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Dual Processors and Vista

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by rwpank

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I have read in the features of various Vistas that Home Premium cannot utilize dual processors....does that sound right, and you need Ultimate????

6 replies

by tintoman

That is not true, I recently built a pc with an intel core2 duo processor and Vista Home Premium and it works fine, and if you look at all the adverts for new pc's they are all at it

by thechas

You can indeed run Vista Home on a Dual-Core CPU.

You do need to install the 64 bit version to make full use of the features of the second core.

As to dual processors, here is a quote from the Microsoft Vista product pages:

"While all editions of Windows Vista can support multiple core CPUs, only Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise can support dual processors."

So yes, for 2 actual processors on a motherboard, you do need Vista Ultimate.

Chas

by rwpank

Can you expand on what features the 64bit utilizes on the dual core? I do thank you for making the difference between dula processors or dual core. I have also heard that 64 bit creates problems with many non-ms software...is that what you have experienced?
Thanks for your time

by thechas

First off, in order to use 64 bit mode, your motherboard needs to support 64 bit operation.

The primary advantage of 64 bit operation is the wider data bus and the ability to address a larger amount of RAM.

In 32 bit mode, a lot depends on how your OS handles the dual core versus a dual processor configuration. The second core may spend a lot of time doing nothing if the OS cannot direct tasks to it.

I have not dug into the details of Vista that much yet. I do remember reading somewhere that with XP you needed the 64 bit version in order to make full use of the second core on a dual core CPU.

Most of the systems I have and support are standard 32 bit Athlon and Pentium 4 based. So, I have not had the opportunity to work with the 64 bit version of XP or Vista.

Most of what I have read about problems with the 64 bit version of XP place the blame for problems on the OS itself and not the older 32 bit applications.

If you really want to dig into this, Intel has a number of technical briefs and specification sheets for you to download and read.

Hope this helps.

Chas

by Former member

Vista X64 has backwards compatibility with 32 bit applications. This is done through the 6432 node you see in the registry. The problems that occur with older applications happen because of two primary reasons: 1) the app is DOS based, 2) the app installs drivers that are not WHQL signed. By default, Vista X64 will not allow unsigned drivers to install or run and there is not an easy and consistent method that allows this. There is a boot time flag you can set to allow unsigned drivers to install and operate, but it must be set at every boot.

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