Question for fellow Nehalem Mac Pro users

[Elektroakoustik]

Hello Nehalem Mac Pro users,

I was just curious about other users experience with the multi-threading to 16 virtual cores. I'm currently running my 2.26 8-core running OSX 10.6.4 and all the cores are being used, but iStat isn't showing the extra threads on each core to be used to the same amount as the other cores. I know that my software is built for running on multiple cores/threads.

Is this an OSX issue? Or a software issue? Is anyone having similar results?

I've attached a picture showing the iStat menu while my more intensive programs are running. You should be able to see that every other thread is not working as hard as the "normal" thread.

Thanks

-ea

 

[linuxcooldude]

Thats normal what your seeing. While the operating system sees two threads for every core ( 16 ) you still have only 8 real cores that actually do the processing.

The hyper-threading that does this suppose to give 20-30% more performance this way.

 

[mism]

I'm guessing that software works in different ways. I'm currently rendering in Cinema 4D on a 2 x 2.26 Nehalem, here's my iStat menu:

That's not to say that ist performing like 16 real cores would, but it appears to show them working equally, something I was initially surprised by.