quad core or dual core which would be best for AC12?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know which combination would provide best performance
and speed in AC12?

quad core at 3GHz or dual core at 3.33 GHz
and the other question would be the option of 8 GB ram @ 633 MHz Vs.
4 GB ram @ 800 MHz.

Thank you

[Laszlo Nagy]

Jonathan wrote:
Does anyone know which combination would provide best performance
and speed in AC12?

quad core at 3GHz or dual core at 3.33 GHz
and the other question would be the option of 8 GB ram @ 633 MHz Vs.
4 GB ram @ 800 MHz.

Thank you

ArchiCAD can use 4 cores so that should be a better choice than dual-core, even if at a lower frequency.
Since AC can use only 2 GB of RAM under Windows 32-bit OSes (3 GB with the 3GB switch enabled in the OS) and 4GB of memory under 64-bit OSes (Mac OS and Windows 64-bit), 4 GB of 800 MHz RAM should be better.

[Thomas Holm]

laszlonagy wrote:
4 GB of 800 MHz RAM should be better.

Unless you plan to use some other app running at the same time as Archicad, like Artlantis- then more RAM memory is better. Even though 20% slower internally, it's many times faster than having the O/S paging memory out to the hard disk.

[Anonymous]

Thomas wrote:

laszlonagy wrote:
4 GB of 800 MHz RAM should be better.

Unless you plan to use some other app running at the same time as Archicad, like Artlantis- then more RAM memory is better. Even though 20% slower internally, it's many times faster than having the O/S paging memory out to the hard disk.

Thanks you guys,

Sense I wont be running two apps at the same time, sounds like the
quad core w/ 4 GB of the 800 MHz ram on 64bit vista ultimate would be
the best choice because AC won't utilize over 4GB of ram, right?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Jonathan wrote:
Thanks you guys,

Sense I wont be running two apps at the same time, sounds like the
quad core w/ 4 GB of the 800 MHz ram on 64bit vista ultimate would be
the best choice because AC won't utilize over 4GB of ram, right?

Correct, it won't.
AC is a 32-bit application, 2 on the 32nd power is 4 billion, hence the 4 GB limit.

[Anonymous]

laszlonagy wrote:

Jonathan wrote:
Thanks you guys,

Sense I wont be running two apps at the same time, sounds like the
quad core w/ 4 GB of the 800 MHz ram on 64bit vista ultimate would be
the best choice because AC won't utilize over 4GB of ram, right?

Correct, it won't.
AC is a 32-bit application, 2 on the 32nd power is 4 billion, hence the 4 GB limit.

Right, and the system (windows) needs to be 64 bit in order to recognize, or allocate the 4GB to AC, even though AC is 32 bit. Do I have that correct?

I sure appriciate the help laszlonagy.

Thanks again

[Thomas Holm]

laszlonagy wrote:
...AC is a 32-bit application, 2 on the 32nd power is 4 billion, hence the 4 GB limit.

For now.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Jonathan wrote:
Right, and the system (windows) needs to be 64 bit in order to recognize, or allocate the 4GB to AC, even though AC is 32 bit. Do I have that correct?

I sure appriciate the help laszlonagy.

Thanks again

Yes, because the 32-bit version of Windows will allow only 2 GB for any application while keeping the other 2 GB for the system.

Let me correct myself a bit because Thomas is right: if you run AC under Vista 64-bit and you think AC will use 4 GB then there will not be any left for the system and some other programs you will inevitably run (mail, browser, Skype etc.) In that case 8GB sounds to be a better choice: 4 GB for AC, 4 GB for all the rest. Vista will probably need about 1 GB, plus the others.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Thomas wrote:

laszlonagy wrote:
...AC is a 32-bit application, 2 on the 32nd power is 4 billion, hence the 4 GB limit.

For now.

Yes, the eventual switch to 64-bit seems rather inevitable to me.

[Anonymous]

laszlonagy wrote:

Jonathan wrote:
Right, and the system (windows) needs to be 64 bit in order to recognize, or allocate the 4GB to AC, even though AC is 32 bit. Do I have that correct?

I sure appriciate the help laszlonagy.

Thanks again

Yes, because the 32-bit version of Windows will allow only 2 GB for any application while keeping the other 2 GB for the system.

Let me correct myself a bit because Thomas is right: if you run AC under Vista 64-bit and you think AC will use 4 GB then there will not be any left for the system and some other programs you will inevitably run (mail, browser, Skype etc.) In that case 8GB sounds to be a better choice: 4 GB for AC, 4 GB for all the rest. Vista will probably need about 1 GB, plus the others.

So, even though its @ a slightly lower frequency than 800MHz more is better.
Maybe that explains the huge diff in price.

4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 X 2048MB [+$55.00] Requires 64-bit edition of Windows Vista

8GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 X 4096MB [+$845.00] Requires 64-bit edition of Windows Vista