WinNT or Win2K + dual processor for games

[Chris Dent]

I am under the impression that the NT family of OS is too slow for most games (Is this
still correct?)
Would a dual processor MB change this situation?
What version of DX is avail for NT and will ship with 2K?
If a game is not threaded (as I imagine nearly 100% are not), would NT allocate 100% of 1 CPU for the game and use the other for all other background tasks?

[RoGuE]

NT isn't 'too slow' for games, but many games don't work under NT.

The only games that does/will support dual CPU's is Quake 3. And the second CPU isn't likely to speed it up much.

The latest version of DirectX that works under WinNT is DX3.0 (Supplied with service pack 5).

DirectX7 will ship with Windows2000 (assuming it hasn't been superceded by then).

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aka Chris H

[PaulS]

NT 4 Doesn't allow 3D hardware acceleration for DirectX, so it is too slow for games. However, the entire OS is 32 bit, which does make a difference on Pentium II or better processors. OpenGL is hardware accelerated on NT and is faster than on Windows 95 / 98 (except for Matrox cards - but that is because their NT drivers are so poor, nothing to do with the OS) so Quake based games are better suited to NT.

Windows 2000 should be at least as good as NT 4, with the addition of hardware acceleration for DirectX games. And SMP does make a difference, even for single threaded games, because system tasks can run on seperate processor. It is quite easy to switch between single and multiprocessor HALs on Windows 2000, so it will be interesting to see some benchmarks.

Paul.

[tish beta2]

finally! a post of my taste!

I have played Expendable with my TNT card in windows 2000 in my old P2. And I got 3 fps more than win98.



I have also defragmented my HD while I played quake2 singleplayer (don't have the complete game ), and the framerate sustained at a good 50 fps @ 800x600. Just check my profile, and the url link. I'm a true win2k fan.



And, the upcoming gaming console X-Box from M$ is based on NT technology and DX7.

Hey, I play MP3 files in the background of games (2d games - TA and such) with no performance loss. Very sweet. Now imagine (sorry sorry I can't help it) enabling DualHead and expand you desktop to the TV. Then, launch up the Sonique with a nice skin and a cool vis plug-in. Move it over to the desktop area on the TV and fire up Quake3. Damn d00de now you can frag asses in quake while having a trippy vis-effector fullscreen on your TV.

So... ehm... if hehe Matrox would have ahem been as good as cough nvidia cough then that would be what I would do right after this post?

This exact thought is driving me a little nutty, and I might get banned by Ant, but I can't help whining.