dosbox is single threaded and uses only one core.

this means that i will never be able to reach as good speeds as on my older pc with single core?

No, DOSBox will run faster on a newer faster processor than on an older processer. (Assuming that the new processor is faster of course) It's just that DOSBox will not use both cores of your CPU to improve it's speed. It will only use one core.

Your slower performance on your new laptop is likely due to some power management software downclocking your processor (or crappy thermal paste/heatsink) or a crapload of crapware installed on it.

no unnecessary software/services, neither power management software running

maybe it's the the thermal paste/heatsink then=/

anyways, it's still strange that i only see processors working at 50% when my cycles are set to max, while when i render 3d models in my revit architecture they both work at 100%

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=56933

Don't know how true the above is. Haven't bought AMD processors since my Athlon XP 2800+ back in 2002. (Which lasted me till beginning of 2007 when I bought my C2D oh yeah).

DOSBox only uses 1 core you will always only show 50% when using DOSBox. Your rendering program is multi-threaded so it uses your other core.

DosFreak wrote:

DOSBox only uses 1 core you will always only show 50% when using DOSBox. Your rendering program is multi-threaded so it uses your other core.

but the performance stays same, you say, right?=S

btw thanks for the effort

DOSBox will run faster on a newer faster processor than on an older processer. (Assuming that the new processor is faster of course) It's just that DOSBox will not use both cores of your CPU to improve it's speed. It will only use one core.

This is worrying me.
CPU cores are not becoming faster anymore, performance gain is acquired by adding more cores.

If DOSBox can only use one core there is no way to get more computing power to DOSBox if needed for more demanding applications.
Many newer CPU cores are even slower than old ones.

Is it at least somehow possible to make DOSBox use more cores if this gets more problematic in the future? By reprogramming for example.

http://sf.net/projects/dosbox
grab the sources and fix it. Have fun!

Actually, CPUs are still getting faster and faster on a per-core basis. The GHz numbers may have declined since the introduction of the Core architecture, but those numbers can't be objectively compared between architectures. One core of a Core 2 Duo 2 GHz will likely match, or even trounce, a 2.8 Ghz P4.
The new Core i7 processors outperform Core 2 processors by ~10% at the same clock rate.

Processors cores are still getting faster, even if it's not obvious from their specs. Dosbox should continue to improve in performance.

My previous Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz was nearly twice as fast running DOSBox as the 2.8GHz P4 I had before that. I'd say that qualifies as "trounce".

i have tried this on 4 different notebooks with dual cores last week and it does run slower. and i agree with TurboFreak

is there at least a tiny chance that dosbox will once be supporting multiple cores? (running on multiple threads i guess)

if i knew this i wouldn't have bought dual core 🙁 the increasing performance isn't that amazing anyways

btw, @prozoam: they are now (an itty bit), but it doesn't change the fact that they are reaching their maximal physical limitation (speed of how can electric stream go through a conductor, without too short paths, so it wouldn't cause a short circuit)

is there at least a tiny chance that dosbox will once be supporting multiple cores?

No.

If your system is correctly configured (no resource grabbing/downgrade
background apps) dosbox runs the very most of the games just fine.
Notebooks are rarely optimally configured by the manufacturer, a simple
upgrade of the gfx drivers does already wonders by times.

@randomnewbie, try running it on a dual core desktop. Laptops have all kinds of power saving methods that will cause the processor to run at a lower speed than it's capable of. There are a variety of other things that could be slowing you down, and until those things are ruled out, it's premature to conclude that the CPU is slower as a result.

I work on site at Intel's development fabs in Oregon. Three years ago I was working on the labs that developed the manufacturing process for the Core i7 processors coming out now. Not only are the processors coming out now a lot more than an "itty bit" faster than those that came before, the stuff I'm seeing them develop now leads me to conclude we can continue to anticipate significant per-core speed increases in the next 5-10 years. After all, just last year Intel managed to demolish one of those "physical limits" with an entirely new feature design.

Plus, it's questionable just how feasible making Dosbox multithreaded is. I've never looked at the Dosbox code, but it isn't trivial or even possible in some cases to write a program to take advantage of more than one core.

@wd thank you for suggestions but i always tweak my notebooks to the max, this is just my first dual core and i'm note very pleased with the experience. also, i keep everything up to date and like i said in previous post, there are no slow down apps.

@prozoam, i didn't know this about new technology that 'breaks' physical limits, interesting. also yeah, dual core desktop would have been nice but i'm not that rich to buy yet another pc=P

i guess i'm stuck to this machine that runs dosbox slow

TurboFreak wrote:

If DOSBox can only use one core there is no way to get more computing power to DOSBox if needed for more demanding applications.
Many newer CPU cores are even slower than old ones.

Is it at least somehow possible to make DOSBox use more cores if this gets more problematic in the future? By reprogramming for example.

This is a limitation with your laptop then, not DOSBox in general. Any modern Intel Core2Duo processor, especially those around 3.0Ghz (E8400) can run any DOS game made, or at least all I've tried.

Seems we're beginning to go round in circles here, but I can only second valnar, prozoam, wd etc.

I've compared the performance of DOSBox on a Core2Duo E4500 (2.2 GHz) to that on an Athlon64 3200+ (also 2.2 GHz), and on the dual core processor it runs nearly twice as fast (measured by comparing the cycles max value shown in ykhwong's build). The performance boost even on such a comparatively weak dual core processor ist striking.

I reach the same conclusion - it must have something to do with your notebook, most likely the aforementioned power saving software or crappy drivers, or maybe it's your cpu (Turion doesn't match the Core2Duo performance, I think).

yes, must be those crappy turions