CPU Usage: Linux and Windows

While looking for another problem, I found ONE possible reason why SL is faster in Linux.

In Windows, the "System" Process, and others, take 20% of my CPU usage when SL is running. I can only get 80% of the CPU working for SL.

In Linux, SL gets 99.7% CPU usage. That is 25% more processing power for SL under Linux! (80% -> 99.7%, = 20% of 80 % = 1/4 more power being used for SL.)

This would normally be a LOT of extra CPU, to get a net 20% gain...

So, for a free CPU Upgrade, run SL on Linux

.. Your Mileage may vary ...

WoooooT !!

i dunno what truth there is in this. your o/s and kernel will use more than 0.3% ;-/

... checked it again ... 99.7 % for Secondlife-bin

top MAY be lying to me...

hehehe

Ok; I've run it on both, and don't see this to be the truth. In Windows I show ~98-99% usage, and in Linux I show ~99% usage.

When you tried it on Windows were you on a dual core machine? There are some issues with performance timers and affinity with dual core CPUs and SL in that case.

I've never seen SL consistently use less than 95% of resources on windows, unless there was something seriously wrong, like an errant background process taking up a good percentage of processor time. Certainly not in standard installations that dont have stuff like Norton System Fubar 2007 and CoolSearchMegaIMBuddy running or something.

Keep in mind, also, that these metrics are measured slightly differently between OSs.

I hate to rain on the self-love party-slash-penguin parade, but if you can produce results saying that, on the same architecture, in an area where you get 40fps in SL in Windows, say in an empty sim, you get 50fps in Linux in the exact same setup and environment, maybe I'll believe that.

But from what I've seen, that's absolutely not the case, and its easy to reproduce such a test with a dual boot.

if all's going to plan, SL ought to use all the cpu it can. unless it dosnt need it, of course.

the linux client does seem a little smoother for me, but its not a level playing field at the moment with the alpha, as its not utilising the hardware like windows is.

oops - looks like my windows setup is crazy....

Sorry!

I will recheck that; but for some strange reason, that is what I saw

A process called System (part of windows? or do I have a trojan?) was chewing 20% cpu...

Maybe I need to clean up my windows system...

Rechecked, still the same:

Task manager shows anything between 75% and 90% for secondlife, stable at around 80%.

Other CPU users are System, Explorer, Taskmgr, Opera, gui.exe, dumeter, aim.exe, avc, memoptimizer, teatimer and a few more minor ones.

Aside from System, Taskmanager and Explorer, the others only show up now and then, as 1% or 2%.

AIM and Opera run (as GAIM and opera) under linux too; I don't run avc, memoptimizer, teatimer etc under linux cos it works ok without them.

I also do not run System, Explorer or Taskmgr

As I said in my first post, your mileage may vary...

Though I have seen from others, that they get less than 90% cpu usage for Second Life under windows.

A point to notice is my CPU - it is a Duron 1800, and the video card is an NVidia fx5200. It may be that my system is underpowered, and that is why windows itself wants so much for background processes...

Angel... please, please, please scan your system for trojans and adware:

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/gui/

A nice tool for this is AdAware from Lavasoft -> http://www.lavasoft.de/

Thanks for the warning, Zi...

I checked it out, and in this case, it is legitimate...

It is a process belonging to Gigabyte's EasyTune 5, which I have running.

I could switch off EasyTune 5, since I cannot overclock anyway, with Secondlife, at least not above a few percent.

I mainly use this to make sure my CPU is not cooking... hehehe

I do indeed regularly run adaware and have spybot too, which I also regularly run, and spybot's TeaTimer, that watches for automatic cahnges to the registry.

I sometimes feel that to get a safe windows system you NEED two cpu's - one for the protection of windows, and one for the processes...

Turning off EasyTune 5 in the QuickLaunch stops the process.

I think I am OK on this one, though of course gui.exe can easily be misused by rogue processes as well...

A reference to the legitimate use of gui.exe: http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/detail.php?id=3850. I think this applies in this case, since easytune5 does NOT need to start with windows XP immediately, and gui.exe (THIS one) allows the startup to be delayed...