No less caffeine is the problem I had a pretty annoying headache.

I've tried going off caffeine.  I can make it about three weeks before I get incredibly frustrated and go right back on it :p

And people think Gen Y are the Dew addicts, hah.

The point is even the floating point unit was not in the 8086.  Most programmers nowadays don't even support below SSE2.

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

Performance is not all about the processor itself but related to the general motherboard block diagram...

By example, on a i7, link between processor and SouthBridge is called DMI ( direct media interface ) with a max speed of 10 Gb/sec... On Xeon, it is called ESI ( Enterprise SouthBridge interface ) with a max speed of 20/Gb/sec... in my case, i have two ESI line...

Other example, i7 extreme edition have a single 6.4 GT/S QPI... modern Xeon use a full four-quadrant interface to achieve 25.6 GB/s... my older Xeon can use 8 serial line when 8 bank are populated and reach a max speed 32 GB/s using full buffered DDR2...

Bios from server board are somehow more complex that these of desktop board... my best benchmark is not reach by using windows because a lot of my best bios option is tagged "not with windows"... these option will work with Linux, Unix, MAC OS x, Solaris, etc... a example is the "Discrete MTTR Allocation" who achieve better and faster graphic effect with a computer having more that 4GB RAM...

Of course, i am pretty sure that a today Xeon will win without any problem when compare to my 4 year old Xeon... Point is Xeon general architecture have more performance that desktop processor... recent i7 extreme slowly reach the level of my system... but if i upgrade, i will remain with Xeon... i7 extreme are overprized when related to their performance... it is not without reason that professional remain with Xeon ( or Opteron )... in some way, it is like compare a top consumer car and a Formule One car...

And performance have a tag price too... have use a 15000$ MAC PRO configuration for model... using other brand like supermicro have allow to reach a good price tag of 5000$ but these remain a high price when compare to desktop... without speaking of my power use who is around the 1.3 kw/h !

Well, i am happy with my actual system... before, with Desktop computer, for keep performance related to the latest game, i was obligate to buy a new computer each year... it have turn that my workstation allow me to remain a more long time running new top game without the feel the need to upgrade... 

Point is that general performance is not only related to the processor only... motherboard layout is very important too... that Desktop processor will always be limited when related to Server processor... like Desktop windows OS is a limited version of the server one...

In the future, Intel wish make processor who are all identical, where feature are unlocked by buying a license for the feature... hope that it will happen... somebody will be able to start with a low performance low price processor, and slowly enable more core, more cache, more feature by buying license...

Well, it mean that most programmers are bad programmers :p

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...

Performance IS about the CPU itself. Are you crazy? The i7 simply has more cores than a Xeon. That means it can do more.

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

Ok, i will follow your logic... you speak of a single i7 with 6 cores... in my case, i speak of 2 Xeon with quad cores, good for a total of 8 cores... to my knowledge, 8 is more that 6 !!!

CPU scores of a i7 980x 6 cores extreme edition overclock at 4132 mhz is 38572,86 bogomips... my old dual quad core xeon at 2.66 ghz have a score of 42668.08 bogomips...

Any way, i don't agree that performance is only CPU related... performance is related to the whole computer... by example, guys with top graphic card who allow the use of CUDA, can reach greater performance because some processing charge can be moved from the CPU to the GPU... or, why the need to have fast processor is the memory who feed the CPU is slow and cannot follow...

By the way, there is Xeon with 8 cores and Opteron with 12 cores... i7 have a single QPI, Xeon/Opteron have 4 of them... etc ...

Finaly, NO, i am not crazy... well, not fully :p

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...

"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..."

Stardock isn't "just" about games ....;p

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.

I can't seem to download your tool, but I did find this guy which claims to do the same thing for any app http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

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

ouch, to be straight forward if

Thoumsin is using modern xeon cpus i dunno if he has a dual cpu board that thing could actually run stabler and faster and if thats true i have to take my old comment back.Those Cpus are like 2,000 USD  each ! and mostly used in modern servers some of the "insanes" sorry use them as personal computers but building a rig in that price category is over the top if your able to afford such a system you could also buy windows 7 since the price of the ultimate version would be peanuts against the price of the rig..Also you couldnt compare that since there is no mainboard thats capable of holding 2 I7´s at the time.when you would do a bench the 1 xeon vs I7 the i7 would be far superior.
Talking about those bridges its not only the transfer rate there more factors that play a huge roll in that like the communication beetween ram bridge processor and of course HDD,while the main issue remains the HDD,it is slowing everything down- performance how could your cpu or your north / south bridge bridge be ever not be capable when you can transfer a max of 1,5gb/s atm? with a insanely overpriced SSD/express card or HSDL drive.
64bits in my eyes is just a jump into a world of modern software that makes your life easier.
If your a programmer.
The performance is equal if not the 32bit has a bit more punch in regular based work ( word ) and so on.
In gaming rigs its the other way around.

done and dusted... 

I have both

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.    

1. Play this game until it is established as a cult classic.
2. Buy Rebellion and play it until it is a cult classic.
3. Years from now, Stardock releases source code to the open source community.
4. Players build  new versions of Sins from source.
5. Huge interest in the game develops.
6. Stardock, impressed creates Sins: Reloaded and releases a new version with even better stuff.

   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.

As long as consoles are 32 bit, 64 bit is not going to become the standard for games. Too much porting of console/PC games going on there. It give no incentive at all for companies that have a hand in the console business to develop 64 bit versions of games. It's going to be years still before 64 bit becomes commonplace due to that alone. Unfortunate.

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

As long as it's not from spammers....that's fine.

Though it does mean every time I see an old thread I have to check....expecting spam....;p

The next gen of consoles as well as the coming death of XP may well change all that.  It'll make more sense to invest upwards when your content is already pushing the boundaries of 32 bit computing.

We'll just have to wait for the actual specs of said consoles..  I'm not expecting much, but if they want it to last seven years they'll have to have the specs for it.