How do you multitask?

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• Elavanis - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  hmm i multi computer more than anything but I generally have 2-3 firefox windows. Winamp either mp3 or a divx. edonkey for my anime downloads. And when i feel like burning off my anime, both the dvd and cd buring at same time. Usually an excel spread sheet just for a simple calculations or a list program. In the background I have the standard programs, antivirus etc. In addition i have a cancer recearch program (grid.net?) set to idle and a rainbow table generator also set to idle.

• Neuro - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  Running Azureus with 4 torrents, Winamp playing, ripping a cd and browsing the net.

• SocrPlyr - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  One of the most noticeable things that I have encountered while working on dual CPU machines is the responsiveness of the computers. My main PC is a 1.8GHz P4, but while working in a lab I really prefered working on the dual 450MHz P3s that were there. This came about because I was running some test code that was going through a reachability algorithm. What was nice about the dual box was, I was still able to work on my code while it was running on the other processor. Just in general, under load the DP was much more responsive. There are serveral ways that this can be tested. One thing that would like to see is a qualitative assessment of the responsiveness of the system under full load. AKA, even if both cores are fully loaded, does having two cores improve the responsiveness? Another thing that could be done is run a small but long process that is single threaded that will take up one of the core's time. Then benchmark the other core as if it was a single processor system. This might help show performance loss from sharing what little the cores do share. I also request that you bench the EE w/ HT on and off, it will help show how much of a possible performance gain is from the higher bandwidth and how much is from the HT. Also if the EE is not at the same clock (or close to the same clock) if you have a engineering sample that the multiplier can be reduced, please do so that we can see the benefits on the dual core that higher bus speeds give.

• Michael2k - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  Duh, I just realized how to take a benchmark of the system!
  
  Take a benchmark of your choice.
  Run it on an empty system
  Record the score
  
  Run it on a loaded system
  Record the score
  
  Run it on a loaded system with user interaction
  Record the score + make a subjective evaluation
  
  You can progressively increase the system load and you have your benchmark, from unloaded to fully loaded, while at the same time you have a subjective evaluation!

• red and black - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  Complicating this is the horrible MSWindows scheduler, which will make the second CPU seem like a tremendous help to responsiveness. That's useful information for people, since so many run MSWindows -- but it would be great to also have info about how much the second CPU helps on systems with better interactive response, as in linux 2.6.
  

• Oscar Papel - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  PC: Visual Studio - programming (autocomplete on in a b/g thread)
  Mac: XCode - programming (autocomplete on in a b/g thread)
  2 or 3 browsers open.
  1 or 2 downloads in progress.
  IM client
  
  PC Only:
  indexing software running in the background
  A/V, Antispam also RITB
  
  Mac Only:
  1 or 2 Terminal windows doing something

• Live - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  Antivirus auto protect
  Antispyware auto protect
  Software Firewall
  Firefox with multiple tabs
  Filesharing BT and/or Emule
  MP3 player
  IM software
  Word
  Notepad
  
  The above is what I normally use. Then I guess any normal app you would test like games etc would put some stress to at least the current systems. With dual core and better network controller I am hoping the above will not be noticed in the future. But hope hasn’t gotten me very far yet :}

• Anonymous - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  I don't think I've ever actually posted here before, but might as well. =)
  If you're looking for 'average-Joe' typical-but-highend user type stuff, I think there's plenty on any modern machine that should push it...
  
  A few torrents on a decent connection, and a dvd or (even moreso) digital tv tuner playing in the background, while you're either browsing or working even a bit, and you'll get a little slowdown on any machine, new or old, P4 or athlon.
  
  So... Perhaps you could do a test where you see how much it takes before things start to get slightly slower, rather than measuring the speed of these encodings and compiles and things?
  
  Even if it was just a very subjective quick segment, I'd certainly like to see one, and think it's probably where the nicest bonus is with dual machines now, and presumably dual-core.
  
  (If what I'm talking about makes any sense, I'm not sure I explained it so well, sorry... I mean like when you ctrl-alt-del and it takes that little extra second to give you a window, those sorts of little things, if that helps)

• Excelsior - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  Basically, this is how I multitask.
  
  Many firefox windows/tabs or IE windows open.
  GAIM running with 3 or more windows/tabs.
  Foobar playing MP3s
  Burning a CD.
  Downloading with Bittorrent (seems to slow my system down noticeably)
  
  I hope dual cores are a success, because I will be first in line to buy one (assuming the low-end one isn't crazy expensive)

• Athlex - Saturday, April 2, 2005 - link

  Under windows 2000: Winamp, Folding @ Home (TeamAnandtech!), Many Firefox windows (no tabs for me), Trillian, ABC (bittorrent; resource pig), MBM, proxy client, couple shell windows, couple putty sessions, Nero 6
  
  I'm running an Opteron 144 @ 1.9GHz. It'll be cool to see what speeds the dual core Opterons launch at. The rumor mill seems to suggest either at the low end of the speed spectrum or at the high end, but little in between. Can't wait to find out how dual core stacks up with HT or dual-core with HT!