Why run dual CPU's?

[Kingslayer]

That's why.

[dugans]

Amen!

I'm running my duallie 400 still- and it is a pretty quick machine.
I'm getting a new duallie rig soon as well.........................:cool:

[Pinky]

Duals are great, just always felt you needed a reason to have them... most of us here have that reason, but an average home user doesn't...

Guess I'm saying you're preaching to the choir...

can I get (another) AMEN!!

[Malodorous]

Im running dual 1GHz myself overclockd alittle.
hitting
6366 and 3129 on SSI Sandra. I love it. Higher that any AMD or P4

[TC]

Gotta remember that high score doesn't mean much unless you're using software that is designed to take advantage of multiple cpu's. Otherwise the program just runs like you have a single processor. The OS will shift some of the load around, but it's not like having double the power.

[dugans]

Originally posted by TC
Gotta remember that high score doesn't mean much unless you're using software that is designed to take advantage of multiple cpu's. Otherwise the program just runs like you have a single processor. The OS will shift some of the load around, but it's not like having double the power.

Although you can regain that by using 2 different apps with affinity set for different cpus: almost like having 2 pcs with one monitor.

[Malodorous]

Yes sa this is correct. Affinity setting works wonders.
But for good gaming from the makers of the Quake3 Engine, have learnd the dual CPU is a good thing and make all there games with this engine, so when my Wolfenstien Returns comes in I will be lovin it.

[Maximus Nickus]

yEAH BUT UNTILL EPOX MAKE A DUAL CPU BOARD SO U AN OC EM ILL STICK WIF ONE!!! Its cheaper:D

[Kingslayer]

My board is one of the best dual OCing boards. And it only cost $140. No more expensive than a new single CPU board with the same options (four memory slot, on board IDE RAID), be it an Intel or AMD board.

[funnyperson1]

thats some carzy power right there, its too bad nobody makes games and stuff that really utlizies the full power of duallies....i think nick, was talking of dual Athlon Epox board, for PIIIs, the VP6 is definitley king, but i have seen some ASUS and Iwill dual DDR boards, and i was wondering how good those were....

[nucro]

Default Benchmark - 1024x768x32-3DMark 2001

http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-3DM1024.jpg

Sandra

http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-SandraCPU.jpg

So Sandra doesn't matter in games!!

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by nucro
Default Benchmark - 1024x768x32-3DMark 2001

http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-3DM1024.jpg

Sandra

http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-SandraCPU.jpg

So Sandra doesn't matter in games!!

yeah, but you cant base a statement on one test, though i agree, that duallies arent exactly meant for gaming.....

[Yodums]

Some serious power.. Does anyone at Overclockers have a quad processor? Wonder how fast they will do Seti/Folding Work Units..

[Malodorous]

Yes ASUS has the CUV266 wich is dual with DDR. Abit has the VP6 which is dual without DDR. The Asus is nice but for a board with out the DDR VP6 is the best. And the DDR isn't that much of a jump in performance. You will see some but not much. HOwever where prices are today. If i had to do it all over again with the MOBO so cheap and the Ram so cheap, I would definitly hop over to Pricewatch and hook up with the Asus cuv266 and some PC2100.
That would be the way to go if you were starting over. BUt I have the VP6 with 2GB of PC133 OC to 155FSB and I am happy with that. I out perform any AMD or INtel P4 on every Benchmark, excluding the one in this post those are some crazy numbers for a 2.0Ghz. None I have ever seen.

[overdoze]

Dual are great. You can have 1 cpu doing one job such as compiling browing with the other cpu. If you do the same on a single cpu machine, it would still be slugish compare to the dual. I am still using my BP6 dual celeron @ 550 and it still serves me well. Thank you Abit for introduce the first affordable dual machine. Don't you just love dual cpu machines hehe.
Forgot to mention my new dual is the dual XP 1600 on tyan 2460 and yes it is very fast.

[Maximus Nickus]

In the future I should think if software supports it then most pc's will be dual cpu!
Role on quads!:D

[Yodums]

Hmm.. Maybe if computers are really cheap in the future for dual.. Right now the dual are expensive.. In the future it'll be some like not dual but 8-way computers.. :p

[Mictlan]

Originally posted by Blinkie
Some serious power.. Does anyone at Overclockers have a quad processor? Wonder how fast they will do Seti/Folding Work Units..

