SC said:
No, you have 4 cores running at 3.6GHz each. If you use a program like
SIW <
http://www.gtopala.com/> you can see the frequency of each core.
For example, I have an AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Processor
3.4GHz, and each core shows that speed at 100%. Usually, when I'm not
doing anything that requires heavy CPU usage or heavy graphics, it idles
at 1.8 to 2.2GHz.
FWIW, you can get the 965BE for ~5 Pounds cheaper, and it has better
benchmarks than the FX-4100 on
<
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html>. The FX-4100 isn't even
listed on the AnandTech site. It's also on the list of supported CPUs on
the Asus link I posted earlier.
http://support.asus.com/Cpusupport/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=M5A78L-M/USB3&p=1&s=24
The FX-8350 is supported as well as the FX-4100.
Looking at the chart, in the price bracket, I might want
a FX-4170 instead of the FX-4100. Higher clock for
single threaded stuff. FX-4170 is $120, FX-4100 is $110.
AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz (4.3GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Quad-Core $120
AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core $110
The FX-8350 would look similar to this, while an
FX-4170 would use half of this. Each quadrant supports
two threads of execution. They count those threads
of execution as "cores", but the definition is a bit mushy.
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/4955/FXCPU_Die_575px.jpg
A quadrant looks like this. Shared fetch and decode, followed
by two execution sections. A little different than how Intel
does it. The 965 doesn't work like this at all, and has
a more conventional ratio of fetch:decode:execution.
http://images.anandtech.com/galleries/754/BulldozerHotChips_August24_8pmET_NDA-6_575px.jpg
The 965 looks like this. It has four cores, compared to the
two quadrants the FX-4100 type chip has.
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/cpu/amd/phenom2/810/900die.jpg
I might be tempted to classify the 965 as "4C 4T" and the
FX-4100 as "2C 4T". Implying the two threads of execution
in the FX-4100 are similar to a heavy-weight Hyperthreading
implementation. But what do I know. Marketing wants to sell
it as "4C 4T" for the FX-4100, and who are we to argue.
We can always let the benchmarks decide. That's the best way
to guide people wanting to buy one.
*******
Programs that are multi-threaded (like Photoshop), can
use more than one core at a time. That's where a
multi-core processor provides its advantage. If Photoshop
chops an image into eight pieces, the FX-8350 uses
one thread of execution of the eight its got, to process
each piece. This reduces the time to finish the job. With
the FX-4170, Photoshop chops the image into four
pieces, with one thread running on each of the
four threads of execution. The job takes twice as long
as it would on the FX-8350.
Not all Photoshop filters are multi-threaded. About
half of the filters are single threaded. The single threaded
Photoshop filters run as fast on the FX-4170 as they do on
the FX-8350. Because only one execution unit in a single
quadrant gets used for the single thread of execution.
And other application mixes will show the same thing.
Applications that use multiple threads of execution,
will get a boost from FX-8350 over FX-4170. But
things that are written with a single thread of
execution (like SuperPI), then only one core is
running that in either the FX-8350 or FX-4170 case.
So only some applications get a big boost from the
more expensive processor. If you edit movies, play
certain games, the fat processor wins. For a lot
of older programs and utilities, there isn't that
much of a difference. And this is why, sometimes
users are disappointed in their upgrade. They
don't understand how the applications are split.
If you do nothing but movie editing, then the
more cores, the better. (Buy the fat processor.)
On Photoshop, it depends on what filters you use,
because they're mixed. Photoshop uses single-threaded
filters, for things requiring the most mathematically
accurate methods. In Photoshop, if you rotate an image
by 5 degrees, 72 times, the developers at Adobe want
the image quality to be preserved and look like the
original unrotated picture. And sometimes, that means
dispensing with multi-threaded methods. Adobe prefers
accuracy, over speed. At least that's the claim I've read.
Paul