CPU Virtualization And virtual cores

[alichowdry]

Hi, I am a newbie to the very techie side of computers. I have built pcs in the past and done technical things.

but i need help. what is cpu virtualization? and what does it do? I am really confused, i apologise if i am not making sense but i have an octo core fx 8320 cpu with is 4 cores, 8 threads, so when virtualization is off, am i still running on 8 threads? has virtualization got anything to do with threads?

thanks

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yes you are still running 8 threads.

The virtualization feature is only important in regards to virtual machines. It allows for you to install a virtual machine, running a second operating system, and allows the two operating systems to share those cores. For example, you could install it with a copy of Linux running all 8-threads and your system and it will both still work without issue.

If you lack CPU virtualization, then a virtual machine needs to follow a different set of coding which makes hardware support more dodgy and problematic, even if you only run a Virtual Machine with 2-cores.