Dual CPU Questions.

C

Carnival Forces

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 9, 2003
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first off, they're "MP" for multi-processor motherboards, right? and they can only have 2 CPUs

do MP systems have twice as much performance (CPU-wise) compared to an identical ('cept for CPU and mobo of course) single CPU setup?

what's the advantage of having an MP system?

how do you OC them? :confused: :D

thanks in advance.
 
ahh i got moved! to a forum i've never seen before! *wanders off to look around this new forum*
 
The nice thing about using an operating system as easy to navigate as Windows 2000 or Windows XP is its pleasant little nuances. Under XP or 2000 you can set affinities when running dual processors. These affinities allow you to delegate which CPU will end up performing which tasks. For example, if you play a lot of Warcraft III and want to allot the whole CPU 2's processing power to that application you can while CPU 1 chugs away on normal OS and hardware functions.

Having an SMP-enabled OS is one thing; however, keep in mind the daily applications that you use on your PC when considering your need for making your next computer a dual processor one. The cold hard truth of the matter is that most applications these days are not multithreaded, meaning that they are coded and written to address only one processor. While your operating system can delegate tasks to multiple CPU's your programs most likely will not be smart enough to perform this feat.

As of right now there is only one game out that supports multithreading and that is Quake III Arena (though some claim that it only supports SMP in the most rudimentary of forms with minimal performance gains). The person who will most benefit from a dual processor computer (the truth hurts all you geeky gamer types) is the person who uses more professional grade software. Adobes fine suite of web, image, vector and video editing software is all multithreaded and because of this each Adobe application within itself can take advantage of both CPU's at the same time. Other software to support SMP are applications like CAD and other high-end business and production oriented software.

Having said this it is easy to come to the conclusion that if you are looking for the fastest gaming PC on the block then a dual processor machine possibly isn't your best method of attack. That is not to say that dual processor machines suck for gaming. Saying that would be blasphemous. What you have to consider when building any new computer is first off, what need is the computer to fill and what sort of tasks will the user be doing day in and day out.
Click to expand...

http://www.themodfathers.jolt.co.uk/?page=&action=show&id=6782

Read that article. It was posted on the front of HardOCP today.
 
Yes, they're MP for multi-processor. And they are made for multi-processing, but you can usually also use them with just one CPU, in addition to having 2 cpu's installed in the motherboard.

They don't have twice as much performance as a single CPU system. For doing a single task, only one CPU is used. The only advantage 2 cpu's has is that it can do two tasks at once without slowing down. Example, playing Battlefield 1942 will not be faster with 2 cpu's, but you'll be able to play Battlefield 1942 and burn a CD at the same time with no performance hit.

Most dual CPU systems don't overclock very well, but some people have been having great luck with dual Xeon's.

Check out the "Do Xeons/Opterons OC well?" forum at http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=705047
 
MP can only run in dual configuration if you are talking about AMD cpus, dont see that you specified in your post. on the intel side of the house if they are Xeon MP's they can run in quad and 8way 16 32 64 way (note only for p4 xeons) the p2 and p3 xeons (slot 2) are not diffentied from dp and mp (dp for dual and mp for multi) and can run in quads ect. ect. with out any problems. a good way to get in to SMP world for cheap is to get a Dual AMD setup, www.2cpu.com has more info on how to do this (and an entier forum just about dedicated to the dual world)
 
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