Dual Core Athlong question

[Digital Photography Now]

Is there a way to check that a dual core installation running Windows XP Pro
is operating properly.

I upgraded to an Athlon 64 X2 3800, with four matching 512MB DDR modules
from an Athlon XP 3000+ with 1GB DDR RAM and the difference in performance
isn't that obvious it has to be said.

What improvements should I be looking out for? I do run Photoshop CS2 (which
is multi-processor compatible) a lot.

IB

 

[Mike T.]

Is there a way to check that a dual core installation running Windows XP
Pro is operating properly.

I upgraded to an Athlon 64 X2 3800, with four matching 512MB DDR modules
from an Athlon XP 3000+ with 1GB DDR RAM and the difference in performance
isn't that obvious it has to be said.

What improvements should I be looking out for?

Nothing, really. 1GB of RAM is the sweet spot. Adding more won't improve
performance on WinXP. It wasn't a bad idea to up to 2GB though, as you'll
need it for Vista.

Your processor is a little faster. HOWEVER, CPU speed is just a small part
of overall system speed, so you probably wouldn't notice a speed increase
just by bumping up from 3000+ to a X2 3800+. Most of your apps. aren't
going to use the 2nd processor. Also, I suspect you have crippled the new
64-bit processor with 32-bit software. So now it is running in emulation
mode, effectively killing any speed increase you might have seen otherwise.

You should be happy if your new system is about as fast as the old one. No
need to check it. I suspect it's working properly. -Dave

 

[Paul]

Is there a way to check that a dual core installation running Windows XP Pro
is operating properly.

I upgraded to an Athlon 64 X2 3800, with four matching 512MB DDR modules
from an Athlon XP 3000+ with 1GB DDR RAM and the difference in performance
isn't that obvious it has to be said.

What improvements should I be looking out for? I do run Photoshop CS2 (which
is multi-processor compatible) a lot.

IB

You could have a browse through this thread. The first post in
this thread, was updated just recently, to account for an
additional step. Reading the very end of the
thread, would uncover any issues with the latest changes
to the procedure, if any.

"How to install the AMD X2 drivers, hotfix, the correct way."
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81429

(Latest comments on results)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81429&page=17

Using dual cores, is a lot like flying the space shuttle, and
not nearly as easy as your previous computer.

You should try opening the Task Manager (ctrl-alt-delete), and
bring up the performance charts. There should be two CPU
instances shown there. Now, do a filter operation in Photoshop.
Do both CPU graphs go to 100% ?

On your RAM config, you could have squeezed a little extra
performance by using a pair of 1GB sticks. They should use
64Mx8 chips (not the cheaper Ebay 128Mx4 sticks). (This
assumes we aren't talking about an AM2 board.) At least
on DDR based systems, you can use a faster Command Rate
setting of 1T, versus the more conservative 2T. Using low
CAS memory will also give you a little more performance.
And with the two 1GB sticks, you might also be able to set
the RAM to DDR400 (versus DDR333 that some motherboards
choose as a setting). The RAM voltage can be set to 2.7V,
to help make sure the memory is error free.

The AMD web page does have some other utilities, that claim
to be able to display info about your dual cores. I haven't
read anything about the use of those utilities.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html

There is another tool for monitoring here:

http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml

Paul

 

[Digital Photography Now]

Thanks very much Paul - very usefyl information!

IB