMDs and 6 Intels. C2D will bring that to 9 to 7 for 16 or 8 to 7 for the last 15. for my personal use.
 
I just bought an E6600 off ebay for $420... there's are a LOT of conroe chips on ebay right now.. if you thought you couldn't get one, look no further.. some are better priced than others.. as with all things ebay.. just waiting for the nforce 590 mobos to come out and I can start testing..

I have a feeling the extra memory BW with DDR2 and the over-all much improved conroe mem arch (improved over my current 939 dual core) will help with high end SLI setups.. I am considering going quad SLI with this chip.. we'll see what happens.. I am sure it will help there as just about all of those setups are cpu/mem bw limited.

Anyways... I am looking forward to turning this chip out and seeing what she'll do. :)
 
Dennis Gordon said:
So I see 37 posts... and one or two actual application benchmarks. Izzat it?
Click to expand...

I'm OCing my e6400 and will eventually have Photoshop 7 installed to test the radial blur thing. Does radial blur performance better in different versions of Photoshop? And does the latest Photoshop use dual cores in any special way?
 
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