Will Windows 2000 Pro make full use of a dual core processor?

[bupkus]

Will Windows 2000 Pro make full use of a dual core processor?

I'm building an economy pc and I can get a dual core or a single core cpu. I just don't know how well Windows 2000 Pro will use the extra core.

 

[InlineFive]

I believe it does support dual cores but keep in mind that newer OS' will use the cores more efficiently.

 

[Nothinman]

There's no reason to buy a single core machine anymore, NT has been SMP aware since it's inception so it'll be fine. I'm sure the fact that XP is newer would allow it to make slightly better scheduling decisions but the difference will be minimal in all but the most CPU-bound workloads.

 

[greylica]

I saw it OK in a Dell 2900 machine with 8 cores, 4GB and no problem at all. ( altough it only recognizes 3,66 GB of RAM )

 

[Nothinman]

( altough it only recognizes 3,66 GB of RAM )

That's because you used Win2K Pro or didn't enable the memory hole.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: greylica
I saw it OK in a Dell 2900 machine with 8 cores, 4GB and no problem at all. ( altough it only recognizes 3,66 GB of RAM )

8 cores, or something with multiple procs/cores/HT?

I think 2kPro supports 2 sockets (same with XP Pro). So a dual proc, Dual core, HT machine would show 8 procs, and be supported in XP Pro and 2kPro. A quad proc/dual core non HT machine would only show 4 procs.

I could be wrong, but I thought that was the way they were set up, more then 2 sockets required a server class OS

 

[Nothinman]

Well it'll work, it just won't be able to use any more than 2 sockets.

 

[Mark R]

Yes. Win2k supports multi-cores, but with an important caveat.

The catch is that it doesn't understand more than one core per socket. So Win2k pro, which is limited to '2 sockets' is actually limited to '2 cores' as well. Win2k will see both cores and it will use them - but it will treat them, for licencing purposes, as totally seperate CPUs.

In XP and Vista, the OSs do recognise the difference between hyperthreaded-virtual cores, dual/quad cores and sockets. And MS have said that these newer OSs are limited on a 'socket' basis, not on a core/virtual core basis.

There is a problem with quad-cores and hyperthreaded-dual-cores. These CPUs show as 4 cores. But because 2k treats each core as a seperate CPU, 2k pro will only use the first 2 cores it sees. (By extension 2k server will make full use of a quad core).