Does anyone know if Windows 7 Requires SSE?

[Coolone]

Title says it all. I have a fairly fast server, but there's a bug in it that makes it incapable of SSE. Does anyone know if Windows 7 would still work on it?

Thanks

 

[Gamingphreek]

I don't mean this to come off as rude, but nothing about your questions makes any sense.

SSEx is an extension to the x86 instruction set (Also includes 128bit vector registers on chip). There is no bug that makes them "incapable" of working.

No SIMD instruction is ever required (Assuming a competent programmer). Applications that traditionally deal a lot with vectorization will be substantially slower if it is disabled.

-Kevin

 

[Coolone]

The "bug" is a problem with the motherboard not recognizing the SSE capability of the processor (athlon 2600). So programs that need SSE like Company of heroes and Recent source games for example simply won't work because of lack of SSE. My question simply was if Windows 7 required hardware that could process SSE instructions.

If you're interested in looking up the bug, it's on the ECS K7S5A motherboard. An app was released to try and fix the problem, but it's highly unstable.

 

[SRoode]

If it is that important to you, and you really need it, I would spend about $100 to buy a new MB and CPU that would be so much more up to date than a 7 year old CPU. The Athlon 2600 is ancient. Are you sure it's SSE instructions and not SSE2? The Athlon 2600 is not capable of SSE2.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...ay/athlon-xp-2600.html

 

[Coolone]

Let's for the moment PRETEND that I know what I'm talking about, and purely for the sake of argument, I simply wanted to know if Windows 7 required SSE. I'm sure this simple question isn't beyond anyone who actually takes the time to respond to this thread.

 

[SRoode]

You are way too smart for me. I can't help you, but I tried.

 

[Nohr]

Apparently Windows 7 runs on a Pentium II 266MHz which does not support SSE instructions. It should work just fine on your system.