Dual Processors

[Guest]

I have a few questions for you dual Proccesor owners out there, with visions of dual athlons dancing in my head and it not to far off now, i am weighing out the pro's and con's, and wondering if there are any cons at all to running dual processors. A friend of mine said that some software will not work or support dual processors. is this true and if so how can i find out what will and will not work with dual Processors. I am mainly going to be running 3d software which i know will work and love the setup but i am thinking more along the lines of will quake still run, will my cd burning software work?

one more small question for anyone to answer, is there any harm in using a 400w powersupply over a 300w, is there any way you can give your board to much power?

 

[Guest]

1. All applications and operating sistems will work. But some of them will not use second processor. For example, Win98 will not allow your applications use second processor. But NT+3D studio will use both processors.

2. 400w is good. "Too much power" -- that's funny.

 

[Guest]

this is just hearsay, but i heard somewhere that q3 actually supports dual processors. unusual for a game.

 

[rcf84]

WELL SMP PROCESSOR IS NEXT WAVE OR STEP FOR GAMERS. INTEL AND AMD KNOW THIS. WHAT WOULD YOU DO HAVE FASTEST PROCESSOR IN THE OR HAVE YOUR SYSTEM W/ TWO OF THE FASTEST PROCESSORS IN THE WORLD. THE .13 P4 AND THE ATHLON WILL BE GETTING IT BUT RIGHT KNOW THE P3 IS ALL.

-- takes one to now one --

 

[Guest]

A power supply with a higher watt rating does not supply the mobo with more power. You mobo draws a certain amount of power, this is not effected by the wattage rating of you power supply unless you power supply would give less than the mobo requires. A higher watt rating simply allows you to run more toys.

 

[Guest]

Right now SMP is not for gamers.

 

[Bandit]

Well, I really don't know a whole lot about dual processors. But I think the way it works is, even if a program doesn't utilize both processors on it's own, your OS will let various programs run on various processors. For example if you are running a dedicated UT server, it might only use the first processor. Then you run a dedicated tribes server, it will use the second processor, as specified by the OS. I am pretty sure this is how it works in most cases, making dual processors an ideal solution for servers running many different appications concurently.

 

[Guest]

Ive been running a sys with dual 266's since the processors were new, If you are only running Win98 or ME then its not worth it because these OS do not support 2 processors, Ive been running NT4 on mine and it runs really well, Rendered Kinetix in under 2 mins which was fast then.

 

[alphateam]

I've had a dual processor for years and have had no problems running any program. You will need NT, BeOS, Linux something that supports dual. the windows 9x will not support the second processor.

Personally I would NEVER get a singal processor system ever again. I always have a bunch of programs open. All doing differnt tasks, with hardly any slow down. I'll be burning a cd, while downloading something and playing Unreal all with no slow downs. So if you can afford it its way worth it.

 

[Guest]

Once you have the no-lag responsiveness of a dual, you'll never be happy with a single. Even if you're not running applications like 3D Studio which use the second processor, it's really nice when you're doing something like printing (plotting) something huge, or batch processing 1000 jpgs, or encoding mpegs... because your system is still very responsive even with one CPU pegged at 100%. I still have my first dual running, a dual PPro 200, and I like it much better than a friends AMD K6 400 which has much more "lag".

The only drawback to duals was that to use them, you previously had to have NT which at the start was difficult to get drivers for since everyone seemed to take an extra 6 months to release them after the 9x drivers were out (for things like burners, printers, sound cards, etc.). Also NT didn't support plug and play or USB. However, now that Windows 2000 supports duals, I don't think there is a single disadvantage since I don't know anyone who thinks ME is better than 2000 Pro.

Go for it!