Quick Processor Question

[jagwire1141]

So I just bought a new HP laptop with and intel duo core processor clocked at 1.73 GHZ. The guy told me that this pretty much meant that I'd get 3.46 GHZ total, or the processing speed would be comparable to a single core 3.46 processor. Is this true? I won't be disappointed if it's not exactly 3.46 Ghz but I hope it's still up there.

[mtxbass1]

the guy lied.

I run a Conroe E6400. That's 2.13Ghz. It doesn't mean it's equivalent to a 4.26GHz CPU.

[jagwire1141]

Yea, but is it a good deal faster than a 1.73 Ghz processor?

[mtxbass1]

Of course it is.

[jagwire1141]

Ok, now for the final question. How much faster? Ballpark range estimate.

[sweeetja713]

Heavily depends on the applications and whether/how much they make use of the mutliple cores.

[wbc1228]

Ok, now for the final question. How much faster? Ballpark range estimate.


Look at Toms' Hardware yourself for a comparison.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

There is no simple answer.
There are so many processors out there.
Just understand that ghz factor alone is irrlevent.

edit:
sweeetja713 is correct

[mtxbass1]

Heavily depends on the applications and whether/how much they make use of the mutliple cores.

Correct.

I run Eclipse all day long and I noticed a huge increase in performance when I switched processors.

However, running IE or my sql browsers gave me no performance increase.

[jagwire1141]

Ok I guess what I need to know now is what kind of games can I run at a reasonable framerate. The computer has 1 GB Ram, the 1.73 Core Duo Intel Processor and a 128 MB Nvidia GEForce 7200 Graphics Card. What would run on this rig at about 30-45 FPS at least?