How does L2 cache affect the processor's performance?

Message

tbu3 · #1 Post by **tbu3** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 7:42 am

I have an R51 with 1.50Ghz processor and 1MB L2 cache. How does the L2 cache affect its performance?

Batuta · #2 Post by **Batuta** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 5:53 pm

tbu3 · #3 Post by **tbu3** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 7:38 am

Thanks for the info. If I will be comparing it to a desktop P4 processor with say 512K L2, what is the equivalent clock speed of my PM1.5Ghz with 1MB L2 cache?

Batuta · #4 Post by **Batuta** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:51 am

dr.b · #5 Post by **dr.b** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 2:52 pm

The performance gain between banias and dothan is about 5% (some apps up to 15%, but in others just no difference).
Your 1.5 GHz banias might be as fast as a 2.3 or 2.4 Desktop P4...but thats a result of a different chip design...the L2-cache size is only a small part of it. But it´s hard to compare, in some cases centrinos are really fast in others (video-encoding) not.

tbu3 · #6 Post by **tbu3** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 6:41 pm

Thanks Dr.B for sharing that info in the simplest terms. I have noticed that my TP with a Banias processor outperforms my P4 2.24 Ghz desktop. Outperforms because my TP has slightly more RAM than my desktop. I boot both at the same time and the TP won the speed test.

gazingwa · #7 Post by **gazingwa** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:45 am

Boot time isn't much of a speed test unless done on a completely bare new install. Factors that change that are installed programs, disk fragmentation, amount of little apps hidden in the startup.

A good test is SiSoft's Sandra. It will test every individual component and the newer version will do an overall system test and will tell you where your machine is lacking and what will give you the biggest performance increase.

Just search for sandra at download.com

How does L2 cache affect the processor's performance?

How does L2 cache affect the processor's performance?

Who is online