Vista 64-bit Compatible With Quads?

[Beorg]

Beorg here, and I'm proud to say that I've finally ordered my computer. It's been shipped and mailed to me in parts, and each time a part has arrived, I've taken it down to my computer guy who's been putting it together. And now that it's nearly built (with the exception of a disk drive), he brought to me a new problem. He doesn't have much experience with Vista, so far, but from what he's learned Vista 64 Home Premium can only run two cores of a Quad core at a time. My Quads at the moment run at 2.4GH, when a dual-core I was eyeing could run at 3.0 for the same cost. I declined, of course, getting them in favor of the Quad, but from what he says it "may or may not" be compatible with my version of Vista.

Is he shitting me?

[TizzyFoe]

Sounds like hes an idiot.

I pretty sure any normal retail version of windows XP or Vista will allow the use of all 4 cores. But that doesn't mean an app will be able to use more then 1 simultaneously. Software needs to be coded in a special way to use more then one core at a time. Almost all games use only 1 or 2 cores.

[Tiarilir]

Sounds like hes an idiot.

I pretty sure any normal retail version of windows XP or Vista will allow the use of all 4 cores. But that doesn't mean an app will be able to use more then 1 simultaneously. Software needs to be coded in a special way to use more then one core at a time. Almost all games use only 1 or 2 cores.

This.

[Viluin]

Sounds like hes an idiot.

I pretty sure any normal retail version of windows XP or Vista will allow the use of all 4 cores. But that doesn't mean an app will be able to use more then 1 simultaneously. Software needs to be coded in a special way to use more then one core at a time. Almost all games use only 1 or 2 cores.

XP Home could only recognize 1 core (EDIT: I think they patched XP Home for multicore CPUs now). XP Pro can use them all.

It wouldn't surprise me if Vista Home could only use 2.

[rockyraccoon]

I'm pretty sure you're wrong.

XP Home can only recognize 1 core. XP Pro can use 4+.

It wouldn't surprise me if Vista Home could only use 2.

don't listen to this advice. just use a hammer to solve all your problems.

[sm007h]

What your buddy is doing is hearing about the lack of dual processor support, not dual core support. Your version of Vista will support dual or even quad core processors. It will not support your motherboard with more than one physical processor, however.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=130

[holychicken]

I have a quad core and I can easily get vista 64 to use all four maxed out with prime95.

[Hypseos]

I’ve been running quad 2.4s on vista home premium for a year and a half with no problems. Not like many things take advantage of it though.

[GlacierFreeze]

Currently have a quadcore AMD on Vista Home Premium 64bit. Works great.

Where you run into problems is when you run a multi socket system (2 or more physical CPUs). You would need a separate Windows license for each socket (unless they changed it since last I read). Not the case for 1 socket that has multiple cores.

[Beorg]

Thanks, you've all been a big help. I got a call from my computer guy a few hours ago and he said it should run a Quad, so there shouldn't be any issues from here on out.