XP and new CPU

[Asp]

Planning on upgrading my CPU from a 2 core to a 4 core one. Are there any settings in XP that need to be changed, or will it just recognise and use the new cores?

 

[Dietmar]

@Asp

Which cpu is it?

Until now, XP SP3 works from 1...32 cores. And now, also XP Bit64 SP2 works the same,

without any modification

Dietmar

[Asp]

@Dietmar

Sorry, didn't get notified of this reply. The new CPU is 4 cores. So sure it will work, one way or another. Still yet to install it, will advise on the result when  I do.

Mobo is Intel DH61WW. Current CPU Intel Pentium G2020

New CPU is Intel i5-3570, 3.4GHz 4 core

RAM is maxed at 16GB, though Win XP only using 4GB. (Have a disk with Linux Mint to transition eventually.)

Edited May 16 by Asp

[DrunkenTanker]

@Asp

this CPU and amount of RAM are not actual issues for Windows XP users. I mean that I guess you will work on this configuration without problem.

P.S. Intel 3xxx series is not new CPU. Even for Windows XP. We publish many information around the web. I recommend to search in the web before in future, because search is good way to find people who researchs your issue exactly.

Edited May 30 by DrunkenTanker

[Asp]

22 hours ago, DrunkenTanker said:

@Asp

this CPU and amount of RAM are not actual issues for Windows XP users. I mean that I guess you will work on this configuration without problem.

P.S. Intel 3xxx series is not new CPU. Even for Windows XP. We publish many information around the web. I recommend to search in the web before in future, because search is good way to find people who researchs your issue exactly.

The question was not whether XP will work on such a system, as pretty obviously it will, it was whether an existing installation will continue to work if the CPU is changed. or whether I need to reinstall.

I'll just have to suck it and see,

Patronising posts that just say "Google it" aren't helpful, except make you feel superior.

 

 

 

[tekkaman]

Upgrading the CPU just will just work. In 2021 I upgraded from an AMD Phenom II X4 905e to an AMD FX-8320E. So I went from 4 cores to 8 cores. Windows XP recognized it just fine without reinstalling Windows. You can see all the threads in the Task manager.

[user57]

this might be a good time to point out the 4 GB mem limit with a different example

harddrives passed the 4 GB limit far earlier then the ram did (this one almost passed it in 1989)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hard_disk_drives#1980s,_the_transition_to_the_PC_era

 

so when the common assumtion is "32 wires / 32 bit" are just 4 GB limit that is not fully correct

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/minwinbase/ns-minwinbase-overlapped

this structure has 2 , 32 bit (high and low) offset addresses that are combined to a 64 bit address

so going with the logic "32 wires are the 32 bit 4 GB limit" -> according to this a 32 bit/wire bus can only address 4 GB - and therefore cant address more then 4 GB is also not correct

 

i think everybody gets the point here, there was harddrives bigger then 4 GB before XP even existed - even a IDE bus with 32 wires+ is not limited to that 

 

 

1 core of 4 ghz speed (with 1 clock/cycle/1s tick) already would be:

4000000000 * 32 bit bus - that would  be 14 GigaByte/s

 

 

a other good thing with 32 bit is that it is also a PDE question (a page directory entry base register) points to a list of "memory entrys"

this PDE is changed every app/process/executable

so what this can do is that these entrys point to a different location in the physical memory (and therefore we have 4 GB per each app)

these dont use the same memory and can point into other memory - to point other the 2 (pse physical size extension, pae physical address extension)  (these also can be combined)

 

but the hardware can have limits 

or the software is not able to do so

so you need both the software performing the code and the hardware having the needs

paging and segments where some words in the past

[Asp]

For posterity: I did upgrade the CPU from 2 to 4 cores, and WinXP was unconcerned, It's not noticeably faster, but gives me more options for my alternate boot to Linux Mint, where I have an XP in a VM. I can give the VM two cores now and have two for Mint. In XP Process Explorer shows all cores working on some intensive apps like audio encoding. Firefox seems less likely to freeze up the system.

Did have a glitch where only one bank of RAM was recognised. Took the new CPU out, cleaned the socket with contact cleaner, lightly brushed it to stroke any kinks in the contacts, reseated and all my RAM was back next boot.

 

[Klemper]

16 hours ago, Asp said:

I did upgrade the CPU from 2 to 4 cores, and WinXP was unconcerned

Why would it be? XP handles Core Quads just fine, not to mention they are the period correct hardware.

[Asp]

11 hours ago, Klemper said:

Why would it be? XP handles Core Quads just fine, not to mention they are the period correct hardware.

Again, it's not whether XP can handle 4 cores. Its whether an installation on a 2 core CPU will be fazed if the CPU is changed to a 4 core one. If for instance, I installed a video card, it would require a reconfig. And I was also concerned about if it would be de-registered due to the radical change in hardware. 

In the event, it was fine, but I don't think I was foolish to be concerned.

 

 

[j7n]

If the CPU fits in the same motherboard, then it is roughly the same generation of CPU and directly compatible. The motherboard contains all the components that need drivers configured. With Windows you can have a single CPU kernel exe installed if you upgraded from a single core CPU, which would then only use one core but continue working.