Abit BP6 DUAL Socket370 release ata/66 ?"s

[camillo]

What is the proformance comparison of having 2 450mhz processors versus just 1 900mhz processor (as an example). Just curious if there is a notable difference from having 1 processor making it a valuable purchase. Thanks

[camillo]

Knock knock ....anyone home?

[skywalker[TSG]]

well first off when u have two ul have twice the power 450*2=900 900*2=1800mhz

[camillo]

I've been told that it does not work that way

[skywalker[TSG]]

well anyway its better than one cpu otherwise they wouldnt sell dual mobos

[LJE2]

Running dual processors is not the same as 1 processor of twice the speed, First off you need an operating system that will recognize and utilize multiple processors (Win 98 does not), then you need a program that can utilize multiple processors, (Graphics manipulation programs, 3D Graphics, CAD ect.) on most programs you would notice no difference.

[This message has been edited by LJE2 (edited 06-30-99).]

[Joel Kleppinger]

In addition to what LEJ2 said, even if you have programs that are multithreaded and can take advantage of multiple CPUs, the overhead of such operation is addded on as well, reducing to a certain extent the maximum performance.

This overhead is why it will always be faster to have a 900 Mhz CPU over 2 450 MHz CPUs. The reason we have multi-CPU motherboards is price/performance. There aren't a whole lot of 900 MHz CPUs out there, but there's a TON of 450 MHz CPUs. By adding the two CPUs together, we can get more performance from them, getting closer to 900 MHz power than we could have before.

Still, Give me a 900 MHz CPU. I'll get you 3 P3 450s in exchange.

[Dominus]

Better yet, one of those 1Ghz Slot-B ALPHA Processors.
mmmmmmmmm, (slobber, drool)

[Gordon]

From what I have read, the BeOS operating system is the best, with regards to utilizing muliti-processors. The operating system itself makes use of the multi-processors, as well as the software it supports, rather than only the software, with Windows NT. I'm not sure about Linux.

In theory, with multi-processors, the software distributes the load evenly amoung the processors, though not in reality. That may be the case of the way the software is written. Perhaps because it is written to run on both single and muti-processor systems. Hopefully, with Windows 2000 eventually becoming Microsoft's main operating system, a lot more software will be written to support multi-processors, especially games, and more efficiently.

[Zonker]

I've read a 30% increase in general processing performance.

The OS will take advantage (NT) by allowing you to run two programs at the same time, one on each processor, even if the programs don't support SMP (Symmetric Muti Processing)

An Example would be... Burning a CD and surfing or playing a game at the same time. Of course NT dosen't have very Good DirectX support, so most of the really remarkable games are not an option.