How will a Dual Opteron rig perform in gaming, 2x the performance?

[Richdog]

The reason im asking is because the dual-athlon set-ups gave barely an increase in gaming performance when compared to a single processor rig. Obviously the Opteron is a completely different architecture to the Athlon, so as i understand it does that mean adding a second opteron chip will give a a full 2x performance in all CPU activities, gaming or otherwise? If im completely wrong feel free to provide me with a correction, as i'm sure you all will! :beer:

 

[bjc112]

It won't allow 2x the performance unless the application is multi-threaded ( supports 2 cpus )

 

[Jeff7181]

But you could play UT2k3 while encoding divx, or crunching numbers with your choice of DC software. (SETI )

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
But you could play UT2k3 while encoding divx, or crunching numbers with your choice of DC software. (SETI )

Oh, very true... Wouldn't it be nice...

 

[TerryMathews]

The performance increase would be better v. a dual Athlon system as dual Opteron would have twice the memory bandwidth of single Opteron. However, a single-threaded app would only have access to memory bandwidth of the first processor + about 500MB/sec due to the fact that the second bank is only accessible to the first processor over the HT bus.

Long story short, dual Opteron would have ~15% more memory bandwidth in single-threaded apps.

 

[Richdog]

The Opteron memory bandwidth is already equal to a P4 3.2 Ghz at 2.0Ghz, so a dual-sys would be around 7000Mbps in Sandra? It seems to me that would kick a little bit of ass... is that right? :beer:

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: bjc112

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
But you could play UT2k3 while encoding divx, or crunching numbers with your choice of DC software. (SETI )

Oh, very true... Wouldn't it be nice...

hmmmmm, gaming while video encoding.... [looks at bank balance] pipedream for the time being

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: shady06
hmmmmm, gaming while video encoding.... [looks at bank balance] pipedream for the time being

Same here. But a man can dream...

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: Richdog
The Opteron memory bandwidth is already equal to a P4 3.2 Ghz at 2.0Ghz, so a dual-sys would be around 7000Mbps in Sandra? It seems to me that would kick a little bit of ass... is that right? :beer:

Correct IF you're running a multi-threaded app. One of the consequences of having the memory controller located on the processor is that you're limited by the FSB for cross-controller memory access.