Multi Processors, Windows 2K and Multiple Apps

[JLFL]

Hello,


I trade stocks for a living and am currently running Windows 2K on a single 1.3 GHz AMD. I run 6 SGI monitors off of it and normally am running 5-10 concurrent applications and may have upwards of 30 windows open. I understand that programs written for dual processors would benefit the most from a 2 CPU setup.... but how about environments where you are running several applications at once.. should there be a noticeable difference with a dual CPU setup?

I believe a reviewer in Tom's Hardware mentioned "a dual board for AMD Athlon is only going to be attractive to enthusiasts and people who work with animation and rendering programs. In fact, anyone who regularly runs several applications in Windows 2000 or XP at the same time may also benefit from two processors. "

What do you guys think? Thanks and best regards--- John

 

[Wolfsraider]

JLFL
welcome to anandtech for your question i would point you to 2cpu.com to ask in the newbie to smp area as these guys know all the answers and it covers this area quite well
the link is Here

hope this helps

 

[sohcrates]

Well, you can assign certain services and what not to separate processors, so that would leave more CPU available for running multiple programs...I would certainly think that for what you do a dual CPU setup would be quite handy...

 

[JLFL]

Thanks for the replies... the help is greatly appreciated. --- John

 

[joohang]

SMP is definitely the way to go for multitasking.

I used to have a dual Celeron setup and loved it to death. I plan to get a dual Duron or Athlon MP as soon as I get enough bucks.

 

[BreakApart]

For the usage you describe a dual system is the only way to go! lol... (sounds like a sales pitch)

Dual cpu systems really shine when you have multiple apps running together. When multi-tasking it is pretty easy to choke even a (single)high end AMD. A dual cpu system will rarely if ever have both cpu's at 100%, so there should always be a few free cycles open for you to continue working while the computer works on the last task you set it to, that's the real strength of a dual system.

As Wolfsraider mentioned check out 2cpu.com chances are ANY dual cpu questions you have has already been asked, just do a search in the forums.

Good Luck, keep us posted if you go dual.

 

[Gs400TRd]

For what you are doing, I would recommend the following:
dual high speed (p4s) cpu box, the best videocards with the most ram possible for 2-d apps (you could get 2 matrox cards one agp and one pci and run 4 monitors) and lots of system ram. good luck.

 

[anthrax]

Symetric Multi Processing, there is a single Q from processes......and each processor simple picks a job from the Q and executes it... Say you have series of processe
P1 , P2 ,.each process has .2 parts (P1a) and (P1b), (P2a) (P2b)....say it was Qed by the OS like the this
P1a,P1b,P2a,P2b .........In single processor system....the single CPU will do it as P1a,P1b,P2a,P2b ....taking 4 time units....
With SMP CPU1 will take Task P1a, CPU2 will sit idel because it cannot jump do P1b as it requires result from P1a....Therefore CPU 2 sits idel thru the whole time....

So you may ask why can't CPU jump the Q...and start P2a....well its simple...A CPU doesn't have the inteligeince to.....all it does it cruch the code.........
You may also ask why didn't the OS Q the processes as P1a,P2a,P1b,P2b..............What happens if the Process in the Happen to take differnt times.....CPU1 could have easily done P1a,P2a, before CPU2 could have started P1b.....
Also even if you have two processes...you still have one set of comming resources like Memory, I/O hardware....you will also have to have syncronization......
all these eat into the efficeny of SMP on code that was written to run on single processors.


SMP isn't going to be twice as fast unless you have programs which have been written specifically to take advantage......
Also it depends whether your Apps are I/O constrained or not...if they are, you won't see too much of a benifit...
you could be better off buying another PC to off load some of that work......

 

[BreakApart]

anthrax- you may want to read up on SMP, it's clear you don't know how it works.-(bold text)



<< With SMP CPU1 will take Task P1a, CPU2 will sit idel because it cannot jump do P1b as it requires result from P1a....Therefore CPU 2 sits idel thru the whole time....So you may ask why can't CPU jump the Q...and start P2a....well its simple...A CPU doesn't have the inteligeince to... >>


With an SMP enabled system and OS the kernel WILL offload P2a onto the 2nd "idle" CPU. So you effectively have (2) programs running at EXACTLY the same time. The REASON you don't get a double speed boost from dual cpu systems is the OVERHEAD. Regardless how many cpu's you have they still have to SHARE the system resources, memory bandwidth, storage devices, I/O, etc. Sure they finish the calculations twice as fast, but they get stopped sending in and out the next thread to run. This explains why a dual system when multi-tasking runs only 50% faster than a single cpu system instead of 100% faster, using the same speed CPUs.

Here are some links you should read up on:
SMP explained
MS multi-thread lesson

Couple of good parts of those linked articles"

"A multiprocessing operating system is one that can run on computer systems that contain more than one processor. Windows NT is a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) system, meaning that it assumes that all of the processors are equal and that they all have access to the same physical memory. Therefore, Windows NT can run any thread on any available processor regardless of what process, user or Executive, owns the thread."


"As can be seen above, the performance increase for these common applications isn?t as great as might be expected, although a 20-25% increase is noticed for the multiprocessing- enabled (MP) programs. Of course, that was for the application running alone. Most users actually use several programs at once, making the difference at least somewhat greater, if not closer to a 50% increase during periods of very heavy usage."