Tiger MP

valis · Post by **valis** » Fri Dec 07, 2001 7:28 am

Ok, so I think I'm about to plop down the $1200 or so this weekend, have to forgoe the Lian Li PC70 for a lesser case *sigh* but everything else I want looks doable with a Tiger rather than Thunder being in my budget.

Before I run out and do this, I'd like to hear from the few of you out there running the Tiger MP....

Thanks! ;]

Havoc · Post by **Havoc** » Fri Dec 07, 2001 12:03 pm

Hoi Valis,

Never got the pulsarI running on the Tiger. Spend this week every evening trying different settings, tweaks whatever...no solution. When binding pulsar to one CPU I can do IO, but anything using delay gives a "PCI capacity limit reached" error.
This is under W2K.

valis · Post by **valis** » Fri Dec 07, 2001 1:35 pm

No good Havoc. I've put out some feelers on Amdmb.com and 2cpu.com to see if the MPX southbridge works more like i860, ie: separate data paths for 32bit & 64bit, as this might solve a lot of potential issues.

However, it's beginning to look more and more like I need to wait til Feb and get a dual Xeon :/

Spending twice as much on my setup is not going to make me happy tho. I might just sell my creamware cards and go native with a smattering of outboard again. This is a shame, as I've really begun to like using the pulsar in non-xtc mode to have a 2nd mixer to route everything to. That and I think 3.0's sound is finally worth pressing to wax...

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Dec 07, 2001 2:04 pm

Sounds like Havoc has Tiger rev1--we had the same exact problems with it. Those boards had major PCI/AGP issues, especially with 3D games. Our rev3 replacement should be here soon, it's taking forever for our vendor to get us the new version, and we will retest it.

More on the Tiger is <a href=http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 12>here</a>. I really don't think the problems with PCI Havoc & myself have experienced, are Creamware's fault -- there are many people who got the rev1 boards complaining of similar issues, and many people with rev3's (1.3) who seem happy. I haven't been able to find any way of telling the different revisions apart.

The other main reason I think it was some issue with the board itself, is that the AMD761 has about 5x the PCI performance of the Tyan Tiger Athlon MP board we tested... something just wasn't right with that board. I really hope the rev3 (1.3) fixes the problems, otherwise, it looks like the ASUS A7M266-D I mentioned back in June on the Infinite Vortex website (utilizing AMD760MPX) might be better.

[ This Message was edited by: subhuman on 2001-12-18 16:09 ]

valis · Post by **valis** » Fri Dec 07, 2001 6:54 pm

Right, I'm actually considering holding out for the MPX as I read somewhere along the way that they've doubled the bandwidth for the pci bus. Can anyone clarify this?

BTW, here's a great MPX link:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview ... TARTPAGE=1

Now, I really really really really want a new PC like now, holding out for a month will almost kill me as it means that I'll have to forgoe my Christmas vacation being used for finishing tunes and just be content with getting even more tunes started (I'm on dual p2-300 ugh).

Havoc · Post by **Havoc** » Sat Dec 08, 2001 11:38 am

Well, I think I got the 1.02 board. On 2cpu there were a lot of suggestions how to tell the different rev's apart, but most just check the bios rev. On mine there is a big 2 in a square on the back and the bios was rev 1.02. On the tyan site there is something about the number in the corner by the dimm sockets. Some numbers are linked to a newer manual. So there is probably the key to the revision.

Well, maybe there is a pci factor, but it remains that pulsar don't like duals in general. Also, that it works better on some boards oposed to others, I can accept, but what it does on tiger is not to be called working.

Good luck

Havoc · Post by **Havoc** » Sat Dec 08, 2001 11:44 am

Forgot something: I don't think creamware is completely innocent either. If you make something, you test it! It is clear that their QC is not up to standards. Things like not working spdif, not running on duals and via chipsets are just bad workmanship. It are things that can be tested and reported before a release is made and included in the release notes. If they did that and replied to questions, a lot of disapointment would be avoided.

