EDIT: Wasn't sure which was the proper place to talk about this was, originally I posted this over in the Hardware forums, but I think it more readily applies to the software forum [ http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12256 ]. Sorry for the cross-posting.
With today's announcement of Intel moving to dual-core cpus earlier than expected, how will this impact game development? Here's some of my meandering thoughts and questions on it.
Does anyone know at what speed a Pentium-M need to run at to be competative with a 4Ghz+ Pentium-4? I'd hope the first dual-core cpu produced would have a single-core (for those single-threaded applications) capable of besting a 4Ghz+ Pentium-4. Otherwise all games will run slower on Intel's new cpus.
Irregardless of overall performance benefits when running multiple applications, this will have a drastic impact on all software developers. They will need to design their games to be multi-core/smp friendly to gain any sort of benefit from the new cpus. And even then, I have doubts on the performance increases/benefits allowed by multithreaded engines.
With today's announcement of Intel moving to dual-core cpus earlier than expected, how will this impact game development? Here's some of my meandering thoughts and questions on it.
Does anyone know at what speed a Pentium-M need to run at to be competative with a 4Ghz+ Pentium-4? I'd hope the first dual-core cpu produced would have a single-core (for those single-threaded applications) capable of besting a 4Ghz+ Pentium-4. Otherwise all games will run slower on Intel's new cpus.
Irregardless of overall performance benefits when running multiple applications, this will have a drastic impact on all software developers. They will need to design their games to be multi-core/smp friendly to gain any sort of benefit from the new cpus. And even then, I have doubts on the performance increases/benefits allowed by multithreaded engines.