SFP and AMD X2 ?

claudioD · Post by **claudioD** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:25 am

Is there someone that has tested the new AMD X2 processor with SFP ? How does it work?
I remember that SFP 3.1 crashed with HyperThreading (a sort of virtual dual core), so I had to disable it from the Bios.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 12:09 pm

I tested Scope with an AMD x2 platform. 2 cards worked fine, 3 cards crashed. I'm hoping it's the motherboard; I'm currently exchanging it for a replacement. I'll let you know how the second one goes.

I think I've seen positive reports of other people using multiple CPUs. Maybe hyperthreading itself was just bad.

Shayne

claudioD · Post by **claudioD** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 12:19 pm

Maybe hyperthreading itself was just bad.

I really hope so, I'd like to go to AMD64 X2, anyway please keep me updated, thanks

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:09 am

I'm doing X2 4200+ and an ASUS NVIDIA AGP card in an ASROCK-939 mobo. Awesome CPU, and the mobo has been really stable for me. Very responsive.

It's hard for me to add helpful comments on Scope in this setup however, since my Scope Pro is I believe having a hardware issue with one of the DSP's. I'll likely be sending the card in for repair...

That being said, it is running as good on this mobo as it was on the Intel 865 and 875P setups I have in the house, albeit in the same problematic state.

No problems with the dual-CPU at this point, however, or at getting things running. I think the X2 is going to be really nice in general. But like I say, I can't say anything conclusive about any PCI bus "loading" issues at this point. I'm hoping to hear if another user also gets this kind of setup and does tests on the PCI capacity with their stuff.

claudioD · Post by **claudioD** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:53 am

On 2005-10-20 02:09, ScofieldKid wrote:

I'm doing X2 4200+ and an ASUS NVIDIA AGP card in an ASROCK-939 mobo. Awesome CPU, and the mobo has been really stable for me. Very responsive.

No problems with the dual-CPU at this point, however, or at getting things running. I think the X2 is going to be really nice in general. But like I say, I can't say anything conclusive about any PCI bus "loading" issues at this point.

What about the SFP? Is it stable or does it crash sometimes? Which chipset has your mobo ?

[ This Message was edited by: claudioD on 2005-10-20 03:54 ]

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:11 am

Everything is stable. The chipset is ULi. There are reviews of the ASROCK on Tomshardware and on Anandtech.

I would add, it seems like a lot of people who have done Windows XP installs in general... suggest that you do a fresh install of Windows XP, rather than try to migrate an existing installation. In my case, I did a fresh install.

[ This Message was edited by: ScofieldKid on 2005-10-20 09:02 ]

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:53 pm

Well I have to ask... Stardust

1) is this on a clean install of XP?
2) what apps/games in particular?

My X2 is so far the fastest and most stable system I have ever owned. As for different apps being single-threaded or multi-threaded, I think that's a harder question, and yes, it's a potential issue. But as for the Scope environment, I haven't seen this as an issue on the X2... yet...

Ableton Live [ v 5.0.2 ]. No problems to speak of. Played vectron+lightwave+minimax into 3 stereo tracks, record/playback... ASIO. Seems like it is working well. Added BlueSynth+Modular+Poison... Again, no problems.

[ This Message was edited by: ScofieldKid on 2005-10-20 21:34 ]

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 7:33 am

Ah. Did some looking around on the net, and it does look like 1080p is hard to do on most hardware. Sounds like bandwidth pressure comes into play if you go anything beyond one display at 1080p. See also: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=828776 http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2573

I downloaded a couple of the WMV clips, some of the 720p and 1080p clips, and the system here was doing fine with them. Something like 1/3 total CPU at any given time... stuff like 40%+20% and 35%+35%, that kind of thing. This is a 4200+ X2 again...

If it's a newer generation NVIDIA card, he might want to get the latest Nvidia drivers [ Oct 7th?] and also apply Microsoft Hotfix 891122. It could help some.

