Swap out my Dual core CPU for a single?

[67 Yankee]

I recently upgraded my computer from an AMD 2500+ CPU and Geforce FX5200 video card to an Intel pentium D 2.66 GHz CPU and Geforce 6800XT PCIE video card. It seemed like it was going to be a nice upgrade, but I'm not seeing much overall performance improvement with Mastercam. I have a feeling that the processor I bought isn't a great upgrade for the most part since half my CPU is idle most of the time.

 

I'm thinking of changing the new CPU to a 3.2 GHz pentium 4 Cedar Mill core, but after the last experiment thought I might get some feedback from you guys first.

Both of these processors work with my existing hardware and of course going from 2.66 to 3.2GHz won't hurt either. I'm currently running PC3200 DDR ram (2GB), so I think I will also benefit from the higher FSB though I'm not 100% sure.

 

 

Specs on the CPUs...

Now:

Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 533MHz FSB LGA 775 Dual Core,EM64T Processor

64 bit Support: Yes

Hyper-Threading Support: No

L1 Cache: 24KB+32KB

L2 Cache: 2 x 1MB

Multi-Core: Dual-Core

Operating Frequency: 2.66GHz

Process Type: 90 nm

Series: Pentium D

Virtualization Technology Support: No

Vista Ready: Yes

 

 

considering:

Intel Pentium 4 641 Cedar Mill 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor

64 bit Support: Yes

Hyper-Threading Support: Yes

L1 Cache: 12KB+16KB

L2 Cache: 2MB

Multi-Core: Single-Core

Operating Frequency: 3.2GHz

Process Type: 65 nm

Series: Pentium 4

Virtualization Technology Support: No

Vista Ready: Yes

[Rick46]

you can have the best processor ever made but if its sitting on a cheap Mobo you will still get slugish performance.. what mobo are you using ? Is the ram in question performance grade or just generic ram ?

[67 Yankee]

Seems like I may be forgetting something, but here are the main components other than the CPU...

 

MOTHERBOARD

ASRock 775Dual-VSTA Socket T (LGA 775)

CPU Type Intel Pentium D/Pentium 4 HT/Celeron D

FSB 1066/800MHz

North Bridge VIA PT880 PRO

South Bridge VIA VT8237A

Number of DDR Slots 2x 184pin DDR

DDR Standard DDR 400 (PC 3200)

Number of DDR2 Slots 2x 240pin DDR2

DDR2 Standard DDR2 667

Maximum Memory Supported 2GB

Dual Channel Supported Yes

 

RAM

Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory

 

VIDEO CARD

XFX PVT42EUDE3

PCI Express x16

NVIDIA Geforce 6800XT

Core clock 350MHz

PixelPipelines 8

Memory Clock 1000MHz

Memory Size 256MB

Memory Interface 256-bit

Memory Type GDDR3

OpenGL OpenGL 1.5

 

HARD DRIVE

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JB

80GB 7200 RPM

Cache 8MB

Average Seek Time 8.9ms

Average Write Time 10.9ms

Average Latency 4.2ms

 

[MIL-TFP-41]

right now mastercam is not a dual thread application...that is even tho you have 2 physical processors all it will use is one...so basically right now you have a single 2.66 Ghz processor as far as mastercam is concerned. Some might suggest changing the affinity of mastercam (which processor it uses) but you will still only have a single 2.66 Ghz processor. Till mastercam supports multi-threading (using more than one physical processor), a fast higher clock single core will be faster than a lower clock dual core.

 

I know that in the future these multi core processors will have something to the effect of "reverse hyperthreading", that is a single threaded program (such as mastecam) will be able to utilize a dual core to more potential, but those days are not here yet.

 

Hopefull CNC Software recognizes that MANY dual core platforms are out there and they will make mastercam able to utilize these systems.