Assigning Processors...

[Waffle]

...ok as you probably know, Windows XP, for some reason detects the Prescott Chip as 2 separate processors. In device manager, it says that there are 2 2.8ghz processors.

I read somewhere, in a customer review at ebuyer that this was good because you can assign a processor for differnet programs - say 0 for photoshop, 1 for everything else.

Is that true, if so how and is it worth doing?

Thanks

 

[Addis]

maybe because of the HT it detects it as two separate ones. If you could assign the cpus for different apps then that would be really useful. i'd use one cpy for anti-virus constantly running.

 

[Big B]

That's correct. The C & E P4 chips have HyperThreading. There is a physical CPU that houses a 2nd logical CPU in these CPU's, but they do require a motherboard that supports them.

You could *cough*Fold*cough* with that extra available grunt power you have too.

I do remember hearing about some means of doing what you're intrested in over at 2CPU's forums, but I don't have a link off hand. The reason I say that is because the HyperThreading CPU's kinda make your system like a dual processor rig with only one CPU.

 

[Anti-Trend]

Yeah, hyper-threading enables two logical CPUs to co-exist in one CPU. However, they still share one set of resources, so this only actually boosts performance by about 10%, unlike the 100+% performance gain of a real multi-processor SMP setup. Still, a "free" 10% performance gain. Where's the downside? :good: