Dual CPU Question :confused;

[EFNGuy]

I have a Dell Precision 210 Workstation. Granted, this is an older machine... I have a question regarding CPU's.

This board has MP capability. 2 Slot 1 PIIIs.

Would,

(2) PIII 500Mhz 512k/Cache

be faster than

(2) PIII 700Mhz 256k/Cache?

I'm not too familiar with the caching part - so hopefully someone here could point me in the right direction. What would benefit most from the increaased cache? Just the OS - or all the applications?

Thanks!

 

[nightowl]

In your case the 2 P3 700s will be faster than the 2 P3 500s because the cache on the 700s runs at the full core speed. In the case of the P3 500s that you mentioned, the cache runs at half the core speed. This difference between the 2 will make the P3 700 faster than the P3 500, even though it has more cache.

In general though, 2 CPUs that are the same in every factor except for the cache size, the CPU with the larger cache will be faster.

 

[Scarpozzi]

To be honest, I think the 700s will always smoke the 500s. Your OS and the applications themselves will have a lot to do with by how much and if it really makes a difference.

On a side note: WinNT/2000 is lucky to be able to use 40%-50% of the second processor's total output so I would recommend running Linux if possible to fully utilize the second processor unless you're running this for some particular application.

 

[Sunner]

It doesn't depend on the OS, as much as it does on the particular application.

At least not until you get up to relatively big configurations, like 8 CPU's and more, where the truely scalable OS's will vastly outperform the likes of Windows and Linux.

 

[EFNGuy]

Thanks Guys. I appreciate the feedback - that's why I LOVE AnandTech... Fast replies..

The box is running WIN2K. Basically, it was an extra box I had so I figure I'd use it for gaming, general stuff. The Dual CPU's probably wont make to much of a difference for gaming, but I figure what the hell...

Thanks for the feedback - I'll pop in the 2 700's.

 

[Nothinman]

It doesn't depend on the OS, as much as it does on the particular application.

Depends on whether it's one multithreaded application or many single threaded applications. The MT app's speed increase will be highly dependent on the app, but the multiple ST apps will depend on the OS because speed on context switches, app affinity, etc will affect them a lot.

At least not until you get up to relatively big configurations, like 8 CPU's and more, where the truely scalable OS's will vastly outperform the likes of Windows and Linux.

And conversely those 'truely scalable' OSes run like sh!t on single CPU boxes because of all the unnecessary locking. Of course Linux is moving towards a more fine grained locking mechanism, but since you compile the kernel specifically for UP or SMP boxes the locks will be optmized out in UP configurations and it shouldn't cause a noticable slowdown.

 

[Scootin159]

the ones with the 256k of cache are the 'coppermine' cores, versus the ones with the 512k of cache (older core, forget the name). @ the same clock speed the coppermines will be faster (due to the cache running @ full clock speed, even though there is 1/2 the cache). When you throw in the 200Mhz difference, the 700's would be much faster. As far as this being an older machine, dual 700's should be fast enough for 99% of the software out there.