Which everyday-use software can I get to fully benefit from dual-core technology? aka Which are multi-threaded?

Which everyday-use software can I get to fully benefit from dual-core technology? aka Which are multi-threaded?

I was wondering if there were any everyday-use software out there that were better than others at using both processors.. By everyday-use, I mean software like browsers (firefox), multimedia players (rhythmbox, amarock), office suites (open office), file explorers (nautilus), etc. Do these software even use both my cores or is one of them just sleeping? In other words, which everyday-use software are multi-threaded and can benefit from having a dual core even if they are the only software running?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 282

Total answers/comments: 2

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Guest [Entry]

"Any application that uses threads should perform better on a multicore machine as the different threads can be assigned to different cores. However, if the threads need to access same resource (memory location, file, I/O port etc.) then the performance won't be any better than on a single core machine.

Where you do gain benefit is in being able to run two processor intensive applications at the same time, or have one running and still be able to browse the internet, answer e-mails, listen to music etc. as these other applications use the other processor."

Guest [Entry]

Almost all "heavy" software will benefit visibly, video-editing and rendering, image-editing (Photoshop and such), compiling. The best thing probably is that you will still have a somewhat responsive computer instead of one that's completely tied up with the "big" task at hand.