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[jimmy neutron]

Simple question...maybe not so simple answer.

Does JRiver take advantage of multiple cores in a CPU? If so how many cores will MC take advantage of? And when? How many for audio? DVD? Blu Ray? Ripping? Playback? Is there a "debug" mode that allows us to see this "behind the scenes" info? Also, does MC like Intel over AMD for anything in particular? Or vise versa.

What about RAM? What is MC comfortable with? I personally have 16 gigs pc1600 RAM on Win 7 64 bit. Does MC care about any of this? I know that MC runs nice on a lowly single core P4 2.6 gHz with 2 gigs cheap RAM, but it absolutely screams on my newest build with a AMD quad-core 3.6gHz with 16 gigs RAM on Win 7 64 bit.

Just curious only.

Jimmy

[DarkPenguin]

MC is extremely multi threaded.

It wasn't always like this.  It was once a single big thread.  Then one day Matt said "Do you think multi threading this would be a good idea?" and he made a second thread.  Then a third.  Then, sometime around MC 11.1.14748, he went APE nuts and multi threaded everything including multi threading.

And all was good.

I don't know how ripping or playback would be helped but encoding, image decoding ahead, UI, etc would be helped.

[hulkss]

I did some tests last week with an i7-2600k Intel processor at stock clock speeds with 8 gigs of ram running Winows 7 64bit.
I have no graphics card so all video work is being done by the CPU and on chip graphics (HD3000). Z68 chip set motherboard.
Hyper threading enabled (4 physical cores and 4 virtual cores).

I am using 16 audio channels with digital correction filters, digital crossovers, bass management filters, (25 filter paths) using JRiver DSP and convolver. Tested playing back 7.1 DTS master audio with 1080P Blu-Ray video using Red October HQ (madVR).

I think this is the heaviest home theater playback work load I can create (non-gaming).

So....I open resource monitor during the movie to find that all four virtual cores are parked, which means the OS has them shut down as they are not needed. The four physical cores are working at about 10-15% and madVR reports that I am not dropping any video frames so HD3000 is keeping up. The 8 gigs of ram is more than enough.

I can overload the HD3000 graphics just a little playing directly from some optical disks, so I am updating to an i5-3570K to get HD4000 graphics and faster main memory (used by the on chip graphics) with the Z77 chipset. An i7 is not needed as the hyper threaded virtual cores remain parked. You can mess with the OS to turn off the parking but there is no benefit to it.

[jimmy neutron]

@ Hulkss. Interesting. So if an i7 is too much then it seems an i5 (or AMD's Phenom) dual or quad core is more than adequate. But about the RAM. 8 gigs also seems to be the sweet spot, but could'nt JRiver work better, as the OS, with more RAM? You can run the entire OS and MC with 16 gigs RAM, which would be faster than from the hard drive. Another advantage would be less hard drive noise and wear and tear if it doesn't have to spin anymore. Can MC be made to operate from RAM 100% of the time? Or is this a Windows specific thing?

Another this that is interesting is that todays on-board graphics seems to be more than adequate and powerful enough for 1080p blu-ray playback. I'm running all my HTPC's off the on-board graphics - HDMI out and full 5.1/7.1 audio. Never any studdering. This makes a quieter PC since you don't have a noisy fan on the card, and your case stays cooler, with lower power consumption. So, if this is true (which it is), then why would one want to upgrade to a video card? What advantage, HTPC wise, could one gain from a video card over the on-board video? Currently I have a couple hundred bucks that I want to spend on my HTPC and I've been thinking about getting a GTX560ti video card. But honestly, if I get perfect 1080p playback right now with my on-board video card, then is this a moot point?

Jimmy

[hulkss]

I don't know about "running from ram 100%". I just use a SSD for the OS and application software.

Current on chip graphics is sufficient for "normal blu-ray quality video playback".

I am building a second HTPC for 3D gaming (Nvidia 3D Vision) and 3D Blu-Ray movies. It will be more of a "monster" with an Nvidia based graphics card (GTX 560). High end graphics cards pull nearly 300 watts of power under load! Requires a DLP projector from the Nvidia approved list. I picked the Acer H5360.

[Hendrik]

Regarding RAM, right now JRiver MC is a 32-bit application, so its limited to 2GB of memory (with some tricks (PAE) to 4GB).

[glynor]

Then, sometime around MC 11.1.14748,

I think I missed that build. 

[Listener]

I think I missed that build. 

You snooze, you lose.  It came while you were in that boring meeting.

Bill