"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:

> In a nutshell, SSE2 is a processor feature that allows to do faster number
> crunching (provided that programs are optimized to use it, which the
> SSE2-binary of PoV ray is).
>

"Jerome Berger" wrote:
> With 3.6, you don't benefit from having two cores whether you use
> the SSE2 version or not. With 3.7 beta, you do benefit from the dual
> core whether you use the SSE2 or not.

I've been curious about this topic as well.  So do I understand that SSE2 is a
machine architecture/chip thing? Or is it somehow also an operating system
thing? I've tried reading up on the subject, but I still don't understand it
fully. I'm currently running the non-SSE2 version of POV-Ray (v3.6.1c) on
32-bit Windows XP SP3, on a 64-bit single-core AMD Athlon machine. Can I use
the SSE2 version of POV? And will it give me better performance (if only
slightly?) Sorry to be such a dummy about this. :-S

Ken W.

Post a reply to this message