Gaming Multitasking Scenario 1 w/ NCQ

We noticed that many of the pauses during GMT1 were disk related, so I tried using the 7200.7 drive with NCQ support. The difference was very perceivable.  The number of stalls was reduced significantly as is evidenced by the increase in average frame rates. 

Gaming Multitasking Performance Scenario 1 w/ NCQ

Gaming Multitasking Performance Scenario 1 w/ NCQ

Gaming Multitasking Performance Scenario 1 w/ NCQ

Gaming Multitasking Performance Scenario 1 w/ NCQ

On the Pentium D, we saw the largest increase in performance while playing Splinter Cell; the game never stalled, not even once. 

GMT1 with NCQ wasn't nearly as successful on the Pentium 4 630. The game was still way too choppy for regular gameplay. 

Gaming Multitasking Scenario 1: Heavy Downloading Gaming Multitasking Scenario 2: DVD Shrink
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  • JoKeRr - Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - link

    the power consumption is a series mofo here.

    hm, with a P4 EE or PDEE, with 2 6800Ultra or GT, you're definitely expecting an oven case.

    Wonder how those dualcores overclock-->that should help to make up the single thread performance. On the other hand, Clearly HyperThreading is GOOD, but AMD still says NO.
  • Jeff7181 - Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - link

    Great article. Well done guys.

    The only thing I have to question is how a dual core Athlon-64 at encoding. On the last page you say, "For encoding performance, you still can’t beat the Pentium D. Even a dual core Athlon 64 isn’t going to help enough in that area."

    What makes you think that when the 2.2 GHz Athlon-64 is RIGHT behind the 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 630?

    Everything I've read so far has told me that the Athlon-64 should scale better than the Pentium 4 as far as dual cores are concerned... so... what exactly are you basing your opinion that even a dual core Athlon-64 won't help in encoding???
  • Lonyo - Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - link

    Does http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?... page have an error?
    It lists the PD 3.2, P4 3.73 EE and the PD 3.2 EE, not the 3 CPU's montioned in the article. Wrong graph maybe.
  • Rys - Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - link

    H isn't even near P on the keyboard...
  • michaelpatrick33 - Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - link

    Holy crispy power and cook my eggs in true multitasking while I surf the net Batman
  • smn198 - Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - link

    I guess it makes sense that NCQ would help when multitasking. I assume that this would be the same on single cores as well? The new focus on responsiveness is a good move IMO. The time to switch between apps and redraw the screen and clicking on menus and buttons is what frustrates me when I am multitasking.

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