A CPU with two physical cores is called a dual-core processor and four physical cores is called a quad-core processor. A logical core also known as logical processors is more of a programming abstraction than an actual physical entity.
Logical cores are the abilities of a single physical core to run multiple tasks or threads simultaneously. For example, if you have a quad core CPU and each of its physical cores can run two threads at a time, then you have 8 logical cores. Go to the Performance tab and select CPU from the left column.
It should open up the System Information app. That means today's graphics chips are faster than products by a ratio of 2 to the 30th power, or about a billion to one. CPU progress is slow by comparison. Over the last 30 years of the microprocessor, performance on integer operations has improved by about a million to one. Floating-point performance looks much better, since early CPUs had to emulate floating-point operations in software.
With hardware floating-point units FPUs , today's processors run FP-intensive code about million times faster than those of Floating-point performance is the key to the rapid progress of graphics chips, too.
Most of the math required to display the special effects in a game like Company of Heroes is done using floating-point numbers. This math has to be done over and over for each pixel on the screen, but the work for many pixels can be done in parallel. That's the loophole here, the trick that graphics chips exploit to boost performance so much with each new generation of 3D chips. It's all done in parallel. So if you think eight processor cores is great, think about an Nvidia GeForce GPU with thread processors running at 1.
There is a useful batch file you can create that can force processor affinity for particular programs. This page on the Microsoft Developer website has a full list of affinities. There is actually some argument about this, although there is a pretty strong consensus among experts that you should use all your cores. There are essentially two points the anti-corers hit on. One is that reducing the power consumption from laptops and PCs would reduce electrical usage elsewhere. The other argument makes a little more sense, and has to do with laptop battery life.
The power consumption angle is pretty hard to credit. Even at top power consumption, a Core i7 currently the winner of the power hog competition among mainstream CPUs uses only watts. Compare that to a refrigerator at watts. If you want to save power, turn the AC down a notch and leave your PC running at full blast. However, that goal can be achieved far more effectively and more conveniently by underclocking the CPU a bit. Underclocking the CPU directly cuts electrical use across the machine, and can actually achieve the goal of longer laptop life.
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