Cheap computer for SL.

[xFetisch]

Hi! Simple question. I am buying a rather cheap pc this holiday season that has a lot of space for upgrades as I get the money.

I am simply wondering if this would run SL on low setting until I buy my new graphics card in maybe a month or so.

 

Specs:

AMD A6-5200 Accelerated Processor 2.00GHz 2MB Cache

8GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 SDRAM memory 2x4GB (expandable to 16GB)

1TB 7200RPM Serial ATA Hard drive

AMD Radeon HD 8400 Graphics

 

The gfx card is a crap shoot. I know, but right now I have to deal with what I can.

So does anyone think it will run SL on low for a month or two?

[Madelaine McMasters]

You might get better bang for your buck from a PC with a faster dual core CPU, rather than the slower quad core unit in your spec list. SL will use only one CPU core, and unless you plan to run several other applications at the same time, the remaining three cores are not likely to have much to do. A dual core processor at the same price might have a faster core clock speed and deliver better performance on the core that's running SL.

I also notice that the CPU in your candidate PC is designed for a notebook, which makes me wonder if the power supply in that box won't be too small to handle an eventual upgrade to a whizzy graphics card. And I further wonder if the case will be large enough to accomodate a full size, fat graphics card.

Can you provide more information?

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

SL will use only one CPU core

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I was under the impression that this, while once so, is no longer the case... when you have multithreading enabled (which is enabled by default with ALM turned on).

..Dres

[VRprofessor]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

I also notice that the CPU in your candidate PC is designed for a notebook, which makes me wonder if the power supply in that box won't be too small to handle an eventual upgrade to a whizzy graphics card. And I further wonder if the case will be large enough to accomodate a full size, fat graphics card.

Can you provide more information?

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Madelaine has a point--a notebook is unlikely to have any room for expantion.

And if it happens to be a desktop you will want to check the power supply to make sure you can add a graphics card at a later date.  Even a fairly modest GPU will require a 350w power supply while 300w is "standard."  A nicer GPU will want an even larger power supply.  And if you do a great deal more tricking out, you'll likely need more power.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

SL will use only one CPU core

---

I was under the impression that this, while once so, is no longer the case... when you have multithreading enabled (which is enabled by default with ALM turned on).

..Dres

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I have ALM enabled on my Mac and don't see my SL CPU usage exceed 100%, which would be two threads on one CPU, although there's no way to know if the 100% I see is split across two CPUs. I have a quad core machine and I've seen my video editing software wind up all four cores, but never SL. I just visited a moderately populated sim and watched my CPU usage  run around 60% with a peak at 95%.

I'll defer to you on this Dres, as I haven't followed discussions of mullti-threading. Do you (or anyone else? Feel free to join in!) have a performance meter of some kind that can show you CPU usage when you're running SL? I don't know how PC tools would show that, but on a Mac, the meter indicates 100% as being the equivalent of one CPU core, so my Mac's total CPU usage across all processes would never exceed 400%. It would be nice if the tool could show which threads are running on which cores, so there'd be proof that SL was running across multiple CPUs.

If SL can now work across multiple cores, the question becomes one of balancing the number of cores it can keep busy against the speed penalty of purchasing four cores on the same budget as two. At the same price, two core machines offer higher clock speeds than four.

[Sassy Romano]

Madeline, open task manager and in the Process column, show the "Threads" count.  Currently Firestorm reports 22 threads for me.

It remains at 22 with ALM on or off.

[Monty Linden]

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

I was under the impression that this, while once so, is no longer the case...

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As a data point...  a windows viewer performing texture and mesh downloads can keep 1.75-2.5 cores busy averaged over many seconds.  Burst demand can be higher.  Steady state after all assets are resident on the host will be lower. 

[Madelaine McMasters]

I'm on a Mac, Sassy. My Activity Monitor shows 17 threads running, though I can't tell whether they're distributed across multiple cores. My Mac generally won't spin up additional cores unless the OS calculates that'll result in improved performance, as it must shut down Turbo clocking when all four cores are active.

I just loaded the "Project Interesting" viewer, which won't do advanced lighthing, even though it's using at least 50% more compute power than the old viewer to do exactly the same thing. I did see the CPU meter spike over 100% for the first time in my years of watching SL activity, so Dres' claim that SL can now run on multiple cores may be evidenced in this new viewer. Although it's also possible that a process can go over 100% if only two cores are active and Turbo is on.

@Monty,

Advance lighting doesn't work on the Mac version of the Project Interesting Viewer.

[Sassy Romano]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

Advance lighting doesn't work on the Mac version of the Project Interesting Viewer.

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PC version supports it but it was odd, I still felt that the sort order was wrong with some distant things loading then walls appearing in front of me.  Caching was definitely better but overall the initial feeling in a freshly arrived at region didn't feel that much different in a busy place.

I hope this won't be like SSA which probably gave good results in certain circumstances with older PC's but in very busy areas and someone with a good PC, the overall beneficial effect isn't realised.  I couldn't really load up my processor that much either.

Ok, improvements are improvements but this one doesn't excite me compared with say oh... compiling IN the clothing deformer that is already done.

[Exiveria Ornitz]

I don't understand why you would want to pair such an incredibly powerful video card (that hasn't even been released yet) with that crappy APU.