They'll be helpful for Xbox 360 and PSX3 ports. My most anticipated game right now is Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Bethesda has already stated that it's going to be very optimized for SMP due to its cross-platform development.
Personally, I think the dual-core A64s are a little too expensive at the moment (or they would be if they were available ). Luckily you can get a Socket 939 board now for a single-core cheap which will then accept dual-core when they become cheaper earlier next year. I'd imagine more SMP capable games/apps will be available then too - good point about ports from Xbox360/PS3 probably being multi-threaded automatically.
Well, that assumes you're not memory bandwidth-bound of course. ...Which isn't THAT hard to accomplish really, not in today's PCs anyway with their multi-GHz CPUs and single-digit GB/s memory subsystems.
I'd appreciate another CPU when a virus or spyware scan kicks in while I'm fragging, but it's obviously a luxury to non-professionals (much like gaming in general).
Well, that assumes you're not memory bandwidth-bound of course. ...Which isn't THAT hard to accomplish really, not in today's PCs anyway with their multi-GHz CPUs and single-digit GB/s memory subsystems.
um the dual chips most likely cost around the same as the x360 cpu or less . Remember what we pay is no where near the cost of what it takes to make them