I recently installed Lunatics on three of my computers. All are using Vista (64-bit) and BOINC 7.0.25 (x86) or 7.0.28 (64). The (x86) will soon be upgraded to 64-bit as well. They have the following processors:

Pentium 4 CPU 3.60GHz
Core2 Duo CPU 6700
Core2 Quad CPU Q8400

During the installation, I let the application option default for them. I read several posts that mention SSSE3 works better for some CPUs. Is there a place where I can find some documentation, or does anyone know, which Lunatics executables I should be running on each of these CPUs?

Also, would it be better if I run the x41g or x41z on any of them?

Thanks! :)

For now you will have to run x41g as we have not yet released x41z.

CPU-Z will tell you what each processor is capable of running.

The P4 will do SSE3 while the Core2 machines will be able to do SSSE3.

---

well the q8400 will do sse4.1
.. however no idea what one will do better
ssse3 or sse4.1
someone did some testing before ..
and it was for the most part inconclusive

---

well the q8400 will do sse4.1
.. however no idea what one will do better
ssse3 or sse4.1
someone did some testing before ..
and it was for the most part inconclusive

I ran the SSSE3 app on my Q8200.

---

There is a widespread assumption that "the bigger the number, the faster it runs". It ain't necessarily so.

For the P4:
Not every P4 can run SSE3. If it's called a 3.60GHz part, it's probably a Prescott die - in which case it will run PNI instruction set, which is another name for SSE3.

If it can run SSE3, that will probably be the fastest - but do check with CPU-Z to be sure.

The difference between the Lunatics SSSE3x and SSE4.1 isn't just the instruction set - that 'x' (for xeon - don't confuse it with the later 'x' for experimental) refers to a different memory access pattern. With a 'Q' quad core processor putting extra strain on the memory bus, the SSSE3x will probably prove best.

As regards x41g vs. x41z - neither will run on a CPU, you'll need an nVidia GPU to run either. The relative speed will probably depend on the age (chipset generation) of the GPU in question.

When x41z finally emerges from extended closed testing, it's widely assumed that x41z will be significantly better on newer (Fermi/Kepler) GPUs, while there may not be such an improvement on older cards. Part of the reason for the extended testing is to be able to answer questions like that on release.

My thanks to each of you, Arkayn, Peter and Richard! You have each provided helpful information for me.
I now feel I can knowledgeably select the right apps for each CPU to maximize SETI, which is what we all want, eh?

Oh, and my special thanks and great appreciation to everyone working on SETI optimization. What amazing coding accomplishments you have achieved! It's too bad some of the big companies refuse to let their programmers take the time and effort to optimize code, or all our computers would be screamers with "out of the box" software, so to speak. ;)