Processors
Intel® Processors, Tools, and Utilities
14404 Discussions

Is a Pentium 4 a Dual core?

idata
Employee
6,908 Views

I bought a PC from a local computer store last year and told him all my specs. I needed it for video editing. Here is what he listed as been sold to me.

Pentium Dual Core @ 3.0 Ghz

Now when I use Intel's Processor Identification Utility it comes up as a:

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 631 3.00 Ghz and only shows one Core.

Is that processor considered a Dual Core or is it a single core? I want to know if I have a leg to stand on.

Thanks in advance for any help...

11 Replies
idata
Employee
3,291 Views

631 is NOT dual core. however you can activate HT on bios set up screen and then your computer will see it as 2 cores.

read about it here

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentium4/index.htm http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentium4/index.htm

0 Kudos
RMayn
Beginner
3,291 Views

Some Intel Pentium 4 processors have hyperthreading technology which allows the operating system to see one core as two and you get two cpu graphs in task manager. One could mistake the Pentium 4 HT CPU for a dual core processor by looking at the task manager but it is in fact not a dual core processor. Actually the purpose of hyperthreading technology is to use the cpu more efficiently and it works making the cpu up to 30% faster. How does it work? Hyperthreading allows two threads to run at once like a dual core cpu but the 2nd thread can only run on unused resources on a Hyperthreading Pentium 4 while dual core cpu's have a whole extra core for the 2nd thread.

Example of how single core, hyperthreading, and dual core cpu's work: Imagine that you only have one hand and you have to pick up rocks and put them in a pile. Now these are fairly big rocks you can only fit one rock in each hand. Like a single core cpu you can only move one rock(thread) at a time. It's a very slow process so now you're probably thinking of a way to do it faster and here is where hyperthreading comes in. You realize that you might be able to pick up two rocks by scooping them up with your arm. You can carry two like this and it's much faster than carrying just one but it's heavy and you might drop them and you'll have to pick them back up. Now if you had two hands you could carry two rocks much faster and easier this is dual core. One rock in each hand isn't as hard as 2 rocks in one hand so it's easier and more efficient.

The simple fact is that they either scammed you or made a huge mistake. First of all Pentium Dual-core processors even now don't reach clock speeds of 3GHz. Next How could they not know they were selling you a Pentium 4? I would think they should know their products or at least hire people qualified for the position. Whoever sold you that computer was either scamming you or they were just completely ignorant about computers in which case they should not have been working there in the first place. If that store advertised that computer as having a Pentium Dual-Core then it is illegal and it doesn't matter if they made a mistake or not it was still false advertisement and that is illegal. And if they really didn't know it wasn't a Pentium 4 then they shouldn't be selling computers.

0 Kudos
MWong22
New Contributor II
3,292 Views

Pentium 4 is under netburst Microarchitecture. which uses higher clock speed, higher power and more heat.

compared to core

Intel Core family are from Core microarchitecture. uses low clock speed but many memory and hyper threading abilities which make it fast

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
3,292 Views

My PC appears to be running on two Pentium 4 CPUs, I never thought Intel made Pentium 4 into a dual core CPU. In my DXDIAG, under 'processor', it says "Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2CPUs)". So what exactly do I have here? A dual core Pentium 4 or just two Pentium 4 CPUs packed together? Sometimes this PC runs slow and I just can't convince myself that it actually has 2 CPUs, or just a dual core CPU or whatever it is.

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
3,292 Views

You have a SINGLE CORE CPU, 1 CORE ONLY... some of the PENTIUM 4's use Hyper-threading technology (HT), this makes your CPU work as if it were 2 but it only emulates a second one. Yes your PC reads it as if had 2 cores installed but in reality you only have one. pentium 4 3.0ghz HT(1core) will never be as fast as dual-core 3.0ghz (2cores). Hope this helps...

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
3,292 Views

Nice to finally end the confusion of what type of CPU I really have. I'm only lacking 3 more cores to play bad company 2 properly.

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
3,292 Views

In reality chances are you PC will not support a quad CPU, you will probably have to upgrade your mother board first, and then it depends A LOT on your graphics card and ram as well, you best option to play bad company on a medium setting will be to upgrade you pentium 4 cpu to a nice affordable core2duo something like a E7600(low budget) or a core2duo E8200 8300 even the E6xxx series will duo way better (much much better) than the pentium 4 you have installed now and you can buy them now for around $50-80 bucks. but make sure your mother board can handle such CPUs before you buy.

by the way, what are the specs on your PC?

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
3,292 Views

I can play Bad Company 2 on low settings, with medium textures and high shadows, but around 20 frames per second, sometimes 10s. In fact, I just completed the campaign, the game was actually playable. Besides the Pentium 4 CPU, I have 2GB of RAM, XFX 8800GS graphics, motherboard appears to be a Dell OMH651(whatever that is), and I use Windows XP 32-bit Professional SP3. From stock, which is a 4 year old Dell Optiplex 320, I only added the 8800GS graphics card and the extra 1GB of RAM, it was never meant to be a gaming PC. I was surprised I actually installed the 8800GS into this computer, it lacked voltage from the power supply, the card needed 500, power supply only put out 350, I'm guessing this card can do better with enough power. The RAM was a bit of trouble, this computer wasn't compatible with 800MHz RAM, only 533MHz and 667MHz RAM could be fitted. I'm able to play Crysis on halfway medium settings with average 20 frames per second, and I can play Moder Warfare 2 with medium settings at least 30 frames per second, both on 1280x960 resolution.

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
3,292 Views

I guess you already have got your answer. If you have any nagging question about Intel product and technologies, you can get instant answers to them from Intel experts at Intel Live Chat. More Info @ www.intellivechat.com

Connect with Intel on Skype@IntelLiveChat
0 Kudos
idata
Employee
3,292 Views

If you looked at your computers "Device Manager" and it displays

Then I would say no you haven't

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
3,292 Views

That had to be the worst purchase of your life. I bought a PC like that in 2004.

Pentium 4 is so bad that even ultra-low voltage mobile CPUs offer much better performance.

It's a very old platform, so it doesn't make any sense to upgrade.

Take a look at this list to get a better idea about CPUs and their performance:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

0 Kudos
Reply