Octo-mac with bootcamp - Win 7 > XP sp2?

[glowrider]

I've got a rev A 8-core Mac Pro with 10gb of ram. I'm using it mostly for re-encoding video (bd-rebuilder).

Will windows 7 be faster/use the cores better than xp sp2? Want to get the most optimized situation possible. It seems like there is a ton of speed being left on the table...

Thx.

 

[ayeying]

I've got a rev A 8-core Mac Pro with 10gb of ram. I'm using it mostly for re-encoding video (bd-rebuilder).

Will windows 7 be faster/use the cores better than xp sp2? Want to get the most optimized situation possible. It seems like there is a ton of speed being left on the table...

Thx.

Windows 7 with 64bit will allow the usage of all 10GB ram. XP SP2 will only allow ~3GB of ram due to the 32bit limitation.

 

[balamw]

Windows 7 with 64bit will allow the usage of all 10GB ram. XP SP2 will only allow ~3GB of ram due to the 32bit limitation.

Also, you didn't say which edition of XP or 7 but you need Professional to enable both processors and thus 8 cores. Home will limit you to one processor, 4 cores.

Doesn't look like bd-rebuilder is built as a 64 bit app, so it may not help that much...

B

 

[glowrider]

I don't know what version beyond XP SP2.

Even if BD-rebuilder isn't a 64-bit app, shouldn't it still see a major speed bump if the OS is able to utilize all the cores and ram?

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

I don't know what version beyond XP SP2.

Even if BD-rebuilder isn't a 64-bit app, shouldn't it still see a major speed bump if the OS is able to utilize all the cores and ram?

Windows 7 will definitely be faster. I am 99% sure you're running a 32-bit version of Windows XP. Windows 7 is not only more appealing to the eye but in my opinion runs apps much better than XP.

 

[glowrider]

I'm going to look into setting up a partition on my current bootcamp disk to try this out at some point. I dedicated an entire hard drive just to Win XP - hopefully the boot camp assistant will make this simple enough to have both installed side-by-side since you can't upgrade XP to 7 in BC (lame).

 

[Transporteur]

Windows 7 is optimised for multiple processors whereas XP can't really handle more than 2 cores very well.
So you'd definitely get a speed bump from using 7 (Pro) over XP.