Question regarding dualcore CPU's

[hmaxundich]

is it better for a dualcore cpu, if both cores are regulary used ?.
eg, does the lifespawn of the one core decrease if its not regulary used ?

is the second core only used when the first core has too much load, or
is a "low load" also balanced between both cores ?

 

[Bobthelost]

Balanced for the most part.

You'll find you have one "strong" and one "weak" core, my Core 0 is stable at 2.7Ghz, but Core 1 is only good at 2.6 at most, when my CPU dies it will almost certainly be due to core 1 crapping out on me.

But worrying about the load and wearing out the CPU is a waste of time, it's a very insignificant factor when compared to all the other ways the chip could die.

 

[stevty2889]

It won't decrease the life if one of the cores isn't regularly used, but if it's not what you are doing probably doesn't require a dual core in the first place. Windows seems to balance the load somewhat, and setting affinity, you can tell a program to run on a specific core. But if you aren't running SMP aware applications, or doing CPU intensive multitasking, you probably don't need a dual core.

 

[Markbnj]

Load is entirely up to the thread scheduler in the operating system. Windows XP is pretty good at it, and will use both cores in a fairly balanced manner as long as one thread isn't doing the lion's share of the work.

 

[Rubycon]

Will XP Pro see all four cores on a dual - dual core computer?

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Balanced for the most part.

You'll find you have one "strong" and one "weak" core, my Core 0 is stable at 2.7Ghz, but Core 1 is only good at 2.6 at most, when my CPU dies it will almost certainly be due to core 1 crapping out on me.

But worrying about the load and wearing out the CPU is a waste of time, it's a very insignificant factor when compared to all the other ways the chip could die.

I feel bad for you but I have a sadder core story. My core 0 dies at 2700 while my core 1 runs fine and dandy at 2900 Whimpers and cries WHY WHY Silicon Gods WHY! :laugh:

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Originally posted by: C6FT7
Will XP Pro see all four cores on a dual - dual core computer?

Yes, XP Pro is licensed by socket not by core so having a two 275 Opterons will work in XP Pro. It would be neat to see two hyperthreaded aware dualcore Intel chips in a workstation for a total of eight cores showing up in task manager though.