Dual Core or Not on SL ?

Frustrated with the SL lag, i want to upgrade my computer for the latest gaming hardware , high budget but needing on widescreen only display.

The question guys though is whether Dual Core processors, which i understand dont get fully utilised with the non- multithreading code (?) used in SL, are worth purchasing now for playing on SL. It would be a SL related requirement that is driving my purchase decision to purchase.

I would be comforted to buy a superdooper machine, if there was an expectation of SL moving towards fully utilising Dual core - is X2 not the way the world is heading on all platforms anyway ??

Any thoughts would be very welcomed on the titled high level question - without complicating it by saying that I would like to do it on a MAC running BootCamp if poss )

Am i worrying unnecessarily ?

cheers

At the beginning of the year .. i had to get another PC for sl

this is what i ended up getting - And it is a dual core and it works fine i can run sl - use my Browser with tapbed browsing and have my yahoo going all at the same time with out locking up


Windows XP Professional
5.1.2600 Service Pack 2
Gateway
GT5032
X86-based PC
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 565.35 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.12 GB
``````````````````

AMD Athon 64x2 Daul core Prosser 4200
with 2.20 GHZ
with 869 MB of ram

Then has a Nvidia Geforce 6100 ..256 mg card
and it cost like under !,000 when bought just the CPU

VGirl -- dont know if this helps any

EDIT:: i dont if this helps any but my brother routed on of my core just for SL and use the other for other Stuff . Not sure how he did that thou ...

Dual core doesn't get fully utilized, but I do see an improvement in framerate of maybe around 25% if set SL's affinity to both cores over setting it to just one core.

BTW, get a video card with lots of memory

graphic cards with alot of memory say 512 etc is really a waste.256 is a nice size. But talk about your waste......If you have a good Internet line it the best answer to theis problem.

Thanks guys for the responses.

Zebra, how do you set the affinity on SL ?? I assume this prioritises SL on more than one core ?

Also Usagi, why would 512 m on the video card memory be a waste on SL, i thought more is always better ?

Hello Sandy.

You can set the Affinity by bringing up the Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and selecting the "Processes" tab. Find SecondLife.exe and right click on the line. That will bring up a popup and near the bottom will be the line "Set Affinity...". Select that and you will get a window with check boxes for the processor you want the task to run on. I always just leave CPU1 checked.

Also, if you check this link...

/111/66/132023/1.html

There is a link to WinLauncherXP that can make all of this automatic.

Works like a charm.

Good luck.

-K

More is always better. but a few factors...

1.) SL is not as graphicaly high as some Vr worlds. steve linden i believe said 128 CG is good enough thee days. But at this point if might be 256.

2.) SL is a cgraphic piggy.It eats alot of the computers resources memory. So the more it has the more it uses.( not always good)

3.) Internet bandwith is very important. Board Band or (BB) is needed to play Second Life.
The faster your connection or higher the speed the better your chances are you play stable and cozy. I myself have a Optical Fiber 100mbps internet speed. The current computer is only middle rang with 3GBTS of memory board on a SLI single 6600gt Graphic Card and 3200 AMD. But I fly through Second Life because my Line is strong and I don`t lag or have POCKET LOSS ( its not due to the game sstress itself)




PC Minimum System Requirements:

The following hardware and software is REQUIRED to run Second Life successfully. If your computer doesn't meet these requirements, you may not be able to participate in Second Life:

Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL
Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
OR Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
Computer Processor: 800MHz Pentium III or Athlon, or better
Computer Memory: 256MB or better
Video/Graphics Card**:
nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better
OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better


Mac Minimum System Requirements:


Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or better
Computer Processor: 1 GHz G4 or better
Computer Memory: 512MB or better
Video/Graphics Card**:
nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better
OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better
-------------------------------------------------------------------

System Recommendations

This hardware and software is highly recommended for a comfortable Second Life experience. The more of these recommendations you meet, the smoother Second Life will be:


PC Minimum System Recommendations:

Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL


Computer Processor: 1.6GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon 2000+ or better


Computer Memory: 512MB or better


Video/Graphics Card**:
nVidia GeForce FX 5600, GeForce 6600, or better
OR ATI Radeon 9600, X600, or better




as you see above you have 2 sets of req of computer specs one BAREBONES.....the other A COZYER stable play.

Thanks to all you guys for the replies. It looks like i should be able to get a good improvement with the new MacPro and ATI graphics card, which i have been itching to buy anyway.

I will certainly look into the BB line, as it is suppossed to be 6M, but my bandwidth test results never show faster than 1.2M , probably because i am on the residential circuits..

512MB on a slow card will help, but if you look at the specs on high end cards what is important is the transfer rate of the mem. Most high end cards are running very high frame rates in much more 3d intensive games than sl with 256M. The money spent on a 512M card is better spent on a faster card. Read the video card stuff on www.tomshardware.com
for example the evga 7900 GS KO has a mem bandwidth of 44.1 GB/s the evga 7600 GT has a mem bandwidth of 22 GB/s. Of course the # of pixel pipelines etc. are important as well. But more mem does not make a slow card faster.

See this thread

/111/cc/137791/1.html

I have been buried in this stuff for about 2 weeks and just put together a new sys today. Going to fire it up tomorrow.

pentium D805 over clocked to 3.6G
ASUS PN5B Deluxe
2 GB corsair XMS 6400pro
evga nividia 7900 GS KO
2 Hitachi 160 GB SATA in RAID 0 config

i have 2 hitachi HDD. and i run fine,,,,,,,,

As I said look jst dont always believe biger GC are better specially for sl game. Its just over kill...... Look at my links i posted they are the best around........without the BS...

Dont let people fool you thing 512 is needed on sl ITS NOT. its just over kill. for the price of that 512 GC you can update your system with a better CPU etc........dont waste money.
If you dont have a good internet line any GC wil give you low FPS......Fact or fiction?........Well only a 128 Graphic Card here and i do very seel without lag or pocketl loss.Itrs all inthe internet speed really in the GC. You systemis only as good as you internet speed is. Don`t be fooled.....................