Dual Core vs. Quad Core for calculations

[hugohugo37]

For a person who writes a lot of calcualation intensive code in visual basic, is VB.net 2005 or VB.net 2008 optimized for quad core?

Has anyone switched from a dual core cpu to a quad and seen a big difference in execution times?

Thanks

Hugo

 

[TotalImmortal]

I cant offer much help on this subject, but I would like to bring to light another issue:
when looking at new processors always keep in mind this
Take the speed of your RAM and your CPU's FSB and always compare them.... if you have 1333mhz FSB on a Quad Core chip, but 800mhz RAM, you will only be traveling at 800mhz there sir.

one of my bigger qualms with Dual/Quad core is just that; 1333mhz FSB (Intel QX6850) whereas RAM is, at best, 1066mhz.

I havent used VS/VB very much, but it seems that if you are bottlenecked by your RAM anyways, quad or dual SHOULD be fast enough to proccess as much as your FSB can pass just the same.

though I have read articles where movie encoding had been 3x faster when moving from a dual core to a quad core.

also; ensure your entire system is running at 64bit everything; OS, CPU, etc etc...

Hope this helped (even tho I know you werent asking for it lol)

 

[cjard]

For a person who writes a lot of calcualation intensive code in visual basic, is VB.net 2005 or VB.net 2008 optimized for quad core?

Has anyone switched from a dual core cpu to a quad and seen a big difference in execution times?

Thanks

Hugo

If your app uses only one thread, what benefit is there in any case?

 

[TotalImmortal]

Perhaps there is a difference in compile-time? I dont know if VS supports multithreading.