my dual processor performance

[e_storm]

Hello all,

Been a while since I was here. Good to see some of the same faces again.

My question is about my system, specs are:
Tyan Tiger MPX (2466)
2x 2800+ modded XPs
1g Ram
ATI RAdeon 9600 Vcard

Recently I was playing a MMOPG and I was in a fleet battle (eve is the game name) and I was getting 0 fps for an extended period of time. A friend was in the same fight and was getting 5-10 fps. My vcard should be good enough to run as my friend's system so I got to thinking about where the bottleneck might be in my system.

I ran a few benchmarks using sandra and everything looked pretty much on par. I ran futuremark and got I think 1160 or so (dont remember the score). I have no idea if that is good or bad for my vcard.

Anyway, I did notice that when I start an application, my dual processor system starts the same app much slower than my single processor sysetm (abit NF7, 2800+ xp, 1gig ram). I mean to the tune of 5+ seconds slower.

Any ideas on how I might be able to get the dual system faster, or even to find the bottleneck. Tests I've run so far on sandra have been CPU multimedia, CPU arith, storage, memory, etc.. Pretty much all of em. My memory one looked to be a lower number (not sure if lower is better or not) than the comparable benchmark system sandra had but thats about it.

any ideas?

[Gizmo]

Are you running any different services on the dually than on the single? Maybe different Antivirus software? McAfee used to have a problem when XP first came out that would cause it to load apps quite slowly.

[e_storm]

the dually is running AVG, single running Norton.

[Gizmo]

Try disabling AVG and see what kind of impact that has on performance. Then run the same test on your single while disabling Norton. I bet that AVG will see a major impact, while Norton will see a neglible one.

If so, there may be a service pack for AVG that will resolve the issue, or you may be able to tune it by tweaking some settings.

Edit: Obviously, you don't want to be loading untrusted apps while your AV is disabled.

[Chaz]

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought that dual processor setups had little advantage in gaming over single processor systems anyway. I thought they were better for doing things like multi-tasking. I might be thinking of something else though.

[Gizmo]

For most games, that is true, because the games are generally single-threaded. However, he mentioned that the dually was actually SUBSTANTIALLY slower than his single CPU box, even though it was running the speed of CPU in all cases (2800+). I could see a slight performance drop on a dually running a single-threaded app, but not what he was talking about.

[e_storm]

*update*

Well guys I recently got a very very nice vcard from a friend, and it does not seem to have solved anything. My new vcard is a Nvidia 5950 Pro(or ultra or something like that).

I'm still getting MUCH lower frames than I'd expect from this card.

My only guesses are:
1) tyan tiger mpx only has a max of 4x agp, this new card can be up to 8x
2) some goofy bios or windows setting I missed

Any other suggestions would be greaetly appreciated

[Gizmo]

Did you try messing about with the AV stuff like I suggested above previously? If so, what were the results of that?

[prankster959]

Anything in nVidia in the 5xxx series is probably not going to help you too much. You'll want at least a 6600gt for gaming, maybe a 6800gt if you have the money, and of course anything 7xxxx series is exceptional. Which futuremark where you running?

What kind of RAM? Is it in dual channel? Do you know the timings? The manufacturer?

Hard drive?

Alot of things could be the bottleneck, need more info.

[robbie]

Originally Posted by prankster959

Anything in nVidia in the 5xxx series is probably not going to help you too much. You'll want at least a 6600gt for gaming, maybe a 6800gt if you have the money, and of course anything 7xxxx series is exceptional. Which futuremark where you running?

What kind of RAM? Is it in dual channel? Do you know the timings? The manufacturer?

Hard drive?

Alot of things could be the bottleneck, need more info.

This is a very old post my friend.

[Exile69]

Nah, only a couple months. You could probably just reset the CMOS and reinstall windows to make sure it's not anything software/BIOS related I guess.

[prankster959]

Wow I didn't look at the date. I just clicked on one of the top links assuming it would be somewhat recent. I guess not so many people read this forum.