Gaming and Dual Processing

[thirdfey]

Hey all,

I'm not sure if this topic has already been discussed in this forum (and if it has been, sorry) but here goes. I am thinking of investing a little money into building my own dual processor system (i know, 2k or nt only). I am an avid gamer when the time is available and wondered how dual processors affected performance and frame rates on games that support smp such as q3 and i'm guessing elite force is smp compatible since it runs off the q3 engine.

I am looking into the MSI 694D Pro board with 2 celery 600's or maybe pIII's, most likely the cele's though. I don't want the intel baord because i don't want to shell out the cash for rimms. Wondering if anyone has seen a review that compares single processor gaming against dual processor gaming on games that can take advantage of smp.

thanks in advance,
tony

[Gumby]

Maximum PC did a review of Dual Proc gaming in their review of Win2k. They used Q3 as the main review game because at the time it was the only game that supported SMP. The results were well strange. Framerates in Q3 on the same system (I think they used p3700/geforce) were fastest in win98, second fastest in Win2k with SMP disabled, and Slowest in Win2k with SMP enabled. They seemed to think that it was probably due to weak Nvidia win2k drivers. Of course Nvidia denied this but since that time they have come out with better win2k drivers.

Hope this helped a bit

Gumby

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The problem with your machine sir is that the nut behind the wheel has a screw loose.

[TrackMan]

if it helps, it will help only in lower resolutions where the cpu takes more of the labor than the graphics card.

also, if you want to learn more thresh's firing squad did a bit about overclocked, dual celerys in a artile a while ago, www.firingsquad.com (http://www.firingsquad.com)

celeron classics will run in dual processor mode, but the ones built on cards must be modified, and if you have a ppga prossor on a slotkey, you may have to modify the slot key. if you have a dual ppga mobo like the abit bp6 you need not modify

celeron 2's (coppermines) cannot be run in multiprocessor mode.

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I was going to be a procrastinator, I just never got around to it.