dual cpu motherboard?

[timmer]

why is it better? does it use both processors at once so it would run 2ce the speed? but play off 1 monitor or whatever?

 

[Catbert]

Two CPU's tend to be better than one and are mainly used in servers and high end PC's that run heavey load applications.

On servers, the load placed upon them is divided by 2 [ 2 CPUs ] meaning the server can process more information at any given time. So technicaly you have twice the speed.

In desktop PC's, the 2 CPUs are not always taken advantage of, only some applications are able to use both CPUs at the same time.

They still work on a single monitor, dual monitor systems are controlled by your graphics card rather than your CPU.

 

[timmer]

so if i was playing a game i may not be able to idalize both cpu's?

 

[Trifid]

I don't think that there is any game out today that can have both cpu's working for the game. one cpu will be on the game, the other on background tasks. It will help, but not alot. but you could listen to music in the background, and still have the same amount of fps

 

[uzi9mm]

Most games do not support SMP (symetrical multi processing). But you will se a small increase in preformance. You can make 1 CPU handle all of the windows and other backround tasks while your other CPU is dedicated just to the game. This is called affinity management. But most high end programs like the autodesk series,maya, and Adobe series programs take advantage of both CPU's and you get a huge performance increase.

 

[horndude]

depends on the OS, windows even with SMP support doesnt migrate threads unless the software is written for it I dont think

other OS's will automatically let multiple threads migrate to another CPU