Where can I get a single core CPU?

[SawSkij]

Hi (I'm new!

I (and a lot of others) have been running Minecraft servers on multicore CPUs since it was released. The problem is, the server everyone uses because it has mods (bukkit) instead of the Vanilla server does not and may never support multicore processing, it's written in Java by the way. I've been looking into Java Virtual Machines but I was wondering if anyone knows of an Intel/ AMD single core CPU at 3.5Ghz or above?

Thanks

 

[samuelspark]

I'm pretty sure that Minecraft supports 2 threads. There is no single core that's 3.5GHz... The only single core CPU I can find is a mere 2.8GHz for $40. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888

 

[mizzintel]

It is unwise to buy 1 core CPU. You can make Mincecraft run on 1 core if you want, but at one day may support more. Then you need upgrade. Price difference from 1 core and 2 core or 4 core is not much.

 

[WR2]

Hello SawSkij;

Are you looking to save money or do you want higher performance?
Should be no problem at all running a single thread application on a fast dual core CPU.

There are always background programs and processes running to support Windows. You don't want them running on a single core CPU along with your Minecraft server.

 

[Raiddinn]

I do feel for you in your situation, however I agree that it would be a mistake to seek out a single core CPU.

It is a great thing about today's CPUs that general computer maintenance tasks can be offloaded onto unused cores. This way you can have core #1 do the game and core #2 be assigned all kinds of tasks like virus checking and general things windows needs to do to get done like checking the message queue.

If you go back to 1 core, all those things have to be offloaded onto core #1 and they will decrease core #1's performance in the game.

Even if the game will only use 1 core there are still a whole lot of really good reasons not to go below 2 cores.

Turbo Boost and stuff allows shutting down unused cores to increase performance for the cores that are still in use, I would look into that.

 

[SawSkij]

Hello SawSkij;

Are you looking to save money or do you want higher performance?
Should be no problem at all running a single thread application on a fast dual core CPU.

There are always background programs and processes running to support Windows. You don't want them running on a single core CPU along with your Minecraft server.

Thanks for the replies

Yes, I agree I should've thought of all the other windows processes etc. Although I may well be running a small linux server distro for the server/ ubuntu so might need less CPU power then if I was running a Win server

I think it will probably be cheaper to get a dual core 3.5+ as they are in abundance - well more so then singles. FYI I'm in England so neweg won't do me any good here, thanks anyway!


Does anyone know if I can use a Java Virtual Machine to 'spread' the jar file across a cluster? (should I post this in a different area of the forum?)

 

[SawSkij]

*I want higher performance of in a single core without the cost of a quad core.
*newegg

Also what dual intel processor is best for value for money vs individual processor performance (I mean, a value for money dual core but that each 'core' works very well on it's own as well as with the other core)

Thank you.

 

[Rockdpm]

So why not just get a quad core anyways... If its not gonna use more than 2 cores... atleast the other two cores will be running the rest of your system when the 1 core handles Minecraft

 

[SawSkij]

Good point. What I'd like to know (and it may be a stupid question) is can I assign windows etc. to run on three cores and only Minecraft to run on the remaining one core? Or restrict a core from being used by particular processes?

Thanks.

 

[SawSkij]

Think I've found an answer to my question!

Setting processor affinity for a certain task or process
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/setting-processor-affinity-certain-task-or-process.html incase anyone else searches for it.

 

[13thmonkey]

Think I've found an answer to my question!

Setting processor affinity for a certain task or process
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/setting-processor-affinity-certain-task-or-process.html incase anyone else searches for it.

Leave windows to do affinity management, its good at it. Threads that can't be parallelised will be stuck on one core, the other cores will then be used for other threads from other programs. Doing it yourself is asking for trouble.

 

[SawSkij]

Leave windows to do affinity management, its good at it. Threads that can't be parallelised will be stuck on one core, the other cores will then be used for other threads from other programs. Doing it yourself is asking for trouble.

Thanks, so what program(s) is there to accomplish this in Windows?

 

[WR2]

As 13thmonkey mentioned - Windows 7 does that for you.

 

[SawSkij]

Right. But what if I want to specify which cores run each program/ process?

Can I do this? & is is safe in therms of overheating/overtaxing (I don't care if it's not "recommended" by Microsoft)

 

[13thmonkey]

its safe, its no better performance than letting windows do it. For instance there might be some threads that can be parallelised for better performance, forcing the app to core 0 would prevent that from happening.

 

[zhihao50]

you can set which core each program is run in, its in task manager >>processes >>right click on the process and set affinity. Its a hassle to get it every time you reboot (there is one was of getting around it which you already discovered).

essentially its just windows doing its own work with a little guidence from you. What wr2 is getting to is that windows is already optimised for that so it will do that automaticly anyway so there is really no need to tell it which core each program should run.

 

[WR2]

No reason you can't experiment and test it out.
I just doubt you'll find any extra performance for your server by doing it.

 

[Crimsonshadow]

Newegg might have a single core processor, however I don't think it will clock that high

 

[username-taken]

http://www.xpcpro.com/processors-en/ If you take a look there, all the cpus coming out are 2 cores and up.
Seriously though, all you have to do is use task manager. Then just right click on the executable and choose which core you want to use.
You won't feel any change. I do it with maya when i'm rendering heavy scenes so that i can do other stuff.

 

[SawSkij]

you can set which core each program is run in, its in task manager >>processes >>right click on the process and set affinity. Its a hassle to get it every time you reboot (there is one was of getting around it which you already discovered).

essentially its just windows doing its own work with a little guidence from you. What wr2 is getting to is that windows is already optimised for that so it will do that automaticly anyway so there is really no need to tell it which core each program should run.

Is there a program for windows which will set affinities automatically on startup?

 

[13thmonkey]

I still don't get why you would want to.

 

[gamerk316]

Is there a program for windows which will set affinities automatically on startup?

I know some exist that set affinity at program launch; nothing a google search couldn't find.

That being said, barring some 10+ year old program that REALLY doesn't like multi-core CPUs [A handful exist], there is no reason to mess with processor affinity.

 

[SawSkij]

I still don't get why you would want to.

Because I want an entire core to run Minecraft (bukkit server) rather then it being shared with the other windows and other apps

I know some exist that set affinity at program launch; nothing a google search couldn't find.

That being said, barring some 10+ year old program that REALLY doesn't like multi-core CPUs [A handful exist], there is no reason to mess with processor affinity.

Thank, I'm going to try it anyway and see if I can get more from bukkit using just the single core.

(P.S. just going to post a thread on XP giving me the error "this action is only valid for products that are currently installed" - if anyone know anything about this I would appreciate your help!)

 

[13thmonkey]

Because I want an entire core to run Minecraft (bukkit server) rather then it being shared with the other windows and other apps

but what do you hope to gain from that vs a normal run?

 

[InvalidError]

Because I want an entire core to run Minecraft (bukkit server) rather then it being shared with the other windows and other apps

While you can restrict applications to a single core, I do not think there is any way to exclude other applications from getting scheduled on it other than disabling the core altogether.

As others have said, it is unlikely that you will gain anything from dedicating a core exclusively to a single application. Even "single-threaded" applications usually have multiple threads from framework constructs, support libraries and DLLs. Those "automatic" threads may not do much work but it still lets largely single-threaded apps benefit a little from multi-threading.