RyanC · Post by **RyanC** » Sun Dec 09, 2001 3:08 pm

The Tyan board is not the problem (use one proc and 98 and you'll see) the problem is that the drivers are still infant. I think that creamware should call 3.01 a beta for XP/2k at least in SMP situations. They have alot to do, Scope V3 will inevitably be first. Obviosly simple things (compared to pulsar) like DSL modems, midi interfaces and other hardware still don't support XP/2K so I think that creamware is doing good. I think that if you plan to go with duallies under XP the Tyan board will probably work fine eventually so for me I just stick with my one processor and wait for drivers and falling prices.

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Mon Dec 10, 2001 2:30 am

Me too waiting for rev 1.03 board. The board number is beneath the dimm slots. The required stamp is 01M0AA. That's the revised board. the others have M0AA.
Happy pulsaring
Micha

Havoc · Post by **Havoc** » Mon Dec 10, 2001 11:32 pm

Will check the revision this evening. Anyway, both pc's are completely down and time is lacking to make serious work of it.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Dec 11, 2001 8:42 am

We got ours. More testing.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Dec 11, 2001 9:32 am

Well the 1.03 revision definitely fixed our PCI problem: on a single Elektra card, we can now load 4 masterVerbs with ACPI MultiProcessor.

More testing to follow, but this made a HUGE difference for us.

[ This Message was edited by: subhuman on 2001-12-11 09:32 ]

RyanC · Post by **RyanC** » Tue Dec 11, 2001 7:46 pm

Sub,

Are you using 3.0 or 3.01? just curious.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Dec 11, 2001 11:06 pm

Luna 3.01 for this testing, will add a Pulsar1 to the mix to go further...

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Dec 12, 2001 9:02 pm

Well subhuman, I'm keeping an eye on this thread hoping all goes well for you. I'd rather have an MPX in my future than i860, much easier on the pocketbook ;]

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Wed Dec 12, 2001 10:21 pm

To be completely honest, dual processors don't really offer all that much of a return, if your uses are strickly for audio. I'd much rather have a single processor P4 2Ghz, than any dual processor machine, if price was a consideration. Unless I was also doing 3D rendering and lots of video editing...

Anyway, initial reports of i845+DDR have proven to perform under the i850+RDRAM, so the Ultimate Creamware DAW, IMHO is either the ASUS CUSL2/TUSL2 or ASUS P4TE/Intel D850MVL, not any dual processor rig...

We'll add the Pulsar this weekend probably and continue testing the Tyan. Impressive so far, though.

Havoc · Post by **Havoc** » Thu Dec 13, 2001 11:25 am

One pc back running, one to go.

Some good news about the tyan. Just for the record: what OS are you running, any special settings?

Not so sure about cost: you can get 2 XP1800's for less then the price of a P4 2G, including the cost of the mobo. Sorry, I once got a dual, and don't want to go back....ever. So smooth.

valis · Post by **valis** » Thu Dec 13, 2001 5:35 pm

I agree with Havoc, I've been on dual machines sun my old Sun machine spanked my SGI Indigo II in 96, with a dual pentium-133 for dessert. These days it's all Intel and I no longer focus on graphics and 3d as much, but for overall responsiveness I'll take a dual proc anyday. Intel with their 'Jackson' technology and AMD a bit further down the road seem to agree as well.

Oh, btw, Cubase, Nuendo and Sonar all benefit greatly from SMP but I agree that Creamware most emphatically does NOT. A tremendous shame since rather than building a system around my Pulsar I'm really beginning to lean towards building a system that works the way I want whether Creamware is in the picture or not.

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 1:12 pm

There is no way that creamware could benefit from a dual processor, since everything has to still go through the 33mhz PCI bus. I would be happy if someone dicovered a Dual setup that was as reliable with a creamware card as a cusl2 though, so everything else it works with could benefit.

Havoc · Post by **Havoc** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 11:20 am

Right, it is time for creamware for a hardware redesign. Those new duals have 64 bit/66MHz pci busses. And if they put some ram onboard, we are rid of the pci bus as well. Well, not completely but almost.