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Archiver > TMG > 2004-12 > 1104023794


From: Lee Hoffman <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] TMG and Hyper threading
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 20:19:20 -0500
References: <000001c4eab7$47bf9870$6802a8c0@Cheasa>
In-Reply-To: <000001c4eab7$47bf9870$6802a8c0@Cheasa>


Teresa Ghee Elliott wrote:
>Well about three hours after Santa stopped shopping, my laptop monitor died.
>So I am in the shopping mode for a new one. Is anyone running TMG on a
>hyper threading machine? Is this overkill for someone doing genealogy and
>photo editing?

Based on the little research that I have done regarding hyperthreading, I
feel that the technology is still unstable. Having a HT machine may give
you some improvement in performance, but that improvement will be less from
hyperthreading than from the ancillary resources the machine is likely to
have. By this, I mean that an HT machine will have more memory, higher
quality video cards with loads more video memory, and faster
processors. The end result would be that the same machine without HT
technology will perform almost as well as (or possibly even better than)
the HT machine. Mostly this is because the greatest increase in
performance will come when applications are designed to take advantage of
hyperthreading. Finally, in some cases if you run one or more non-HT
programs on an HT Machines, then performance can be reduced overall for
everything for other programs as well as just the non-HT program.

So do I recommend that you _not_ buy a hyperthead machine? No. But I
agree with Darrell's assessment and essentially put that feature _very_ low
on my wishlist and first max out EVERYTHING else. One thing that I would
make sure of is that the machine be capable of multiple monitors (at least
19 inches and flat screen to save desk space). Since I went to multiple
monitors, I find myself wondering how I got anything done with just a
single monitor. Even though most of the time I am just using one monitor,
I can use the other to keep track of other things that only need an
occasional glance and this without having the switch tasks in Windows.

For what its worth -

Lee Hoffman/KY
TMG Tips: <http://www.tmgtips.com>;
My website: <http://www.tmgtips.com/lhoffman>;
A user of the best genealogy program, The Master Genealogist (TMG)


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