How many supported CPU's?

[Arla]

Greetings all!

I'm a bit curious about the number of CPU's vista (thinking ultimate) support and utilize?

Think I read somewhere that it supports two phsysial CPU's, however..

Let's say I got a dual core with two cores (or four cores). Will vista be able to utilize all of them? Haven't been able to find an answer to that.

Quad Core CPU's should kick ass in vista if it used all of them. Does anyone know what i'm babbling about?

 

[exit2dos]

As you stated, Vista can utilize 2 physical CPUs. It does not matter how many cores are on each CPU. For example: If you get a QuadFX (which has 2 physical CPUs) when AMD releases its quadcore chips - then you can have a system with 8 cores.

 

[Arla]

Just to clarify..

Vista supports two physical cpu's, but is that the same as 'fully take advantage of'?

Sorta like.. 'I see you have two quad core cpu's which gives you 8, great I'll take advantage of them fully to speed things up'.

Or something like '8 cores, eh? great. I'll support all of them but only utilize X of them, hopefully some new program can use the rest'.

Know what i mean?

Let's say having one core is 100%, and two cores is 200% (although in reality it won't be 200), having a quad core gives 400%, etc.

Two quad cores 'give' 800%, would vista be able to utilize every core in its operations? Starting vista in no-time, etc. Not starting up 8 versions of Word or something

 

[pkellmey]

I'm not entirely sure you understand cores versus CPUs. More cores does not equal more speed, just more space to run apps in. Think of it as a highway, you can give it more lanes but the speed limit doesn't change.

 

[Arla]

Aha.. Interesting!


Guess it'll be a quad core whenever i upgrade next time.. Perhaps even this year! Thanks guys

 

[Nonymous]

As you stated, Vista can utilize 2 physical CPUs.

Just to clarify.. Vista supports two physical cpu's

Home and Home Premium editions only support/use 1 physical CPU.

In order to use two physical CPUs, you need to have Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions.

 

[exit2dos]

Did they change the license structure?

I was going by this:

MICROSOFT SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS
WINDOWS VISTA HOME BASIC
WINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM
WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE

...

2. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. Before you use the software under a license, you must
assign that license to one device (physical hardware system). That device is the “licensed device.”
A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate device.
a. Licensed Device. You may install one copy of the software on the licensed device. You may
use the software on up to two processors on that device at one time. Except as provided in the
Storage and Network Use (Ultimate edition) sections below, you may not use the software on any
other device.

http://download.microsoft.com/documents/useterms/Windows%20Vista_Home%20Premium_English_d16c019b-fa71-4fc9-a51d-a0621bddb153.pdf

I'm not saying you're wrong - just want to know if the license had been changed for the Home versions.

 

[srgess]

i think vista support over 30 or 60 core so yeah your 4 core will work, depend on what application that will be the more benefit.