Nvidia Says More CPU Cores are Better (& Why)

Today's smartphones have chips inside that can produce output that surpasses that of a Nintendo Wii – which is very impressive for something that fits inside your pocket. But those right now are single-core, and as any computer enthusiast now knows from their desktops and laptops, more cores tend to make for a better computing experience.

The top-end chips inside tablets and smartphones next year will be dual-core, and Nvidia has published a whitepaper on why it will be a great thing not only in terms of performance, but also power consumption.

Essentially, having two cores splitting the work puts less strain on each individual core as compared to having a single core shoulder the entire load. This not only allows for greater performance potential but also a generally lower power draw – provided that both cores aren't under a greater load.

Check out some of Nvidia's charts below for a better idea, and then the full white paper for more details.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • theholylancer
    sooooo they are saying AMD > intel given that they offers more cores at the price point?

    IE for the price of i5, you can get a Ph II X6?

    or more just mobile (and our stuff only) and marketing had gotten a brain fart?
    Reply
  • mrface
    Load balancing has been around for awhile....
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    OMG WHAT?

    STOP THE PRESSES!! SINGLE CORES ARE NOT FASTER THAN DUAL CORES!!!!!
    -_-
    Reply
  • thearm
    theholylancersooooo they are saying AMD > intel given that they offers more cores at the price point?IE for the price of i5, you can get a Ph II X6?or more just mobile (and our stuff only) and marketing had gotten a brain fart?
    I had to read your post three times to under what you where trying to say. Got it now! I'll still take Intel and Nvidia over AMD any day. I think they simply make better products. I used both at the beginning of my tech career now I only user Intel and Nvidia. I'm not opposed to an ATI video card though but I've had good luck with Nvidia so I'm sticking w/ them. I'm brand loyal until I have a good reason to not be.
    Reply
  • JerseyFirefighter
    theholylancersooooo they are saying AMD > intel given that they offers more cores at the price point?IE for the price of i5, you can get a Ph II X6?or more just mobile (and our stuff only) and marketing had gotten a brain fart?

    AMD's benchmarks fall short overall vs it's same priced intel... i.e. the AMD x6 1090T vs the core i7 950. You can find the two for relatively the same price and cpu benchmarks put the intel over the AMD. Not to say that AMD still has the best bang for the buck on most of their products, but for AMD's top of the line hexacore, you'd expect it to beat our it's competitors quad cores. (there are also a number of quads above the 950 as im sure you know)
    Reply
  • JerseyFirefighter
    On a side note, at least my smartphone will be able to play crysis in the near future.
    Reply
  • This is nothing new- been taught in every basic computer architecture class since the dual cores came out
    Reply
  • alyoshka
    So Nvidia finally see's light????
    If that's the case they really need to beat the world fastest dual processor card by making a sing dual core GPU.......
    Reply
  • usfs
    DON'T WORRY CITIZENS CAPTAIN OBVIOUS IS HERE!
    Reply
  • leo2kp
    Hey I thought just a year ago they were saying CPUs were going out of style. Now they want MORE of 'em. Well, good, 'cause so do I.
    Reply