phoenix4 opened this issue on Aug 23, 2002 ยท 6 posts
phoenix4 posted Fri, 23 August 2002 at 10:01 PM
I just emailed Curious Labs tech support about Poser5. I asked them if the code for it was optimised for Pentium4's, as Poser4 was not because it was witten before Pentium4s existed. They said it HAD NOT been optimised to run on a Pentium 4. So, if you have a Pentium 4 are wer thinking about buying Poser5 because you think it will render a lot faster etc... I my opinion, I wouldn't buy it on that basis, as it won't fully be utilising your P4 just like Poser4.
kawecki posted Sat, 24 August 2002 at 8:06 AM
The only way that a software can be optimized for Pentium IV is to use CPU's SSE2 instructions, but they doesn't exist in other Pentiums processors and also aren't compatible with AMD's 3dNow instructions. Also the code must be done in assembler and today almost nobody use Assembler for making software (I do). Software will run faster with Pentium IV or Athlon than with others processors, that is due the more elaborated hardware of the Cpu and not due the not universal optimizations.
Stupidity also evolves!
Anthony Appleyard posted Sun, 25 August 2002 at 2:37 AM
What does an SSE2 instruction do?
kawecki posted Sun, 25 August 2002 at 7:07 AM
A processor(CPU) has a set of instructions for performing its functions (move, add, compare, jump, etc,etc). Since the first CPU used by IBM Pc (8088), every new Cpu used by Pc had some new instructions added (80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium, etc), many of them were very usefull and others had no use. I don't remember the year, Intel added to the Pentium Cpu the MMX instructions, so you had Pentium with MMX and Pentium without MMX. The goal of these instructions was helping multimidia or graphic tasks, for a word processor as Microsoft Word are completely useless. With them you can multiply 4 items at the same time. But very few software takes the advantage of them. Since Pentium II all Intel, Amd and other Cpus have them. And here ended all compatibility. With the K6-3 AMD added a new instruction set : 3dNow, that are similar to MMX, but deals with floating point, so AMD was in front of Intel. Some time later Intel included with their Pentium III the SSE instructions, that are similar to AMD's 3dNow, but not compatible. SSE2 instructions are an expansion of SSE and were included in the Pentium IV. I don't know if AMD added some expansion of their 3dNow instructions with the Athlon processor. But the lack of compatibility with AMD and Intel, prevents most the software makers of using them. If you have some technical knowledge about Cpu's hardware and software, you can access Intel's and Amd's site and download the documentation about them.
Stupidity also evolves!
Artist3D posted Mon, 16 September 2002 at 10:38 PM
I have Poser5 and I don't see it on the box that P4 wont work.What is the Deal?
phoenix4 posted Tue, 17 September 2002 at 3:04 AM
Nah, I didn't say it wouldn't work :) I said the software hadn't been optimised. Basically I found out that there wouldn't be any speed increase for rendering etc.. from Poser4 to Poser5 using a P4 machine. I have just bought Poser5 too :) I was just letting everyone know what Curious Labs told me.. encase people were getting there hopes up about an increase in speed. :)