Am I using all my computers potential?

F

fedspunisher

New Member
I have a new 64 bit computer with a 2.8Ghz Intel Pentium D with 4 GB of RAM and a Nvidia Quadro FX 4500. Im running Solidworks 2007 64 bit and whenever it its working really hard and i open up task manager it says its only using 50% of my CPU. Is this a good thing or am i not using all of the power i have on tap??

Thanks

Eric
 
Last edited:
You are using all that you can with one program. Since you have a dual core processor, when a program is utilizing one core, you use 50% of the available power. To use all 100% of your resources, you would need to have a multithreaded programs, or multitask with multiple programs at the same time.
 
So i would have been better off with a different processor? Or is there away to use both cores for one program? Basically all i ever run is solidworks all day everyday. Except when im waiting for it to do something then i surf the web.

Eric
 
fedspunisher said:
So i would have been better off with a different processor? Or is there away to use both cores for one program? Basically all i ever run is solidworks all day everyday. Except when im waiting for it to do something then i surf the web.

Eric
Click to expand...

The processor you have is great for what you do, unless you are unsatisfied with the performance of it.
 
dual core has no disadvantages compared to single core, so the processor you have is fine. if you want to have the program go faster, a core 2 duo is the best processor on the market right now... a core 2 duo e6300 (1.86ghz) would perform much faster than your processor believe it or not.
an e6600 is what id get if i were buying a new proc anytime soon though.
 
It all comes down to the mind. The program you are using probably has fine performance - but since you know that its using only 50% of sys resources, you get a feeling that its not running at its maximum potential (aka slower, when its actually fast). BTW, when you run 2 programs at once, do you get 100% cpu utilization?

Dont worry, your system is fine.
 
if its dual core, and its using 50% cpu then its a single threaded application and the cpu probably is bottlenecking. of course, the cpu bottlenecks in a lot of applications (which is why there are two companies that specialize in designing cpus)... as long as it goes fast enough for you then its fine. if you want it to go quicker a faster cpu is a good upgrade.
 
The thing is i never run more then one high demand program at a time and i dont know if you know how Solidworks operated but everytime you make a change it has to rebuild the model. So i make the change and spend up to 15 minutes waiting for it to process the changes i just made. Out of the 4GB of RAM i never use more then 1.5GB at a time. Is there anyway to see if its possible to use both cores for this program? The Processor Affinity is set to both CPUs. Would it be good to set that so that Solid works uses CPU1 and everything else uses CPU0 so that solidworks has one to itself?? (i dont really know how this works just throwing things out there. its my computer at work and they just spent 4,000 on it i dont think they want me to buy a new processor thats why im trying to do the best with what i have)
 
Last edited:
taskmanager will let you set the affinity for each program. i throw alot of the stuff on the second core, and run my main stuff off the first. i don't know if it makes a difference or not. anybody know if it does or not?
 
on the processes tab, right click on a process and click set affinity. then choose which core you want it to run on.
 
pdc76 said:
taskmanager will let you set the affinity for each program. i throw alot of the stuff on the second core, and run my main stuff off the first. i don't know if it makes a difference or not. anybody know if it does or not?
Click to expand...

It would probably run better if you let Windows manage it, that way Windows will split up the programs and services so there is equal load on both, instead of one running at neat 100%, while the other is only at 25%.
 
well, you never know unless you ask. thanks, i will let windows do it. i wasn't sure before if it was beneficial or not.
 
The only way that program will run faster is if you get a better processor, the core 2 duos are the best choice.
Any given single core processor will perform worse. The core 2 duos are insanely fast(about 40% faster then your CPU).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top