High load applications and but surplus cores question.

[413x]

Hi

Planning what Pc to buy next and thinking at least hexacore

One problem I find atm is that an application uses all 4+4 cores and I can't use the PC basically due to near 100% utilisation
Now what I effectively would like is to have 1 or 2 cores spare while running such tasks so I can still work with the PC
The particular application I'm using I think is limited to 8 cores.
Thus a hypertheaded hexacore would hopefully have 2 cores spare

Will windows assign any extra work to these empty cores so effectively I have a lag free system?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Alternatively you could just build another smaller cheap PC(or buy a cheapo nettop) and use a KVM.

 

[JonSmith]

If you set the application to run with a lower level of priority you should be able to use the PC no problem. You can start an application in such a way or right click on it in task manager and change the priority to below normal or low.

 

[413x]

Alternatively you could just build another smaller cheap PC(or buy a cheapo nettop) and use a KVM.

Surely that's a lot more hassle and cost if I will be getting a hexacore anyway. There will be times that I want all cores working on the project too (and other stuff)

If you set the application to run with a lower level of priority you should be able to use the PC no problem. You can start an application in such a way or right click on it in task manager and change the priority to below normal or low.

I would have thought I would loose more that way than I would with the yes/no?
Maybe I won't. I'm not sure on that

 

[Five.Stars]

Windows 8?

If so just do this...

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/24086-processor-affinity-set-applications-windows-8-a.html

 

[JonSmith]

Surely that's a lot more hassle and cost if I will be getting a hexacore anyway. There will be times that I want all cores working on the project too (and other stuff)




I would have thought I would loose more that way than I would with the yes/no?
Maybe I won't. I'm not sure on that

You were talking about disabling cores, which will cut the performance of the application constantly by a fixed amount and is far more drastic than I proposed. By lowering the priority the performance will only be reduced whilst you are using the system by the exact percentage you are using it. So if you're browsing it'll use say 5% of the CPU rather than losing 50% from disabling half the cores.

 

[joeyjojo]

If you want a responsive machine just launch this "application" with 3 threads (or 6 if it benefits from hyperthreading but make sure to set the affinity correctly). One will be kept free for the interactive session.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Surely that's a lot more hassle and cost if I will be getting a hexacore anyway. There will be times that I want all cores working on the project too (and other stuff)

One of my mates is in a similar situation too,as he runs bioinformatics based stuff for weeks or months at a time meaning his desktop is barely useful for other stuff for long periods. He cannot even play any games during those periods for example.

He does have a laptop which does help,but ultimately we both think him having a dedicated PC for his work and another PC for other stuff eventually will make more sense in the longterm.

 

[413x]

If I was running bioinformatics I would definitely be wanting a headless machine.

For what I do it isn't everyday and might only be an hour or two. Not more than half a day (so far)

To be clear I wasn't talking about disabling a core, but restricting an app from accessing it

Looks like the affinity option is the way to go.
I have tried to use a Bat ffile but for some reason it doesn't seem to work
It does work in task manager

High priority and 3 cores uses 75pc and Windows seems to know to put excel etc onto the empty core automatically

Seems like with 6 cores and 12 threads I may not need to. I can't find if it supports more than 4 cores

And it's windows 7 64 FYI and new machine will be too

 

[413x]

To round this off for now

Have managed make batch file work. This launches the application in question with access to 3 of the 4 threads on laptop with a high priority.
Allows it to use almost all of the 3 threads without touching the last