dual CPUs not working hard

[rallynavvie]

I picked up a new system that I want to use almost exclusively for DV stuff. It has a Tyan 2460 motherboard with 2 AMD 1900+MP CPUs in it. I installed TMPGEnc Plus on the new system but the processors aren't going to 100% according to the task manager display. On my old PC with a 1.6GHz P4 the task manager showed the CPU going to 100% during encoding. On the new system both fluctuate between 50-70% each and don't go all the way to 100%. Am I setting something in TMPGEnc wrong? Should I enable multi-threading even though it says to enable it for more than 2 processors? The way it's worded is confusing. Or perhaps it will never go to 100% on both CPUs? Curious, though it is still faster than the old system. Maybe I can put the 1GB of ECC RAM to use somehow too.

Thanks for the help!

[mrtristan]

Sounds about right. I just built a dual cpu system myself. My processors fluctuate between 70-90%, though. Ocassionally, they peak at 100%.

You need to enable the multithreading in order to utilize both cpus, but tmpgenc should do it automatically for you.

I also have 1Gig of ECC RAM. From my experience, anything over 512MB doesn't speed up encoding times.

Your cpu in slot 0 will run a little hotter than the one in slot 1. It will also usually run at a slightly higher workload than the second processor. I don't know why, but it's something that happens in dual cpu systems.

[Bumstead]

I agree, CPU not reaching 100% is a good thing. They only work as hard as they have to. I'm quite envious BTW.

[WeedVender]

Athlon MP 1900?

Be careful with that one....
If the Heat Sink or fan start to fail... goodbye CPU in 3 seconds...
What operating System are you using because I think some of them that support Dual systems have an optimizer deep in the windows gui...

[rallynavvie]

I've heard the horror stories of Athlon MP processors and their overheating issues, but I've never seen them greater than 52ºC even after a long encoding session. I'm getting a DigitalDoc5 fan/temp/voltage meter for a 5.25" bay to help keep track of things. I think I can program the Tyan system monitor to shut things down if something gets too hot. The Doc5 also will warn me if a fan isn't running properly so I can replace it before it actually goes. System came with good fans all around and massive heatsinks for the CPUs.

I'm running XP SP1. Multithreading was not enabled in TMPGEnc as well as I don't know what settings I should have under that option. I was worried I may wreck things trying to turn something on that I shouldn't.

I love the new system as it allows me to do most of my work a lot easier than on my old system. I do some local work putting people's home movies on DVD for archival or fun. At upwards of $200 per DVD I master (with editing) I can afford to put more money into the system. I'd like to shop for a hardware MPEG encoder/decoder card so I can do some realtime work. I'm still clueless as to what's a true MPEG card and what isn't as some TV cards say they have MPEG yet I see realtime stuff like Canopus' DV Storm/Raptor bundles and wonder why they're worth more than $1000. I'd like to have realtime functionality on Maestro and Premiere, but first things first I need to get my CPUs working.

[WeedVender]

Weed asks you why are you charging people $200 for DVD encoding?
(I charge my family $300)

[rallynavvie]

I charge little because I'm just starting. Prices go up once I'm established and have more practice at this. The editing I'm doing is really basic as I wouldn't feel comfortable editing other people's home videos without them storyboarding the whole thing beforehand. $200 per disc for pretty basic MiniDV to DVD is enough to get me more components for my system for now

Anyone have some dual processor settings I could use as a guide for my own in TMPGEnc?

[Bumstead]

Turn on multi-threading. That's what it's there for. It won't hurt anything.

[rallynavvie]

Indeed, multithreading was what I was missing. With 1GB ECC RAM I should be able to flag the other two options that say they require more memory as well. Did my first benchmark test with TMPGEnc today. What took me 2.5 hours before now only took me 1.5 hours. That's pretty significant. Temps levelled out at 55ºC for CPU2 (the one that runs hotter) and didn't get any higher. What else uses dual processors that I can play with?