VN Boards Archive

[VN Boards Archive]

Welcome to the Vault Network forum archive.

This is not a complete archive, time didn't allot us the opportunity to properly backup the majority of the boards deemed "expendable". Most boards on this list have at least 20-40 pages archived (non-logged in pages, 15 topics per page).

Popular boards may have as many as 250 pages archived at 50 topics per page, while others deemed of historical signifigance may be archived in their entirety.

We may not agree with how the board shutdown was managed, but we've done what we could to preserve some of its history in lieu of that.

Please enjoy the archive.
~ Managers, Moderators, VIP's, and regular posters.

Author

Topic: Quad Core vs older Chips.

eatcarrotsnow Posts: ???? Registered: ???? Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 0 User ID: 0	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	Hi all, I was wondering if anyone had anyway to test the performance of decal and its apps against different kinds of chips. I happen to run three rigs right now, a quad core, 4 gigs of ram, 2 x Nvidia 8800gtx and a raptor drive. A FX-51 with 3 gigs of Ram and a Nvidia 6800GTX, reg sata drive A P4 2.2 with 1.5 gigs of ram and a Radeon 9800XT In running two instances of AC at the same time in the same dungeon, I've found that the quad-core doesn't perform as well as the older computers. I have it set up like this: one melee killing everything, one mage vulning, one mage buffing, one mage healing. I've split it up to two on each machine and have found the smoothest performance, better looting, less deaths, etc. when I use both standard single core machines. Even when I dedicate an entire chip to AC, setting instance one to core 3 and instance two to core 4, it still runs slower. I would think that the results should be opposite, but is there a reason why this is the case. I only ask because it is time to mothball a rig, so just wondered before I looked to replace it with another quad core machine. Thank you for any insight! -----signature-----
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YewWanSum Posts: 2,670 Registered: Jun 20, '01 Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 2,648 User ID: 177,128	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	I've had no issues quad-logging on my machine. I can run all 4 windows at 800x600 without overlap easily, even with all copies loading Decal. Whichever window receives the focus obviously has the highest framerates, but I havent needed to resort to using cpu affinity to make them all work together. Not only do these all run fine, but I can even do stuff like video transcoding in the background. Launching a 4-thread Super-PI or POV raytrace on high-priority will grind everything to halt, though. Asus Rampage Formula 8GB PC-8500 DDR2 3.2GH Q6600 (obviously OCd) NVIDIA 9800 GX2 @700 clock Twin Raptor X 150 in RAID 0 Vista 64 Enterprise 1920x1200 24" LCD -----signature----- Current developer of Mob Tracker (mobtracker.yewsplugins.com) Current developer of Rare Tracker(raretracker.yewsplugins.com) Current developer of Craft Bot(craftbot.yewsplugins.com) Email:yew@yewsplugins.com
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Maglett_of_FF Posts: 4,986 Registered: May 17, '02 Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 4,900 User ID: 680,348	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	I'd suspect that it's a quirk of your OS install or the fact that AC is a old non-multithreaded program. But Yew seems to blow that second idea out of the water, perhaps it's something else in the setup. -----signature----- Edits are for spelling :^) Trophy Compendium http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=90389010 /a Devil's Saint says, "what we teach our Children we become" June 3, 2008
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Virindi-Inquisitor Posts: 6,908 Registered: Nov 18, '01 Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 6,646 User ID: 511,923	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	Having fewer clients running on each core is definitely beneficial to me. However, there are other bottlenecks...the largest one being HD access speed when loading a new area (usually going through a portal). -----signature----- Virindi --- **Virindi Plugins FAQ** http://www.virindi.net/wiki/index.php/Virindi_Plugins_FAQ http://www.virindi.net - Virindi Tank, Follower, Integrator, Reporter, VCS5, XPHelper, Item Tool, HUDs, etc... Decal Core Dev - http://www.decaldev.com
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agnari Posts: 7,595 Registered: Oct 10, '00 Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 7,440 User ID: 48,760	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	i've got an allegiance friend that runs a quad core with 8gig of memory (unless he's added more in the last week???) and he typically will run 4 to 6 ACM in the EO. his troubles are mostly lag when he starts a bit torrents on another machine (but that's probably cable speed issues being maxed with all that traffic more then ac/decal). -----signature----- Ag Nar Portal Mule Master of the Loresraat Mastering the pixels of gamedom, 1 MMORPG at a time..
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eatcarrotsnow Posts: ???? Registered: ???? Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 0 User ID: 0	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	It's not an issue of the machine not being able to do it. I can run 8 instances of AC on the quad core and run decal with progs fine. All I'm saying, is that as far as efficiency goes, the older single-core machines do better for some reason. The older machines have not been reformatted, my quad core is a clean install. Even did it again to make sure, because it doesn't make any sense to me either. The bottom line is they all work, so I'm happy. I was just curious as to why this is the case. -----signature-----
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Naia-Ra-Sal Posts: 7,724 Registered: Sep 28, '00 Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 7,244 User ID: 46,420	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	Are you sure it is using all 4 cores ? Hit Alt Crtl del and check there , for each core there should be a graph. -----signature----- Naia Ra-Sal lvl 262 Warlord of Dereth Vainda Ra-Sal lvl 275 Shellfish Hater Xavia Ra-Sal lvl 250 Vaindas Oil Slave Max Speced Armor Tink , Max speced Weapon Tink makingothershappy.blogspot.com
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hggm Posts: 635 Registered: Dec 26, '06 Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 627 User ID: 1,193,895	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	I find this is the case with my quad core also. And I set the affinity for each core with each instance of AC. -----signature----- (none)
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Xeon_Xarid Title: Magister of Fun Posts: 4,036 Registered: Jul 30, '04 Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 3,994 User ID: 950,573	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	I don't know the internals of the Decal application, but here is my guess: Because decal is a single process but multi-threaded, it has to run on one core. Even if each instance of AC has it's own core to run on, they all have the bottleneck of that single core running decal. In addition the cross core communication is probably more expensive than just running hyperthreads within a single core. So not having to memory switch between multiple cores makes the single CPU more efficient (assuming you are not exceeding the single CPU processing capabilities) -----signature----- fun, Fun, FUN! LifeTankX Developer -- http://www.reality.net/ac/xx
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Virindi-Inquisitor Posts: 6,908 Registered: Nov 18, '01 Extended Info (if available) Real Post Cnt: 6,646 User ID: 511,923	Subject: Quad Core vs older Chips.
	>> Because decal is a single process but multi-threaded, it has to run on one core. This is false. Decal runs from within AC, and is single-threaded as far as I know. The Decal MANAGER is a separate process, and all it does is let you change what plugins are running, update xmls, and do the initial hook-in to the AC process. -----signature----- Virindi --- **Virindi Plugins FAQ** http://www.virindi.net/wiki/index.php/Virindi_Plugins_FAQ http://www.virindi.net - Virindi Tank, Follower, Integrator, Reporter, VCS5, XPHelper, Item Tool, HUDs, etc... Decal Core Dev - http://www.decaldev.com
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