I think chawken has one.....you can find him in the SETI forum

[Kingslayer]

Ok, Im going to break this as softly as I can. I know some of you are going to take this very badly.

There are other programs that you can load on your computer besides games...

Everyone ok? Did anyone faint? Do we need an ambulance? I haven't launched anyone into a suicidal fit have I?

That's all you hear when someone mentions dual processors. "There arent many games that support it...." Well read above bolded statement again.

Of course most games don't support dual CPU's. They are $50 piece of crap renditions of software that accomplish absolutely nothing. Do nothing. Make nothing. Worthless.

What are some common pieces of software that support SMP? CorelDraw10, Photoshop 5.0, 5.5, 6.0. Anything Macromedia, just to name a few. These are programs that people work on, create things, and support jobs with. Go look at their pricetags.

I spend more time a week in Photoshop, and CorelDraw, and Office than I do in a game. But thank god QuakeIII supports it. Delta Force Land Warrior supports it if you enable it through the console. It cost's too much to add the SMP support into games. Would you buy Max Payne for $100 just because it supports SMP? No. You wouldnt. And that's why its not there.

[Malodorous]

I have a Dog.
It goes Bark.
It craps on the Grass.
It lays in the Dirt.
It drinks water, beer, and pee.
It eats dog food, poop, and grass.
I like my dog.
It licks its butt hole, and its Vagina
Then it licks me in the Face.
Isn't that nasty.
Dogs are so great.
Let doggy lick you face.
BoingBoingBOingBoingBoing.
Thats me hopping.
ByeNow.

[nucro]

Everyone ok? Did anyone faint? Do we need an ambulance? I haven't launched anyone into a suicidal fit have I?

Kingslayer, how old are you? Don't act like a babby .

Now if you can't take it don't look at the images below.I tried to show that "dual-cpus" doesn't mean absolute power like
you posted in a Sandra picture. It's fine that you take advantage of it. But I don't think they're worth it.

Winbench 99 MultiProcessor - MicroStation SE
http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-WB99MPMS.jpg
Winbench 99 MultiProcessor - Photoshop 4.0
http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-WB99MPPS4.jpg
Crusher.dm2 - 640x480x16
http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-Q2Crusher1024.jpg
Garzey's Wing 15-Minute DVD Encode to MPEG
http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-DVDEncode.jpg

DesignReview - DRV-07
Tests a 50 MB 3D object being rendered, textured, and moved with transparency.
(Higher Scores are Better)
http://www.gamepc.com/images/rev-xeonvsamp-VPdrv07.jpg


And the rest you can see here (http://www.gamepc.com/reviews/hardware_review.asp?review=xeonvsamp&page=1&mscssid=&tp=)

I spend more time a week in Photoshop, and CorelDraw, and Office than I do in a game. But thank god QuakeIII supports it. Delta Force Land Warrior supports it if you enable it through the console. It cost's too much to add the SMP support into games. Would you buy Max Payne for $100 just because it supports SMP? No. You wouldnt. And that's why its not there.

I'm really happy for you :)

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by nucro
I really happy for you :)

YOU UNAPPRECIATIVE UNPRODUCTIVE SOCIETAL SLUG! HOW COULD YOU EVER USE A COMPUTER FOR SOMETHING FUN FOR THAT IS A MORTAL SIN!!!:p :p :p :D

Max Payne rocks! It lets me appreciate my ocing hobby even further!!!

[Kingslayer]

Nucro, I'm not crying, I'm not whining, I'm not acting childish. I'm not saying that dual CPU's are the only thing to produce brute power. I posted that because I am proud of my overclock and the scores.
I'm sorry you misjudged the way my text was displayed on your screens and jumped to assume that I was acting childish.

I'm sorry if you took my games are $50 pieces of crap software the wrong way. Although games are what have brought computer technology to what it is today so quickly, they are still the worst written programs in the world today. Yet next to the OS are the most installed genre of programs.

I love to play games. I have been a hardcore gamer for years. What I am saying is that there is always someone that says "Most games don't support SMP", like that is all that your allowed to run on computers now a days. This narrow mindset (no i'm not saying the guy that said that is narrow minded either) is what has left SMP out on the fringe and not readily supported.

I'm not here to brag or flaunt my machine. But you have to admit, that IS power. And so is the score from that SINGLE AMD 1.8! That is impressive. I made the fainting and ambulance remarks in jest. (One thing I hate about forums is that people cant get your body language and speech attitude to get your message as it is sent) Sarcasm. It's so easily missed here.....

And funnyperson1, you're right it's too bad games dont support SMP. Can you imagine how sweet games could run if they did? But then again, could you imagine how good some peoples 3DMark20001 scores would be if it supported SMP also.

[Malodorous]

My dual CPU outperform any single CPU there is out there.
In Sandra, to compare my dual PIII I get about 300 over the 2.0 or the AMD 1.8.
SO yes there is great power in dual CPU if done right on the right board. As of now brute power there is no singel cpu system to outperform mine, but in running programs and games yes a single CPU will outperform me, because games dont' use the dual CPU. But, thanks guys at ID for making the QUake 3 engine.

[Malodorous]

What version of Sandra are you running to get the blue graphs?
What other Benchmarks are there other than sandra?

[Dark Illusion]

Originally posted by Kingslayer
And funnyperson1, you're right it's too bad games dont support SMP. Can you imagine how sweet games could run if they did? But then again, could you imagine how good some peoples 3DMark20001 scores would be if it supported SMP also.

I dunno. Evn quake does worst w/ SMP on at higher res. Mayb if they wrote it correctly.

[Kingslayer]

Yes, writing it, and implementing it properly are two different things.

I've never run QuakeIII on anything but my dually, I'll have to pull one CPU off and change the kernel to see if there is a difference sometime.

I believe it IS making a difference. I just haven't confirmed it. With everything maxed out on QuakeIII I get above 130 FPS. This Radeon is good, but it aint THAT good.

But I am glad that he put those little blue graphs up. Notice the charts that actually show gains going from one CPU to Dual. Look at the 1.7 P4 and the AMD SMP. Compare the gains. See if you get to the conclusion that I got 3 months ago.

Athlon SMP still sucks.

[Dark Illusion]

I think I'll take your word for it rather than a review site. One step closer to being "real world" anyhow. Tell me you get more consistant framerates and don't drop all of a sudden when everyone is throwing rockets in a huge room=)

I wish I had the time to test it myself but the SBLive didn't like me at the time and kept crashing. By the time I got a new soundcard I lost Q3a somewhere in my house. Oh well.

How people tolerate AMD in duals is beyond me. Given not everyone uses watercooling or better..but those fans are loud! Mayb I'm just spoiled by my watercooled rig.

I consider duals godsend for programs that can use it. Those that don't, well you still could set affinity and benefit. The only drawback is probably SMP support in drivers. Sometimes I get a real hassle from it. GTXP drivers early on, (I hear it's fine now), you had to have media player running at the same time for some reason in order to get sound. o_0

[Kingslayer]

Yeah my FPS dont drop hardly at all when it gets messy in Quake.

To be honest the only program that I have ever had a problem with not being SMP compliant was PC-Cillin 2000, my anti-virus of choice. I used to have to remove a CPU to install it as the installer just didn't like dualies. But that has been fixed recently with a new installer and it works like a champ now.

[SP]

Originally posted by Kingslayer

But I am glad that he put those little blue graphs up. Notice the charts that actually show gains going from one CPU to Dual. Look at the 1.7 P4 and the AMD SMP. Compare the gains. See if you get to the conclusion that I got 3 months ago.



Yes, what you've noticed here is that there are indeed issues that affect the performance scaling of the dual AMD systems when going from one processor to 2. It has to do with the point-to-point bus they use. You can read a little bit about it here (http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?threadid=11681).

Of particular interest there is JEC252s post.

Yes, Intel processors scale nearly linearly to up to 32 processors. AMD processors do not scale as linearly, as they most communicate through messages (four bus ticks) or shared memory (even slower) rather than a shared bus (one bus tick) of the AGTL+ or GTL+ busses that the PIII and Xeons use. Definitely an improvement. Couple that to the Xeons having twice the bus speed of a 100 MHz bus Athlon MP, and there you go.