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old software + dual core = ???

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tomos:
I'm looking at buying a new computer*

Someone told me some older software might have problems working with dual core processors -
I've never heard that - anyone have any opinions there?

I still have, for example, Photoshop 5.5 - I've often considered upgrading but really find it's always done what i need - besides I would have needed a new computer to run a more recent version - it would be ironic if buying a new computer then forces me to upgrade...

thanks,
tom

* (Struggling between getting a cheap online built PC or getting a lot more expensive one built locally)

mwb1100:
I wouldn't worry about it.

I think those kinds of problems are very, very rare. You'd probably have a higher likelihood of problems if you had something that used an ancient device driver.

If you do encounter problems, there are several fixes/workarounds, including being able to disable the 2nd core in BIOS settings.

A less drastic approach can be found fromthe July 2006 issue of CPU magazine:

Kill The Core

If you have a dual-core system, you already know you can press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to open the Task Manager and keep tabs on both cores via the Performance tab. Task Manager has a few other tricks that will let you use both cores as efficiently as possible.

By default, Windows assigns process threads to each core so that the two balance the load as evenly as possible. This is great because spikes in processor usage don’t bring all running apps to a halt as they would in a single-CPU environment. Some apps refuse to run in this configuration, but it is possible to force particular processes to use a particular core. Select the Processes tab, right-click a process’ entry, and click Set Affinity. Uncheck the CPU box that you don’t want the process to use, and the app will only run on the core that remains checked.

Unfortunately, Set Affinity is a single-use fix. Shut the app down, fire it up again, and it will try to access both cores again. To permanently force a program to use one core, download RunFirst (free; www.activeplus.com/us/freeware/runfirst), which can permanently make any program use the first core. ImageCFG (free; www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.php) lets you force any program to use either core.

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tomos:
thanks mwb  :up:

It's good to know something can be done about it if a problem arises

Grorgy:
I read a review about this somewhere to because I was interested when i went to a dual core, they said that the worst they had experienced was that the older programs didnt take advantage of the dual cores, which made me feel more comfortable about it. And there is always the fix above if something does go wrong

Laughing Man:
Usually doesn't benefit from dual core (or suffer usually). That's pretty much. Though with emulators it's pretty funny cause they'll run at an extremely fast rate that you can't even see anything. Though that's why you activate the framerate limiter lol.

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