I figured before I start muddling my way through the EQ tech forums, I'd post here . . .
Anyone know if EQ will leverage a dual core chip or multiple processors? My tax refund is burning a hole in my pocket.
Chakk
Dual Core?
Moderator: Moderators
-
Chakkorisi
- Member
- Posts: 1193
- https://www.behance.net/kuchnie-warszawa
- Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:08 am
In my opinion, unless you're playing multiple accounts on one computer while running other applications, you wouldn't even notice a difference. EQ is far from being a CPU intensive application. I'd say you'd be better off to set up SLI video cards or get a dual video out card and another monitor ^__^
-
Chakkorisi
- Member
- Posts: 1193
- Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:08 am
eq don't run right on dual core system i'm assuming multi processor as well. there is a work around to get eq to run on dual core tho u have to set the afinity of eq to run only on 1 processor. there is a program out there called runfirst that u run everquest.exe with or eqgame.exe with. also u can run everquest.exe with no autoload and bring up windows processes (ctrl+alt+delete) and right click everquest.exe and set afinity there manually but have to do it everytime u run eq then just set it to a single processor.
Short answers. In my opinion if you run just EQ, you will not take full advantage of the dual cores. However, long term you may.
To take advantage of dual cores or dual processors, the work needs to be spread around and not all on one. Each peiece of software or application typically is, "single threaded," which means that it starts one executable program. A sophisticated operating system will put any new process that starts on the processor that is least busy. I have no clue how Windows XP home or profesional editions handle dual cores. I do not know how it distributes all of the operating systems, normally you have to forces the processes to execute on a certain processor so you can intellegently divide the work.
However, if you just run one EQ account at a time and no other applications, you will not take too much advantage of the dualness. The OS functions will probably be spread between the processors and barely tax them, then bam, you have EQ running in one big lump dumped on one of them.
Software that takes advantage of dual processors will split off work (spawn processes) and this allows the the work to be split between the processors. Not a lot of software does this as it has to be compiled a certain way and there are portability issues depending on how done, lanquage, etc. EQ does not spawn processes. You will see a speed increase with EQ only if you run stuff in background, such as web browsing or you run two EQ instances.
There is an added benifit with dual cores and dual processors and that is due to the "interupt architecture" of PCs. PCs have amazingly fast chips but sometimes they waste a lot of CPU time just wating on things to happen. This is when the CPU gets interupted and is waiting on something. We normally do not notice as it is a small slice of time, but it is happening constantly as this is how they work. For example, if you move your mouse, the system gets interupted (in small time slices). This is not the big issue it use to be years back. What this means is that if you have EQ on once core and the OS stuff on another, EQ will not be impacted due to these interupts.
With all that said, operating systems are getting better, not sure how new windows OS coming out handles dual cores. I would hope it uses them well.
To take advantage of dual cores or dual processors, the work needs to be spread around and not all on one. Each peiece of software or application typically is, "single threaded," which means that it starts one executable program. A sophisticated operating system will put any new process that starts on the processor that is least busy. I have no clue how Windows XP home or profesional editions handle dual cores. I do not know how it distributes all of the operating systems, normally you have to forces the processes to execute on a certain processor so you can intellegently divide the work.
However, if you just run one EQ account at a time and no other applications, you will not take too much advantage of the dualness. The OS functions will probably be spread between the processors and barely tax them, then bam, you have EQ running in one big lump dumped on one of them.
Software that takes advantage of dual processors will split off work (spawn processes) and this allows the the work to be split between the processors. Not a lot of software does this as it has to be compiled a certain way and there are portability issues depending on how done, lanquage, etc. EQ does not spawn processes. You will see a speed increase with EQ only if you run stuff in background, such as web browsing or you run two EQ instances.
There is an added benifit with dual cores and dual processors and that is due to the "interupt architecture" of PCs. PCs have amazingly fast chips but sometimes they waste a lot of CPU time just wating on things to happen. This is when the CPU gets interupted and is waiting on something. We normally do not notice as it is a small slice of time, but it is happening constantly as this is how they work. For example, if you move your mouse, the system gets interupted (in small time slices). This is not the big issue it use to be years back. What this means is that if you have EQ on once core and the OS stuff on another, EQ will not be impacted due to these interupts.
With all that said, operating systems are getting better, not sure how new windows OS coming out handles dual cores. I would hope it uses them well.
I think before you should decide on anything that you post your current computer spec.
There's a few options you could do but before we get to that, I recommend investing your tax refund into a retirement fund. That's what I did with mine. had 2k bucks. invested 1500 in my savings and other 500 went toward personal luxury (I don't really spend much on myself honestly. So it went toward new clothes, a few video games for my ps2, new monitor. next year I may just overhaul my computer.)
If you're single boxing on a computer. You could probably buy some ram or as such but I would like to know your computer specs to see if it's just cheaper to buy a new computer or upgrade a part or two.
dualboxing would probably be going into a bit more money intensive with a possible investment into a laptop (which I am against honestly because you have very little option in upgrading or part replacement.)
But if you do go the laptop route. I highly recommend maxxing out your warranty, extended warranty etc. You'll get your money worth if it last beyond 5 years. If they only do limited warranty. Tell them to fook off and go someplace else.
There's a few options you could do but before we get to that, I recommend investing your tax refund into a retirement fund. That's what I did with mine. had 2k bucks. invested 1500 in my savings and other 500 went toward personal luxury (I don't really spend much on myself honestly. So it went toward new clothes, a few video games for my ps2, new monitor. next year I may just overhaul my computer.)
If you're single boxing on a computer. You could probably buy some ram or as such but I would like to know your computer specs to see if it's just cheaper to buy a new computer or upgrade a part or two.
dualboxing would probably be going into a bit more money intensive with a possible investment into a laptop (which I am against honestly because you have very little option in upgrading or part replacement.)
But if you do go the laptop route. I highly recommend maxxing out your warranty, extended warranty etc. You'll get your money worth if it last beyond 5 years. If they only do limited warranty. Tell them to fook off and go someplace else.