Multi-core/SMP question

[AJLynn]

I'm probably getting a new workstation in the office soon, and all this talk of multi-core CPUs has got me pretty interested. A couple questions that maybe somebody here can answer.

 

The new AMD chips are expected soon, and I know that a lot of the previous AMD chips have dual CPU motherboard options. (AFAIK current Intel options don't do this, and the word on the street seems to be that the AMD chips will go up to at least 3800+ while the Intel chips are 2.8-3.2 GHz.) Will the new CPUs work with the dual CPU motherboards, so that a workstation could have 4 CPUs?

 

And if you can get 4 cores in a midrange workstation, and I know that 3DS Max can take advantage of multiple cores (though I've never tried it myself), how much control do you have over how many cores Max uses for rendering? EG, if I set up a render and want to work on an Illustrator graphic while it renders, and Illustrator only uses one CPU, can I tell Max to use 3 CPUs and Illustrator to use the other one, so I have a whole Athlon64/Opteron/whatever for what I'm doing on the side? That would be pretty darn cool.

[ihabkal]

except that you will be using th esame hard disk, and that until we get widows 64 bits you can only use 2GB of ram for all these operations.

what's cool though is that BRAZIL WILL USE THE 4 CPUS TO RENDER...don't you hate the caps button?

[abicalho]

Running 32 Bit applications on Windows XP 64 will give them 4GB of memory space, not 2.

 

MAX is multithreaded, and will use all CPUs available. I can see my 4 CPUs processing in my Hyperthreaded Dual system - Radiosity and mental ray will make the best use of them.

 

As for controlling them, you can do that exactly like you do in Windows: using task manager. The Set Affinity option allows you to choose which processor a given process can use.

 

I can't help you on the hardware compatibility side. The main concern you need to have is that WinXP Pro only supports 2 physical CPUs. If you have a Dual Dual-core, you have 4 physical CPUs, so I do not know how will Windows will allow you to use them.

[vizwhiz]

Alex

 

what OS will support dual Dual-Core cpu's, any TimeLine on This????

i am seriously Thinking about waiting till the 64 bit OS can do all of This

 

if NOT the new Intel D version would This make 4x physical cpus and

would These Then be all Hyper-Threaded capable = 8 virtual cpu's ??

 

any Information would be greatly appreciated!!

 

The longer i wait The more resources i will eventually be able to buy

 

Thanks

 

Randy

[AJLynn]

WRT the 64-bit Windows and address space issue - I do have the Win64 beta, wouldn't want to use a beta in an office setting though. Anyway, you can have 4GB in WinXP and that's really enough for now. Not sure where I'd find a motherboard that takes more than 4 anyway.

 

I didn't know about the affinity setting, I'll have to look at that. But if it works like it sounds like it should, that would be very useful.

 

Now, the 4 CPU Windows compatibility thing. Dual core Pentium EE has hyperthreading and pretends to be 4 CPUs, and the Tom's Harware Guide people seem to have it working - http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050405/pentium_d-03.html#2_cores_ht_4_logical_cpus

Of course, that's really only 2 cores, but it looks like Windows is already handling it. Should look the same to Windows if it can be 4 real AMD cores... I'd hope

 

Anyway, this might all be a moot point - talked to our IT guy today and he has a dual AMD with a Quadro card he's overhauling that I can probably take.

 

Andy

[abicalho]

Andy,

 

Windows XP Pro can see 2 full CPUs and 2 Virtual (HT). That's what I have in the office today.

 

We also have a Quad AMD 64 (not 2 Dual Core) and that required us to run XP Server since Pro doesn't recognize 4 Full CPUs.

 

Microsoft says it will consider each Dual Core CPU one CPU, but if you use it in today's OS, it will think it's 2 CPUs, so I do not think today's XP Pro will handle 2 Dual Core CPUs (seen as 4 by the OS, 8 if HT). We may have to wait for a patch from MS to support it.

 

Hope I explained myself better now,

[AJLynn]

Thanks, that clears it up nicely. So I guess this is one of those Microsoft wanting more money issues - not that XP can't handle 4 CPUs, since it can if they're virtual, but that it won't because MS wants you to buy the more expensive version.