how do dual cpu systems work?

[Revelation]

I was wondering, could someone explain to me how they work? Are systems with 2 CPUs faster?

I have never understood how they worked and always assumed they made the computer faster... :)

thanks!

[jeff_harrison_344]

Well technically, they are faster, but it is complicated:

See, a system running 2 CPUS (SMP), does run faster, but not as some may think. You see some people think that 2 800Mhz CPU's in a system will make the system seem like its running at 1.6GHz. But infact, thats not the case. See only systems that use very graphic intensive programs, or Servers, use SMP. Not a lot of home users use it because it is really only that notiicable in like I said, graphic intensive prgrams, or in servers. But you really may only see a 5% increase in normal games and WindoZe applications.


I hope that answered your question!

[dugans]

I don't know how the thing works inside ( other than a little theory which was covered in the post above!) but I know how well it works!

I run dual PII-400's in my main pc, with win2k pro. This pc is also a web and ftp server, sometimes a network proxy server too.
I can burn a cd, process digital images from my camera, use my webcam and serve the internet to another pc on the network without any problems.

In essence, each cpu can function separately running an app without disturbing the other.

I have run the same load on a 750 mhz pc, and the only app that ran as fast was the one in the active window, all the background apps were a lot slower.

Another cool one: burned a cd full of mp3's while playing Serious Sam; and my burner does NOT have burn-proof!

I don't know if my next pc will be powered by intel or amd but it WILL have 2 procs just like this one!