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    does xp use both cores of cpu to fullest

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by times, Jun 30, 2008.

  1. times

    times Notebook Evangelist

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    i had xp installed on my hp and it ran great,had all the drivers installed,but when i tried to play hd movies on a second screen it was so slow and the cpu went up double compared to how it was on vista.

    i have dual core amd and found a hot fix to use both cores,but that didnt seem to help much, how is xp with intel core 2 duos,are core 2s better in xp,does xp use both to full potential? anyway i switcht back to vista and its great,dunno why i thought i needed to change really,ive never had problems with vista.
     
    times, Jun 30, 2008
    #1
  2. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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    I have Vista64 with a quad core processor, and some programs will only 1 core to 100% and not touch the other 3.

    It depends on if the program can use multi-core or not!
     
    Tinderbox (UK), Jun 30, 2008
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  3. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    It is possible that the Vista version of the player is multi-threaded and can spread the work between two (or more) cores while the XP version is single- threaded and can only use one core.

    One test would be play the HD movie and then run a single-threaded application such as Prime 95. If the movie player is single-threaded then Prime 95 will run on the other core and not significantly affect the playback performance. If the player is multi-threaded then it will slow down since Prime 95 will try to get its share of the CPU time.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jun 30, 2008
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  4. frazell

    frazell Notebook Deity

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    Not sure what you were asking fully, but since your topic stated the scope was limited to the operating system I'll respond in that scope.

    No, Windows XP does NOT make full use of multi-core processors as the OS applications are not written in a multi-threaded manner. For instance, inserting a CD/DVD into the drive on XP would lock up explorer for a few seconds while the new disk is evaluated whereas Vista would do that task with one of your idle cores.
     
    frazell, Jun 30, 2008
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  5. sweetStyles

    sweetStyles Notebook Consultant

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    ^ Off topic, but that sounds so great that Vista does that. Seems so simple, but so effective. Lol. Anyway, he pretty much sums it up. There's a bottle-neck on one of your processors, since XP won't divide the work through the two of them. Still, one core would be enough for a movie, right?
     
    sweetStyles, Jun 30, 2008
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  6. times

    times Notebook Evangelist

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    okay,my question was answered. cheers.
     
    times, Jun 30, 2008
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