Question about Barefeats GTX285 gaming benchmark

[24usedtorock]

"Test "Mule" was the Nehalem Mac Pro 8-core running at 2.93GHz (12G of RAM)."

From what I understand, the above configuration could actually slow down frame-rate because it is unnecessary extra hardware?

Would frame-rate improve slightly by using a Quad-Core Mac Pro with 6GB of RAM, or am I not understanding?

(And assuming this is on OSX, but you can answer both ways).

 

[VirtualRain]

"Test "Mule" was the Nehalem Mac Pro 8-core running at 2.93GHz (12G of RAM)."

From what I understand, the above configuration could actually slow down frame-rate because it is unnecessary extra hardware?

Would frame-rate improve slightly by using a Quad-Core Mac Pro with 6GB of RAM, or am I not understanding?

(And assuming this is on OSX, but you can answer both ways).

I've never heard of extra hardware (e.g. extra cores, memory, etc.) slowing down a game!?

 

[ventro]

Sorry but that is one of the most ridiculous things i've ever heard.

 

[10THzMac]

I think a more reasoned response is called for. It is perfectly possible for a piece of software that uses one part of the hardware to be slowed down by the overhead of using other hardware that the particular software does not employ. I was just playing with some Cuda apps over the weekend with one and two 285 GPUS in my Mac Pro, and the Mac 285 would do over 100,000 calcs in a fixed time on its own, but just over 80,000 when in a pair. Of course the other card was also doing 80,000, so that the total was 160,000, but there was clearly an overhead in just managing two groups. I think it is possible for an app that does not use more than one group of cores to be slowed down by the presence of another group. If something is well written it is unlikely to happen but I do not think this is a stupid question.

 

[Cuda]

It would be worth some benchmarking, to find out, as the Quad Mac Pro is not even the same CPU as the DQ.

Also, the Quad is not sharing board resources with another Chip, so it could benefit from greater bandwidth etc.

RobArt?

 

[24usedtorock]

It would be worth some benchmarking, to find out, as the Quad Mac Pro is not even the same CPU as the DQ.

Also, the Quad is not sharing board resources with another Chip, so it could benefit from greater bandwidth etc.

RobArt?

I think a more reasoned response is called for. It is perfectly possible for a piece of software that uses one part of the hardware to be slowed down by the overhead of using other hardware that the particular software does not employ. I was just playing with some Cuda apps over the weekend with one and two 285 GPUS in my Mac Pro, and the Mac 285 would do over 100,000 calcs in a fixed time on its own, but just over 80,000 when in a pair. Of course the other card was also doing 80,000, so that the total was 160,000, but there was clearly an overhead in just managing two groups. I think it is possible for an app that does not use more than one group of cores to be slowed down by the presence of another group. If something is well written it is unlikely to happen but I do not think this is a stupid question.

Thanks guys.

How about testing it barefeats, (or anyone with the "entry level" 2009 Mac Pro ).