Thoumsin - I doubt your dual Xeon setup can match a 6 core i7 extreme. Seriously.

Well, it mean that most programmers are bad programmers

Because SSE adds floating point support, it seen much more used than MMX. The addition of SSE2's integer support makes SSE even more flexible. While MMX is redundant, operations can be operated in parallel with SSE operations offering further performance increases in some situations.

SSE3 add a handful of DSP-oriented mathematics instructions and some process (thread) management instructions.

SSSE3 add 16 new opcodes which include permuting the bytes in a word, multiplying 16-bit fixed-point numbers with correct rounding, and within-word accumulate instructions.

SSE4 add a dot product instruction, additional integer instructions, a popcnt instruction, and more.

Each SSE version is simply a add-on for the previous version... a stand alone SSE4 will never work...

In some way, x86 instruction code are the foundation of the building... each time that a add-on instruction set is created ( MMX, SSE, etc ), it is like we add a new level to the building... destroy one level and all level up are destroy too... one day, it will not more be possible to add level due to the weak and old x86 foundation without having the full building to crash... and it will be the begin of a really new architecture... optronic, quantum, chimical, biological computer can be these next generation... these that we see in sci-fi film/series...

Hardware is only one side of the computer world... software is very important too... from my personal point of view, i will like very much a computer who work like in the following video at the software level : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W52TL9Akv4 ... fully integration of several application, less use of keyboard or mouse, AI, etc...

sorry kona, BUT the number of cores is only one part of performance, an example try your 6 core with slow ram, the change the ram to fast ram and note the performance difference,eg slow 1333mhz, fast 2ghz you will find the computer is a LOT more responsive with the faster ram as you have 6 cores waiting for the ram to deliver the information to the core,and the faster ram causes less waiting, and is what thoumsin is saying regarding the QPI/northbridge (RAM) DATA transfer rates (the bigger the better) and also the (drives) southbridge rates (again the bigger the better).

harpo

Basically, the way I see it is:

1. Make a 64-bit version of your games, if you can.

2. If that's too expensive, at least turn on the Large Address Aware bit, so that people with the /3GB switch enabled or running a 64-bit OS can take advantage of 3 or 4 GB of virtual address space, respectively. I wrote a console program that will turn on LAA on an arbitrary program from the command line; I have tested it extensively with SOASE, Elemental and GalCiv 2, and have been unable to trigger an "Out of Memory" error or any other type of crash with the LAA flag on, while the same games running the same mods crash regularly due to running out of virtual address space with LAA disabled. If you don't want to use my program "pelaa", which is understandable, then check the stupid box in the Visual Studio solution that says "Enable Large Address Aware" (the MSVC++ compiler flag is /LARGEADDRESSAWARE). If you can't even be arsed to check a box then you have no business telling other people what OS they should be running...

He's got a point though.  I don't really understand why that flag wasn't used.  I can't imagine we're the only ones.

I'm sure there's a reason, it just doesn't make sense to us.

Exactly. The sooner someone relise it the better for him. Well said Thoumsin.

done and dusted... 

I love Windows XP- and don't have the money right now to upgrade-   Maybe in a few years.  For now I need to be content with what my funds permit.---     My father has Windows 7  64 bit and it is awesome but yet alot of the programs I love that  are installed on my XP PC are not compatible on his 64 bit PC.    

   While all of you electronics whizzes are enjoying your Windows 8's and beyond ,  this ole gal finally broke down and purchased a really great deal on a Windows 7 Home Premium Desktop 64 bit 'puter and 20" flat screen moniter.  --I love it!- it has a  8 GB memory (cuz I had 4 more GB's added) and I have a modem plug in so I can still use dial up..lol!    My dial up is much much faster now- and I will be keeping that (at only $12.95 a month, it's worth it)   while also hooking up to high speed internet very soon .     I know, don't yawn.. but for this ole 'tech turtle, my overtime at work really ended up being a blessing-  I Got alot of my credit card debt paid off and have my budget arranged so that all of it (except used car payment) will be paid off by late June, and with the good Lord's help will definitely have this Best Buy bill paid off long before the free interest expires..thank God!     

The moniter was a special order Asus 20 " screen for only $109.  and the HP computer was only $399.   on Best Buy's president's day sale.    I'm so thrilled, cuz now I will soon renew my Stardock subscription and will have a blast downloading all those enticing Windows 7 skins.. muahhahaa! 

Just want you all to know that many of the Windows 7 Windowblind skins actually DO look nice on my Windows XP OS--  so if you still have Windows XP, you may find that to be the case as well.    

I added a cable so that I can still enjoy my Windows XP and shift back and forth from the same moniter to my new Windows 7 at whim..    This Ole gal is in Geek  Heaven right now with my shift/lock key --  Windows 7 is truly beautiful and I get to keep my Windows XP goodies as well.

Whoa, yet another thread necro...happening alot at the moment...