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View Full Version : x2 as rendernodes (one or two nodes)

Mike RB
10-02-2005, 06:14 AM
It's all in the title, are x2's a good buy for rendernodes? One case, one MB... 2 nodes. Has anyone had decent results running an x2 as 2 nodes and gotten decent (ie 2x) results over what one of the cores would perform by themselves? And I guess you put 4 gigs of ram in there, 2gb for each node/core? And they can use that properly?

Thanks.

Mike
SheepFactory
10-02-2005, 06:16 AM
You cannot have dual x2's on the same mobo as far as I know. You need the opteron dualcores todo that.
Mike RB
10-02-2005, 06:26 AM
No, I'm talking about a single x2. One PC. One CPU, 2 cores. What I'm asking is can this "one CPU" be put to work on a farm as 2 nodes and still get full performance from each core. Does windows see it as a single CPU, or as 2? IF WIN sees it as 2, then it should work the same as a dual CPU setup in terms of performance.

Mike
lots
10-02-2005, 06:56 AM
One dual core is practically the same thing as a computer with two CPUs (single core). So yes, it would count as two nodes.
Coliba
10-02-2005, 02:34 PM
A note if you'll be using Win2K, you have to specify your machine as a multi processor machine from System>Device Manager and then Computer. You just load the driver for multiprocessor operation, that's all. Otherwise Win2K will see the X2 as a single processor.
Mike RB
10-07-2005, 05:51 PM
Thanks, I'm definately going to go with 2 x2 4400 stations, one as my new workstation, one as a rendernode, for a total of 4 nodes when im not working. 2 or 3? when im working. (Would you feel a perfomance hit if you rendered on one of the cores while you worked?)

Mike
lots
10-07-2005, 06:25 PM
For kicks on my dual workstation (2 246 Opterons, very similar performance wise to an X2 3800) I ran all the movies I could while playing around in lightwave (nothing complex though) and all seemed to run just fine...
Arcon
10-07-2005, 11:17 PM
(Would you feel a perfomance hit if you rendered on one of the cores while you worked?)

Mike

if windows allows you to set affinity with the dual cores then probably not. i wish maya had better GUI control with dual cpu and dual core renders, like with the Render Into New Window command, it would be cool if there was a quick menu flag that would limit rendering to a single core/cpu so maya wouldn't hang.
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10-07-2005, 11:17 PM
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