[ This Message was edited by: ScofieldKid on 2005-10-21 18:23 ]

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:10 am

Just a followup... and clarification. The terms "hyperthreading" and "dual-core" mean different things. So when you say you needed to disable hyperthreading, yes, I think that's right. (I'm pretty old-school, so I've never been a huge fan of multi-threading. Especially because of the programming implications.)

Other related tidbit I noticed... on one site the guy says to tweak ACPI to be down from dual-proc to single-proc, you just go to: Device Manager -> computer -> ACPI uniprocessor PC (or) Device Manager -> computer -> ACPI multiprocesser PC. I believe people say you must install XP as multiprocessor to insure that you are able to switch back and forth. But this could be a useful trick if you want to eliminate dual-proc as a possible problem, i.e. cripple your system down to single-proc, and test. Then pump it back up after you determine the results. Or anyway, this should be a good way to check what mode your are running in.

[ This Message was edited by: ScofieldKid on 2005-10-31 10:12 ]

buyakasha · Post by **buyakasha** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:54 pm

Hey claudioDupgraded my . I've system about a month ago which uses AMD X2 with SFP and I can tell you that it works damn good.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:04 pm

Buyakasha, how many Scope cards do you have? 1, 2, or 3? With my x2 system, three cards crashed whenever I played around with the ULLI setting. 2 cards seemed to work better, but crashed after a half-an-hour. 1 card might work even better. But since I have three cards, I had to force Windows into single-processing mode.

Also ScofieldKid, how many cards do you have?

Shayne

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:03 pm

Just one, Scope Professional. I get 9 Masterverb Pro's... I am curious about testing in single-proc mode just to see if there is anything different at all. Since I figured out how to force "affinity" per process in the task manager [ctrl-alt-dlt], I'll try that out also. This is an ASRock/Uli chipset mobo.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 7:52 pm

OK, I should try just one card for a while in multiprocessing mode and see how far I get. If it crashes, something's wrong with my setup (though I don't know what).d

claudioD · Post by **claudioD** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:22 am

On 2005-11-03 16:54, buyakasha wrote:
Hey claudioDupgraded my . I've system about a month ago which uses AMD X2 with SFP and I can tell you that it works damn good.

which Motherboard are you using? How many Scope cards ?

buyakasha · Post by **buyakasha** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 7:24 am

I use 2 Scope pro cards (max 30 (28) DSP's plus a UAD card. My motherboard is the Gigabyte K8NS Ultra 939 using the nf3 chipset. This board has 5 PCI slots and an AGP graphics slot and supports the AMD64 dual core.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 9:24 am

Well, it looks like my motherboard is defective, then. In dual-core mode it would crash usually when I was changing the ULLI setting, but also sometimes when I would run or close the software. If it's working fine for you, something's wrong with my setup.

I'm not sure if I should try another EPoX board of the same type or go with GigaByte. I'll have to decide that.

Thanks Buyakasha and Scofieldkid!

Shayne

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 11:32 am

Another question, Buyakasha: I just looked at the manual for the Gigabyte board and saw that they tacked the LAN onto the PCI bus. Do you use that port, and does it cause any problems? I'd like to know before I order it.

Thanks again,

Shayne

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:51 pm

Note: I think that the Gigabyte approach there may actually be the smart one. MSI has a very similar board to the Gigabyte, but if memory serves me, on the MSI board they do the NVidia network. I actually think the Gigabyte setup has less potential for problems.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 12:08 am

Besides, I just glanced at the manual for my EPoX board and saw that EPoX put the FireWire port on the PCI bus, and that didn't seem to give instant overflows...and FireWire would probably take up more bandwidth than LAN. I'm sure the Gigabyte board will be OK.

I'll let you know if it works...I'll do the exchange Monday.

Shayne

claudioD · Post by **claudioD** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:05 am

I'll let you know if it works...I'll do the exchange Monday.

yes please, I'm really curious about it