Why i raised this question because i am hearing things from many people discussing that if its a true quad core cpu or not. and i am getting a superb deal over here in my world to get it. i currently have athlon ii x4 635 and i know that its a true quad core cpu but before i buy this bulldozer fx4100 i need to make sure that this should be a true quad core cpu too. (i know there are other better cpus too but i am on a budget.)
actually its 2 cores seperated into 4 segments like a orange its basicly the same as a 4 core but they require new motherboards am3+ only mobos yours is am3 dunno if its am3 plus as you didnt state the manufacturer not only that cant sygest you a new part till you tell us what motherboard you have
that chip is made from 2 BD modules, and each module has 2 &cores.& the reason for the quotes is that each pair of cores shares l1 and l2 cashe, and instruction units. that makes it so the pair performs at about 140% of the performance of using only one core on a module. that makes it function like each module is a core with 2 threads. so when you look at a BD part they will always be slower than the phenom with the same thread count and clock speed. when you compare it to an intel part that makes the fx4100 like a dual core with hyper threading. so, no it is not a real native quad core, it is like a 4 thread dual core. that chip is also not an upgrade to your 635 unless you are going to overclock since the fx4100 clocks much higher.
The arguement comes about because of the architecture of the cpu. the cpu has modules and each module has paired cores that share some of the resources. A FX4100 has 2 bulldozer modules,and since each module has 2 cores you end up with 4 cores. Now the arguement is that since the cores on a module share certain resources the purists believe that they dont perform the same as the more conventional cpu. But in truth there are 4 physical cores on that particular bulldozer cpu contained within 2 bulldozer modules. In fact I believe that the FX4100 is a 8150 with two of the modules disabled(4 cores disabled) Either way,the 4100 is on par performance wise to a Phenom II 965 so if you decide to buy it then it will be better than the 635 you have now
