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Originally Posted by nffc
In terms of the actual advert in question it's what I'd say is a half truth. Nothing inherently wrong with it like with the Centrino ones. Yes a single core CPU can multi task but the way it manages it is just a simple juggling act. The CPU basically switches between one app and another constantly as only one process can use it at a given instant. In that sense it's the software that controls it not the CPU itself. With a dual core it is essentially running as 2 CPUs, both of which can be used instantaneously so the one process limit becomes a two process limit and some of the switching is therefore transferred to the hardware.
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The problem is that Joe soap would know (or indeed care) that the OS is juggling system resources to "simulate" multitasking. The advert seems (to me) to be implying that you need a dual core cpu to multitask efficiently. This is, frankly, a crap piece of generalisation. For a start, all modern OSes can multitask in software (and in the case of the Intel x86 processors, the hardware has been designed to help since at least the 386). Your average user can multitask quite efficiently on a single core.
It is also not true to say that the PC hardware only multitasks with a Dual core cpu. GPUs are one example (so a game can process graphics and enemy movements). A lot of cards have limited on board processing power, so the cpu can get on with other things.
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If then you are running more than one CPU-intensive app at a time... there will be an immediate performance gain. Uploading email whilst downloading tunes is a poor example of it (encoding videos whilst gaming would be more suitable) but it's illustrating a point and so it's not that misleading. <snip> It's pitched at common tasks, things people will do with their PCs, just a poorly thought out example nothing more, nothing less.
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Actually that is true. Running multple CPU intensive tasks will show up the difference. I personally don't think the advert is bad, but the examples they chose were terrible.
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To suggest that
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My view on PC World is that they're a utter disgrace. The BCS Code of Conduct for IT professionals states:
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You shall not misrepresent or withhold information on the performance of products, systems or services, or take advantage of the lack of relevant knowledge or inexperience of others
Which is exactly what PC World does. Should be shut down by Trading Standards.
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Is misleading, an exaggeration, because the whole thing has been taken out of context, and to suggest that PCW should be shut down because of an advert...
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While I don't necessarily agree that PCW should be shut down, I have seen several examples where they misrepresent the performance of their products.