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Programs that actually use all 4 cores of a quad core chip... please contribute!

G

graysky

Senior member
Here is a short list of programs that actually use all 4 cores of a quad core chip. If you know of others, please post them to this thread, and I'll update it.

THE LIST:
Real-World Applications
3D Studio MAX using Mental Ray Renderer (>99 % of 4 cores)
Adobe Premiere Elements v3.0.2 )52-85 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
AutoGK v2.40 (30-53 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
Cinema 4d Rendering (>99 % of 4 cores)
Dr. DivX v2.0.0 (47-65 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
DVDShrink v3.2 (~90 % of 4 cores)
Lightwave 3D (>99 % of 4 cores)
Nero Suite v7.x (~90 % of 4 cores)
Noise Ninja v2.13 (~80 % of 4 cores when doing the noise reduction on an image)
Sony Vegas 7.0e (83-100 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
TMPG XPress v 4.2 (65-100 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
Winrar v3.70 (~85-90 % of 4 cores on benchmark; ~75% in practice)
x264 v0.55.663 (>99 % of 4 cores when doing the 2nd pass of a 2 pass encode)


Benchmark/Distributed Computing Applications
Most BOINC Clients (> 99 % of 4 cores)
Folding@Home SMP client (>99 % of 4 cores)
Muon1 DPAD (~85 % of 4 cores)
OCCT (>99 % of 4 cores)
Prime95 v25.3 (>99 % of 4 cores)
wprime v1.50 (>99 % of 4 cores)

Games
none that have been confirmed yet

If you'd like to contribute an application or game, please post the following:

1) Program name
2) URL to homepage of the program
3) The percentage as shown in the Windows task manager of the CPU's that are getting used @ peak or thereabouts along with a screen-shot of the task manager.

Here is an example screen-shot of my task manager during the Noise Ninja noise reduction.

Also, please limit the replies to quad chips only (yeah, I know this will limit the amount of replies, but this is after all what this thread is all about).

Thanks!

Note: I don't think this thread really belongs under the software section since it's specifically about software for quad core chips.
 
Folding@home SMP client..... And if you have other distributed computing going that only uses 2, or one per core, that still leaves 2 more for other work. ! each app at the least.. I can use as many cores as they make.
 
I do have Supreme Commander. Haven't gotten a chance to install it but I guess I gotta install it and see how it works later tonight. I doubt, though, that it will show a nicely evened-out usage graph.
 
All, thanks for the replies... my hope was to keep the list kind of semi-quantitative. If you offer up an app or game, please make sure that it's tested on your quad machine and you report the CPU usage. As you can see in my short list, Noise Ninja does use all 4 cores, but only 80 %.

Thanks!
 
Do you know which part of CS3 (plugins, etc.) actually use all 4 cores? I haven't seen it use but 20-30 % of my system.
 
I use StaxRip to do avi/mpeg/DVD to xvid conversions, it does use both of my cores so I think it's also a possible program that's threaded to use all available cores you got. It actually max everything out, I mean 90+% on both cores at all times! Like a stress test. ortho etc.

EDIT: upon some research it seems the new xvid is the one responsible for multithreading functions. It threads out to multiple cores when dual/quad is detected. On my machine, one core is always 100% or near other one is close to 95%. So I'd say that's pretty good for a piece of software to use everything that's there, most even after threading only get up to like 50-60% on each core.
 
Originally posted by: graysky
All, thanks for the replies... my hope was to keep the list kind of semi-quantitative. If you offer up an app or game, please make sure that it's tested on your quad machine and you report the CPU usage. As you can see in my short list, Noise Ninja does use all 4 cores, but only 80 %.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

There's no need to provide CPU usage charts... Supreme Commander uses 4 cores.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

 
The whole Nero 7 video encoding suite. Nero Recode and Nero Vision are both multithreaded in both MPEG2 encoding as well as Nero Digital (both MPEG4 and AVC). I am not sure about the audio encoding, but I can check tonight.

edit
cpu usage is around 80-90% during the actual encode. I will check tonight for cpu usage during the first pass in a 2-pass encode.
 
DPAD (a Distributing computing project) will use all 4 cores automatically ,though annoyingly its more efficient if you have 4 clients[ update] with the new client that is no longer the case.
No screenshots I'm afraid as I don't have a quad .......yet😉 ,but if you really want one I might be able to get one from a quad user in the DPAD forums ,LMK
 
Originally posted by: Extelleron
Originally posted by: graysky
All, thanks for the replies... my hope was to keep the list kind of semi-quantitative. If you offer up an app or game, please make sure that it's tested on your quad machine and you report the CPU usage. As you can see in my short list, Noise Ninja does use all 4 cores, but only 80 %.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

There's no need to provide CPU usage charts... Supreme Commander uses 4 cores.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
Click to expand...

I also say Supreme Commander should be on the list!
 
Acronis True Image uses all 4 cores on my quad, utilization goes quite high (>95%) when I increase the compression ratio for the backups.

It is actually quite nice to have quad-core usage on this as when I am making backups I don't like to have anything else open and doing anything on my computer, so backup time = total loss of access to computer. So anything that can make a 1hr backup job become 15min, thereby giving me back 45min of my computer access for doing other stuff (even if single-thread stuff) is well worth the cost of a quad for me.
 
Originally posted by: graysky
If you offer up an app or game, please make sure that it's tested on your quad machine and you report the CPU usage.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't that depend entirely on your CPU speed? A Quad at 2.4GHz vs. 3.6GHz will have different CPU usage charts for the same program.
 
DPAD will max out any CPU regardless of speed or number of cores ,though this is only true if 1 client is run for each core.Other DC projects will automatically max out any CPU.

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Make!

😀
Click to expand...
Man! ,that kind of English gives me a headache!😛😉

 
3D Studio Max
Lightwave 8.5

autodesk.com used to have pretty generous full-function downloads of Max,
30 days free.

Softimage XSI (another animation tool) probably.
 
Originally posted by: graysky
@jpeyton: I don't think so. For example, an app that will saturate a CPU like prime95 will do so @ any clock speed. I just repeated the same noise ninja test @ 9x266 and found the same result more or less.
Click to expand...

Jpeyton's statement is correct for any application which is not ridiculously CPU limited, as in applications which are memory bandwidth (FSB, etc) limited.

Graysky's statement is correct for any application which is ridiculously CPU limited, as in applications which could care less whether you double or halve the memory bandwidth in a system.

If you talk to anyone who handles big iron you'll realize there is a whole industry of experts who have discussed this stuff since the 1950's.

Google Amdahl's law, or lookup Beowulf clusters and read thru the many forums dedicated to such topics. No need to so painfully re-invent the wheel in an AT thread.
 
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