spectrum48k

My system's getting a bit long in the tooth now, so am looking at upgrading to dual core.

Obviously, an application has to be optimised to utilisie dual core properly, but I was wondering - is it possible to direct an application to use one of the two core's ?

eg. Can Firefox use one core, whilst, say Media Player uses another ?

I seem to remember someone mentioning a utlity that lets you do something similar ?

marmski

Yes you can.

Windows XP - Ctrl+ALT+Del then right click the process you wish to assign to a single CPU and select 'Set Affinty'

Works great too, i have HD movies playing on my TV... and COD2 on my PC monitor... with no lag if i do this!

spectrum48k

Ah, excellent.

I suppose the next question would be, can you configure an application to always use a your chosen core whenever it runs ?

marmski

Yes you can... use this:

Intel Dualcore/Hyperthreading CPU:
Robpol86.com - ImageCFG.exe

AMD X2 CPU:
AMD Athlon™ 64/FX Processor Utilities & Updates

spectrum48k

Thanks marmski, perfick!

Will check it out.

Does the Windows OS always use CPU #0 ?

marmski

Depends which Windows OS.

Win 95/98/ME will only use CPU 0 by default

Win NT/2k/XP/Vista will use all available cores for the OS. Applications on the other hand need to be written to use a Multi-Processor enviroment to take full advantage. (although Windows XP/Vista will try to use Multi-Processing where possible even in a program not written for Multi-Processing)

ru'

But if you're running something like ME on a new dual core, you don't really deserve to use both!

marmski

Agreed.