MaximumPC 2006 06

Keep Your Dual-Core Happy with the Right Diet

When Intel introduced Hyper-Threading in 2002, it was nearly impossible to fi nd

multithreaded applications outside the highly-specialized realm of workstation

software. Today, multithreaded apps for home users are much more plentiful,

and can give dual-core processors a

healthy performance boost compared

with their single-core cousins.

To get the most from your dual-

core CPU, you need to run multi-

threaded applications. Here’s a short

list of applications we’ve found that

run signifi cantly faster on a dual-core

system. All of them offer a healthy

dose of multithreading, and some

even scale to offer major performance

increases on machines with four or

more CPU cores!

Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0

Adobe Premier Pro

Bibble Labs Bibble 4.6

Ahead Nero Recode 7

Quake 4 (with 1.1 patch)

Call of Duty 2

PictureCode Noise Ninja

DVD Shrink

Omnipage 10, 15

Abbyy FineReader 8

Dream Machine 2005’s four cores

go to work in Bibble Lab’s Bibble

4.6 digital-photo converter. This

app supports up to 16 proces-

sors when it converts your RAW

photos to other formats!

Host the Server at Your

Next LAN Party

Let your friends think you’re shoulder-

ing a huge burden by volunteering to

host the game server and keep your

dualie’s performance edge to yourself.

By running a dedicated server and

confi ning it to one of your cores, you’ll

see very little performance impact. At

the same time, you’ll pick up a zero

ping on the server (it doesn’t get any

closer than inside your PC); plus you

have control over the server’s name

and the options you want to run.

The most effi cient way to do this is

to download the separate dedicated

server fi le for the game you’re plan-

ning to run. Start the dedicated server

and set the affi nity for the process

using the steps we showed you in our

troubleshooting guide. Then fi re up the

game, Alt-Tab out, and set the affi nity

for your game to the other core. You’ll

be able to run both the game and the

server at the same time, with a negli-

gible performance hit—amazing!

With a dual-core CPU, you can

host a dedicated game server

and run the game at the same

time. Yes, way!

Think of It as a Duplex for

Folding@Home

Folding@Home is a distributed computing

project being run by Stanford University. It uses

your computer’s CPU to analyze data on human

diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and

cancer. For F@H fanatics, a dual-core machine

is a dream come true because it can handle two

work units at once. It’s tricky, however, to confi g-

ure F@H to take full advantage of the separate

cores. To do that, you’ll need to download the

no-nonsense command-line version of the client

for your OS from http://folding.stanford.edu/ and

follow these instructions.

Place the downloaded client into a folder

in Program Files and label it FAH1. Copy the

folder and its contents to a second folder labeled

FAH2. Execute the fi le named FAH504-Console.

exe from FAH1. Choose a user name. If you want

a unique name, check the Folding website to see

what user names are still available. Enter a team

number ( Maximum PC’s team number is 11108).

If you want the program to launch automatically

when you start Windows, answer yes to the

service question, otherwise hit enter. Stick with

the default settings until you get to the option to

change advanced settings. You can select the

defaults until you reach the question for Machine

ID. Select 1 for this session and click enter. The

program will go out to the Internet, download

work units, and begin crunching them.

Minimize the fi rst console and open the sec-

ond folder, FAH2. Repeat the sequence until you

get to the question about machine ID. For this

folder, set it as 2. If you have a dual-core CPU

with Hyper-Threading you can run four clients

simultaneously, although the performance bump

isn’t as dramatic. Check our Folding forum at

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums for more F@H tips

and tweaks.

You can fold proteins twice as fast

with a dualie by running two clients

simultaneously.

You’ve solved your weird dual-core hiccups with our tips (and

the timely sacrifice of one poor chicken), and now you’re look-

ing for some positive reinforcement of your decision to go dual-

core. Don’t worry young man/woman/child, you’ve made the

right choice. To prove it, we’re going to show you four activities

that would bring the mightiest single-core rig to its knees, but

that run like buttah on a dualie.

Let the Thread Times Flow

42 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2006