Comments

Cliff Etzel wrote on 8/25/2006, 4:55 PM
I am literally doing the same thing right now - just got my RMA'd mobo and built me an AMD +3800 X2 AM2 with 2GB RAM. Just finishing the autopatcher install and was beginning to wonder the same thing about Vegas.

Looking forward to seeing the responses on this.
[r]Evolution wrote on 8/25/2006, 5:57 PM
To see your Processor's Workload... CTRL+ALT+DELETE -or- Right Click your Task Bar and select Task Manager.

This opens your Task Manager.
Go to the Tab that says Performance.
There you will see your Processor's Performance... usually in RealTime.
By selecting the Tab Processes... you can tell how much of your processing power is going where.

AMD's are definitely NOT obsolete.
It all depends on what you do with what you have. If your setup works for you... that's all that matters.
You don't trade in your car everytime a new one comes out... do ya?
fldave wrote on 8/25/2006, 6:24 PM
Going from one to two physical CPUs (not sure about dual core) you must reinstall XP Pro. It has to install the dual cpu HAL (hardware application layer) prior to XP install.

I would think it is similar for one to two cores.
Cliff Etzel wrote on 8/25/2006, 9:56 PM
Yeah - I had to reinstall - Windows BSOD on me saying something about possible virus or something like that - no biggy - I wanted a fresh install anyways.
ztalk112 wrote on 8/26/2006, 2:01 PM
sync2rhythm said:

"Go to the Tab that says Performance. There you will see your Processor's Performance".

I've been meaning to chase this down for some time. The above advice is spot on . . . but I must be missing something, because when I do that with my AMD x2, Task Manager only reports a single processor. Yet I've seen several posts on this board and elsewhere that talked about viewing the load on 'each processor'.

As I say, I must be missing a trick somewhere.

I'm also curious about the answer to the question about the 'number of threads' setting in Vegas.

Thnx for your help.
fldave wrote on 8/26/2006, 2:57 PM
You should see a graph for each cpu on the CPU Usage History graph. A dual core will have 2, a machine with two dual cores will see 4.

In the Device Manager, under the +Computer, you should see a "xxxx Multiprocessor". My xxxx shows ACPI.
fldave wrote on 8/26/2006, 3:02 PM
RE. "rendering threads", I think Sony is considering thread to mean cpus, which in the PC world, is incorrect. I currently have 40 "processes" running and using 430 "windows threads".

I think Vegas will ignore the setting above the number of your cpus. If you want to do something else while Vegas is rendering, the manual says to set it to 1 less than the number of cpus you have available to free up some resources.

And when I talk about "cpu", I am talking about number of modern day cores there are.
grh wrote on 8/27/2006, 7:19 AM
> It has to install the dual cpu HAL (hardware application layer) prior to XP install.

That's "hardware abstraction layer".
ztalk112 wrote on 8/27/2006, 12:08 PM
fldave,

Thanks for your reply . . .

"You should see a graph for each cpu on the CPU Usage History graph. A dual core will have 2".

That's exactly what I would have expected . . . it's an AMD Athlon64 X2 4400 Dual-Core, however only 1 graph and CPU Usage meter display (and yes, Systems Properties report it such).

Just another case of Windows funkiness I guess?

Thnx again.
riredale wrote on 8/27/2006, 1:32 PM
Okay, everything's running great, though it took two days of fumbling around.

I have a homebuilt PC running XP. I have never reinstalled XP as I have evolved from one motherboard to another, much preferring instead to just clone the whole enchalada (OS, programs, settings, data) over to the new system via DriveImage or some similar imaging method.

The problem is that I just switched last week from an AMD XP2100 (single processor) to a new Asus A8V motherboard and an AMD 3800x2 (dual processor). After a day of problem-solving and a few choice words, I finally got my system up and running on the cloned image of the previous setup. Only problem was that Windows only thought I had a single processor, since that's the way it had always been from the very first XP install back in 2001.

In searching around the Internet, I found some claims that one could get Windows ro recognize the second processor by importing a few choice sys and dll files from the SP2 upgrade (my XP does not use SP2; I don't like what it does to some things). A half-day later, I discovered that, for my system at least, those new files produced a great bluescreen ("The system was halted to prevent damage to your processor..."). So back to square 1.

Then I remembered an article that I copied a few months back by Fred Langa. This guy runs a free weekly newsletter about all things Windows, from a technical perspective. On a nearby thread I describe his article, but briefly, he shows a way to get XP to reinstall itself WITHOUT destroying anything else on the disk. You can keep all your programs, data, and settings intact.

So I did what he described, and WOW! Not only does the system now recognize the second processor, but it boots in about 1/2 the time. And the great part is that my computing environment hasn't changed one iota--no Vegas reinstalls, no reconfiguration, no nothing.

Here's what I learned about this new system:

(1) If you open up the Task Manger (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and go to the Performance tab, you will see one CPU graph if XP thinks there is only one processor. The second processor on the AMD chip will lie fallow.

(2) Another way of telling if XP thinks you are using 1 or 2 processors is to go to Device Manager, and open the "Computer" summary. If it says you are using "ACPI Multiprocessor PC" then XP is capable of running 2 processors.

(3) This thing screams, or at least it does when compared to my AMD XP2100 CPU that has served me so well for the past 3 years. On some rendering tasks it is easily 5 times faster. I need to note here that I have already figured out how to overclock this chip. Stock, it runs at 2GHz; I've goosed it up to 2.4GHz without it breaking a sweat. In fact, some websites report this chip running at 2.7GHz without any exotic refrigerated heatsinks or the like. Even with overclocking, this system appears to be rock-stable. I've run the Prime95 heat test for many hours now and it shows no glitches anywhere. I've also done some hour-long renders with Vegas with no adverse results. The Asus A8V motherboard makes it very easy to tweak the various clock speeds, voltages, and stuff.

(4) Acronis TruImage is a very nice backup program. I am relying more and more on it and gradually saying farewell to Retrospect, another great program.

Life is good. Now I start converting the 20-odd hours of m2t footage into Intermediate so I can begin editing my recent France tour with the choir.