questions about numerical simulations on dual core w/ 64-bit vista

[nonlinear]

hi,

i have a relatively new lenovo, and it's my first time with a dual core and also first time with vista. i can run simulations in parallel, but right now am just running on a single 'core." i just have a couple of dumb questions since i'm new to this pc.

1) what is the best way to view performance of the process? right now i'm in control panel>computer management>CPU, and it's only using 50% of the CPU and for some reason i can't see both cores.

2) the CPU is running around 50% and occasionally peaks. does this mean that one core is running at 100% and one just above 0, and showing both cores on one plot means 100% = 50%. (does that make sense).

3) is there any way to tell vista to dedicate a single core to the simulation process? and to give 'er 100%???

thanks guys :thumbsup:

[eblend]

It should show you both cores...if it doesn't you got a problem.

In vista, same place where you monitor CPU you can also press a button for Resource Monitor, gives you a better idea of what is going on.

[nonlinear]

ok, well this is what i see. am i missing something here?

http://h.imagehost.org/0508/Untitled_2.jpg (http://h.imagehost.org/view/0508/Untitled_2)

[schocker]

If you click on cpu there you can see which core # the different processes are using, or you could also use a sidebar gadget if you have that turned on, I use all cpu meter and it shows % and graphs for each core.

[nonlinear]

i turned that sidebar thing off at some point and don't know how to get it back on haha


but when i click on CPU in the computer management, the only columns are: Image, PID, Description, Threads, CPU, and Average CPU. where is it supposed to tell me what core?

[Grogador]

I don't know/use Vista, but typically 50% usage means 100% of one core in a dual-core system.

Perhaps try Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx) for a better view?

[nonlinear]

ok, i got the sidebar up, here is what it shows

http://h.imagehost.org/0007/Untitled_7.jpg (http://h.imagehost.org/view/0007/Untitled_7)

wtf is that? why isn't there any help in the sidebar for those gadgets? argh!!!

[schocker]

That is the generic gadget.
Here is the link for the specific one i was talking about
http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=587ef54f-e121-418b-b258-e583e105a0d6

[nonlinear]

ok great, now i see core 1 at 17% and core 2 at about 80-90%. nice.

Now, does anyone know if I can tell vista to give priority to my simulation so that it can use 100% of one core?

EDIT: WEIRD. now it just switched cores, so one is now 'relaxing' at 18% and the other one is at 80-90?

[Grogador]

Well, in WinXP you simply go into the Task Manager, right-click on a process and "Set Affinity" to whichever core, then "Set Priority" to realtime :tumbsup:

[nonlinear]

oh right on. right now both CPU 0 and CPU 1 are checked. so, i wonder if it's best to set affinity to only one and set priority to realtime? then, do I need to set the affinity for all of all the other running processes to the other core? and does this 'reset' when i reboot?

[Grogador]

Personally I'd let Windows' scheduler do its thing, it 'probably' knows best on how to distribute load based on bus/processor/memory architecture and performance. Try increasing the priority, and see if everything else flips to the other core, or if the system becomes sluggish/overloaded. All of your settings would reset every time you restarted the process, or maybe even each time it forked a child, as each instance would have a new PID.

Does the application itself have any interesting multi-core or priority settings?

[nonlinear]

^^groovy, thanks man.

just the ability to have different domains run on the same processor or in parallel, which i haven't played with yet because this is my first time doing this on a dual core.