SSE Optimized Software?

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Queue

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So, I'm researching upgrades, and weighing AMD vs. Intel vs. AMD MP/XP.

Aside from the obvious price differences, one of the "selling points" is SSE instructions.

Are any of our beloved multitracking software packages known to be optimized to take advantage of SSE instructions? Or is this another "feature" that I'd pay for and never end up actually using?

Queue
 
I hear Quake is optimized for 3DNow!, Adobe Photshop for MMX...

Queue said:
Or is this another "feature" that I'd pay for and never end up actually using?

Queue
Click to expand...

Yes, and you'll pay for it no matter what processor company you buy from, whether it's ever an advantage to you or not.

Whether SSE, MMX, 3Dnow! or a million other buzzwords marketing will help make our lifes easier - who knows.

That would be the least of my concerns though. Getting a computer to run smoothly 100% of the time without bombing out, glitching, freezing, blue-screening, randomly erasing files, behaving erratically, etc. etc. - is the ticket.

Not trying to be discouraging, inherently cynical. Great question, but I'd lower the priority on those particuliar spec's on any purchase decisions.
 
Haha, exactly Emeric! There is no subtle feature that's going to make or break your DAW. You know it really doesn't matter whether you go with an Athlon or a PIV. If you're looking at individual processor features and stats, then you're looking too closely and you'll overlook the important issues which are, as Emeric stated: "Getting a computer to run smoothly 100% of the time without bombing out, glitching, freezing, blue-screening, randomly erasing files, behaving erratically, etc. etc."

What you should be focusing on are these facts: The Athlon is cheaper and faster on paper than the Pentium. However, buying an Athlon means that you're going to have a motherboard with a VIA or SiS (etc) chipset. Have fun.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Emeric & Slack, (thanks for the responses)

The processor questions are just little ripples in my upgrade pool.

Rest assured, that is not the top question for me in my upgrade studies. First and foremost is empirical evidence of someone "out there" who is using my card (Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96) with a specific MOBO. I'm not getting much response on that thread, but there's an AMD thread going over at audioforums.com with a bunch of MOBO suggestions.

I seem to be stuck with Win9x as an OS for now, thanks to Aark's ongoing effort to produce WDM drivers. That rules out any ideas of Dual processing for now. Every time I research these issues though, the whole SSE/SIMP thing comes up. The concept looks good "on paper" but unless my software is taking advantage of this, it is doing nothing for me but driving up the price...

I'm definitely leaning towards AMD, mainly because of the bang/buck ratio. As you know, this requires doing more homework. I'm looking closely at the SIS735 chipset, mainly because it is so f$%@#ing cheap! So while I was trying to see where I should place myself in the AMD processor line, I stumbled across the "Palomino" which apparently incorporates SSE capabilities into the AMD line. This has been a "con" in the "pros/cons" for the AMD processors for some time, but I was wondering if anyone could indicate if it was truly an issue at all. Just because an option is there, maybe NONE of the multitracking software packages are doing anything about it. So that is the basis for my question.

Queue
 
Queue,

I have the ark 24\96 and I am running it on an asus CUSL2-C motherboard with intel 815 chippset. P-III 733 MHz processor. I am pretty new to this stuff but it seems to work well for me. Check out the specs at the asus site. I paid like $234 for board and processor. If I had it to do over again I probably would have went with a little faster processor though. Mainly because Ozone will push it pretty hard. As plugs are improved they will probably just use more and more processor.
 
larrye,
I was being lured into the Intel Pentium camp by the calls of stability, but when I saw ECS K7S5A MOBO (SiS 735 chipset) / with cpu - AMD Athlon Tbird 1GHz(266FSB) for $130, I decided to focus my studies on the AMD side of the fence for now.

Queue
 
Don't skimp on motherboards Queue.

Pay the extra $50 for an ASUS or ABIT.

It really is THE most important compenent in a computer system.
 
Queue,

I had an SIS chip on my last board, now I will admit it was about 3 years old when I dumped it, but I don't want another one. There is probably nothing wrong with them but, software people sure like Itell, at least it seems that way.
 
SiS typically makes VIA look pretty damn good :)

Slackmaster 2000
 
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