Poop - macmidiguy

Yes, CPU Speed Accelerator really works...

...if you understand what it does. It does not make your computer's CPU faster.

Instead, it makes a change to the way Unix allocates resources to your programs when you run more than one program.

A single-processor computer can only do one thing at a time, and can only run one program at a time. No single-processor computer can run more than one program at once.

Your computer lets you run many programs at once, but this is actually an illusion. It stops all the programs except one, runs that one program for a few thousandths of a second, then stops it and switches to the next program, runs it for a few thousandths of a second, then stops it and switches to the next program, runs it for a few thousandths of a second, and so on.

At no time does it ever really run more than one program at a time. All the other programs are stopped when one is running. But because it switches between programs thousands of times a second (and because most programs spend most of their time waiting around and doing nothing anyway), it seems to you like the computer is running multiple programs simultaneously.

What CPU Speed Accelerator does is it lets the processor run whatever is in the foreground a little bit longer than it runs everything else. So it runs the program in the foreground for a few thousandths of a second longer than it otherwise would before it switches to whatever other programs are running. The program that is in the foreground--the one you re actually working with--gets more "attention" from the processor and runs seemingly a little faster; programs in the background get less "attention" and run seemingly slower.

That's it. That's all it does. Unless you are using a program that is really consuming lots of processor power, the difference will probably not be noticable. On a multiprocessor computer, which CAN actually run multiple execution threads at once, the difference is even more negligible.


For my 8500/G3 a "legacy" mac it made huge difference.

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Sunday, April 15 2007 @ 07:23 AM PDT

Poop - xabbu8

So, if, for example, I were to run this app on, hypothetically, a G5 Quad (pre-intel) would this have any effect on applications such as Photoshop CS2 running alongside, say Maya 8.0 (Mac OS X 10.4)? I am not very observant, but running these two apps together, and then jumping into say Illustrator, and of course, web browser running, etc. I can't say I've noticed much of a crunch (at least compared to the old days...) running stock; but, as they say, every little bit helps, eh? I guess it comes down to this: would it be worth the effort of installing on an already burning fast G5 Quad OS X 10.4 if you are an appli-maniac and like to push the envelope with running tons of simultaneous apps??

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Sunday, January 20 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST