Member Avatar for silvercats

dual core prcoessors only have one physical core?

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Brief recap of the confusion: and were correct that "Core 2 Duo" is Intel's product name while "dual‑core" is the generic description for chips with two execution cores. Core 2 Duo is a family of Intel dual‑core CPUs built on the Core microarchitecture. (en.wikipedia.org)

Clarifying the "one physical + one virtual" idea: a true dual‑core chip contains two physical cores. "Virtual" cores come from Hyper‑Threading (HT) or SMT, which expose extra logical processors per physical core — they are not separate physical cores. Most Core 2 Duo models did not include Hyper‑Threading; Pentium D parts were NetBurst‑based (higher TDP and lower IPC) and only certain Extreme‑Edition variants exposed HT. (en.wikipedia.org)

Quick, practical checks (what the OS actually sees):

# Windows (Command Prompt or PowerShell)
wmic cpu get Name,NumberOfCores,NumberOfLogicalProcessors

# Linux
lscpu

# macOS
sysctl hw.physicalcpu hw.logicalcpu

If the logical‑processor count is larger than the physical‑core count, the CPU (or platform) is exposing SMT/HT. These commands are the simplest way to confirm physical vs logical counts. (support.exxactcorp.com)

Short compatibility/performance note: for that generation the Core 2 family typically beat Pentium D in per‑clock performance and power efficiency; Pentium Dual‑Core later became a budget line based on Core‑derived designs with reduced cache. All of these lines are now long past end‑of‑life, so model numbers matter for socket/chipset compatibility and OS support — check the exact CPU model on Intel/CPU databases for definitive specs. (en.wikipedia.org)

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Member Avatar for deceptikon

Dual core is the general term for processors with two independent CPUs. Core 2 Duo is Intel's brand name for one of their dual core processors. It's akin to the difference between a compact car and a Honda Civic.

Member Avatar for JorgeM

Core 2 Duo is a brand name by Intel. "Dual Core" is a generic description meaning two separate physical cores in one chip.

Member Avatar for silvercats

Np. There are Intel's Dual core(Intel D) processors too. I mean what is the difference between Intel dual core and core 2 duo?
I know what core 2 duo has two physical processors inside. but.....

Member Avatar for JorgeM

Most of the confusion comes from the following...

Intel Pentium D
Intel Core Duo
Intel Core 2 Duo
Intel Pentium Dual-Core

You asked about Pentium D vs Core 2 Duo. The Pentium D is the earlier model. The Core 2 Duo is a much better model, better performance.

The Pentium Dual-Core is based on Core 2, but has less L2 Cache so its more affordable.

Member Avatar for silvercats

what about dual core only having one physical core and anotehr virtual core? lie?

Member Avatar for webjack

Actually The Core 2 Duo processor has two parallel cores inside a single physical package and the two cores sharing their load. so, the core 2 duo processor is faster. But in dual core processor the two cores in Series and the both cores are working at same time. So it is much slower then core 2 duo processor. And also the multi-tusking performance also less in the dual core processor.

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