The Q6600 is an awesome processor and the easiest to be over-clocked. In fact, Intel made this an option with this chip, depending on your system's BIOS having low-level access enough to set the voltage, FSB speed and multiplier. WITHOUT over-clocking, (I've seen it OC'd to
3.0GHz), it's an awesome chip....

Anyway, I'm confused by what you mean when saying, "If photoshop and bridge can use two cores then another application can take this above
2."

If you're using a quad-core chip, Photoshop and Bridge will use all 4 cores. Just like a dual-core will show both cores being used, the load is leveled between the cores available.

One of the 'hidden' utilities in XP and Vista is the ability to set the number of cores, (CPU's), to be used with any process, (program). If you're using a multi-core box now, go to Task Manager, (CTRL-SHIFT-DELETE), go to the second tab, Processes and right-click on any executable. On the bottom of the right-click menu is "Set Affinity" Open this and you'll see CPU1 and CPU2 either checked or unchecked on any particular CPU. This is a way of telling Windows how much power you want used to process whatever. Another useful thing is the ability to set dual or quad CPU usage for programs that don't run properly in a multi-core environment without setting both or all CPU's to be used.

If you're using the box primarily for Photoshop or even heavy PS use, be sure to invest in INTEL processors. Instruction sets and code are written just for Intel/Adobe PS. Actions take sometimes twice as long using AMD chips. Ask me... I know. :(

On Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:47:33 GMT, "Malcolm Smith" wrote:

I suspected this

When I apply a computing intense filter on a large
image in PS and at the same time open a folder
with some hundreds pics in Bridge, PS uses
up to 98% of one core and Bridge up to 80% of
the second core

I am looking at building a new photoshop PC and often bridge initial process about 500 raw images and want to use photoshop for editing at the same time - on my curren system this is quite slow. If photoshop and bridge can use two cores then another application can take this above 2. I am looking at a new system with a quad core Q6600 2.4GHz processor - any comments?
Malcolm

Frederik Paul

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Photoshop CS3 and use of dual CPU