On Sep 29, 2005, at 10:06 AM, Eric Dunbar wrote:
If space wasn't an issue I'd prefer a dual processor, but, to be
honest, _most_ of my tasks are not going to be helped much by being
able to split tasks.
I thought the same thing until I used both side by side. A dual G4
half the speed of a single CPU still performed as well on most things
and actually felt more responsive.
I have a feeling that your work doesn't require the creation of a
whole lot of threads, does it ;-).
I recently saw an analysis of OS X vs Linux for Apache and Apache
seemed to tank on OS X (including Server) when it was handling a heavy
load compared to its Linux counter part and it was (supposedly) all
due to the way OS X handles the creation of new threads.
That's under an artificial benchmark for just creating threads
alone. The general performance wasn't that far off and real world
tests confirm that. Its that one benchmark where OS X gets killed.
Think about it this way. Imagine taking a flight from Halifax to
Vancouver and you test the performance of various modes of
transportation. It turns out that if you take a Ferrari and an
Airbus you go way faster on the ground run than if you take a Toyota
and a Boeing. But, the flights are about the same. Would you care
much about the ground run speed?
You create enough threads for the dual CPUs to matter just reading
email and browsing the web. Second, the creation of the thread isn't
the big hit on performance. It's running the thread that matters,
and OS X does that just fine.
But, I guess the dual shines when it comes to handling single
processor tasks in the background. One processor gets assigned the
mega (but single processor) task whilst the other handles all the
day-to-day operations that the user throws at it.
But, you are doing exactly that all of the time in OS X. There are
loads of conditions where the other CPU comes into play. If you use
a dual CPU for awhile you really notice the difference. Another
place it really shines is when you are switching tasks. It doesn't
have to unload and reload the most recent task. It just switches to
the task already available on the other CPU. This really
dramatically increases the real world feel of the machine. Dual CPU
machines don't run up the load on one CPU and then the other. They
are constantly balancing load.
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