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Our main goal for this review is to reexamine and quantify the value of a second CPU in today's CAD world. It's been two years since we last focused on dual-processor workstations (August 1999 to be exact), and many things have changed, including the operating system, AutoCAD, the CADALYST Labs benchmark, and, of course, the hardware.
The base configuration for this review was a dual-processor system running at 1.2GHz or faster, 768MB of system RAM, 80GB of hard drive storage, a CD-rewritable drive, a network card, an OpenGL graphics card with at least 32MB of memory, and Windows 2000 Professional. The graphics card had to support a resolution of 1280x`1024 with 24-bit color at a minimum 85Hz refresh rate. We invited ten vendors to send workstations. In the past, we've had no trouble filling our reviews. This time things were different because we insisted on dual-processor systems running at 1.2GHz or faster. This limited the choice of CPUs to either the AMD Athlon MP or the Intel Xeon-both recently introduced in the marketplace. Initially, seven of the ten vendors indicated they could meet our configuration and deadline. When the dust settled, we wound up with systems from only three vendors: Compaq and Dell (each Intel Xeon-based) and Xi Computer (AMD Athlon MP-based).
We knew from our earlier review that dual processors don't always make a difference. We added several tests and configurations above and beyond our usual benchmarking ritual to determine exactly when that second CPU pays off. See p. 36 for details about the special testing which was anything but uneventful.
Bottom line
The results of our testing were both surprising and expected. As anticipated, when working on a single drawing in a single session of AutoCAD, the dual-processor configuration boosted overall performance, as measured with our C2001 v3 benchmark, by only 296-496, certainly not worth the effort. Most of the meager improvement in the overall number came from the 2D graphics component of the test, where two of the systems showed a 9%-12% gain with two processors vs. one. A modest increase, but still not enough to justify the second processor, even for those who work strictly in 2D.
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