i have a question

Dec 3, 2002, 03:51 AM

Now, as you can see... i have a 1.3 GHz Duron and it only has 192 KB of cache (total) now... what i want to know is what (if any) difference would an more cache make? What i guess i mean is... what does cache do for playing games. And why would more help. I hope you can understand it.

sporkpimp · Dec 3, 2002, 04:05 AM

...is to get a new processor. That said, cache is basically super-fast memory that stores the instructions the CPU is about to execute. Instructions go from your disk drive to your RAM to your cache before being processed by the CPU... the more cache you have, the more instructions can be stored in the much faster cache, so the more data your CPU gets to blaze through without stopping. More cache is faster in most real-world situations, including gaming... any situation where I/O or loading speed is a factor. (The only time it ISN'T a factor is when doing super-complex integer calculations... in other words, small instructions that are very hard to execute. That's not common, unless you do raytracing or something...)

DriveEuro · Dec 3, 2002, 04:26 AM

And to think, the new Opteron may have at most, 1 MB of L1 cache....L1 right? well nevertheless, it's gonna have 1mb L1, or L2.

simon.l · Dec 7, 2002, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by generalstupid
Now, as you can see... i have a 1.3 GHz Duron and it only has 192 KB of cache (total) now... what i want to know is what (if any) difference would an more cache make? What i guess i mean is... what does cache do for playing games. And why would more help. I hope you can understand it.

Hi, First post here, cool site (color too).

If you were able to keep the same CPU but upgrade the cache little difference in the grand scheme of things. Given that any CPU you upgrade too will have a bigger cache and be faster its going to be difficult to gauge. The don't know much about Duron boards but the faster the CPU you have the better and any upgrade might require a new motherboard.

HTH

Dec 3, 2002, 03:51 AM	#1
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	i have a question Now, as you can see... i have a 1.3 GHz Duron and it only has 192 KB of cache (total) now... what i want to know is what (if any) difference would an more cache make? What i guess i mean is... what does cache do for playing games. And why would more help. I hope you can understand it.

Dec 3, 2002, 04:05 AM	#2
sporkpimp DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: CA, USA Posts: 90 Rep Power: 0	The only way to increase cache... ...is to get a new processor. That said, cache is basically super-fast memory that stores the instructions the CPU is about to execute. Instructions go from your disk drive to your RAM to your cache before being processed by the CPU... the more cache you have, the more instructions can be stored in the much faster cache, so the more data your CPU gets to blaze through without stopping. More cache is faster in most real-world situations, including gaming... any situation where I/O or loading speed is a factor. (The only time it ISN'T a factor is when doing super-complex integer calculations... in other words, small instructions that are very hard to execute. That's not common, unless you do raytracing or something...)

Dec 3, 2002, 04:26 AM	#3
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	And to think, the new Opteron may have at most, 1 MB of L1 cache....L1 right? well nevertheless, it's gonna have 1mb L1, or L2. __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024