How do I know if the SSE on my athlon xp works?

[Reap]

Hello!

I got a Athlon xp 1800+ and when I looked under the "tweaks" in WCPUID you can Enable SSE???
Don't the processor use the SSE by default?
If not do I loss any performance by using it?

Thanks!

Reaperman

 

[Rand]

Does the BIOS recognize your processor as an AthlonXP properly?
Does CPUID recognize that your processor has SSE cabailities?

If yes to both, then it will utilize SSE when possible.

 

[yodayoda]

well, that is not necessarily it. a good example is the windows media player mpeg codec--it does not look at the SSE tag in when deciding whether or not to use the SSE instructions. it actually uses the CPU id itself and looked for "pentium iii" or "pentium 4." that's just one of the probably hundreds of *ntel planted bugs in software all over your computer.

 

[Rand]

<< well, that is not necessarily it. a good example is the windows media player mpeg codec--it does not look at the SSE tag in when deciding whether or not to use the SSE instructions. it actually uses the CPU id itself and looked for "pentium iii" or "pentium 4." that's just one of the probably hundreds of *ntel planted bugs in software all over your computer. >>



That would fall under the "if possible" clause. In such a situation a described above it simply wouldt be possible due to mis-coded software.
As a small correction Windows Media Player does not look for PIII or P4, it looks for the "Genuine Intel" signature and if it's there it then runs a routine check for the SSE bit.

 

[Reap]

Rand:

Yes my BIOS recognize my processor.
And CPUID says that I have SSE support.
So the "tweak" thing in CPUID is just BS?

Reaperman

 

[Rand]

<< Rand:

Yes my BIOS recognize my processor.
And CPUID says that I have SSE support.
So the "tweak" thing in CPUID is just BS?

Reaperman >>



Then it's enabled and will utilize SSE when possible.
The "tweak" thing your referring to in WCPUID doesnt really allow you to enable/disable SSE at all.