Will LB 4.5.1 run on Xeon Processor?

[lotterynut]

Hi, I have a program that could be rewritten in some other faster language, but I really like the simplicity of Liberty Basic which makes it possible for me to maintain and modify the code myself. I have done some optimizing, but this program mashes a lot of data and it would be an advantage to be able to run it on a faster processor. I'm already running an Intel i7-7700HQ @2.8GHz so I'm wondering if I could go to a Xeon processor machine (running Windows 10 Pro) for more performance. Will LB 4.5.1 run on that machine? 

Thanks for the help!

[Chris Iverson]

Xeon is still an x64 processor, and if you're using a client edition of Windows(Windows 10 Pro is one, in this case), you'll still have the WOW64 subsystem that will let LB run on 64-bit machines that have 64-bit Windows installed. (Some editions of Windows Server either reduce WOW64 to an optional component, or remove it entirely. LB wouldn't run on those systems unless the optional component is installed.)

[lotterynut]

Thank You! That's exactly what I wanted to know.

Much obliged.

[Stefan Pendl]

I have had programs written in LB v3.0 running successfully on Xeon CPUs.
Generally LB only needs x86 processor architecture, that is all.

[tsh73]

I wonder if Xeon processor
(or processor with higher code count for that matter)
will offer any advantage over other same-Hz processor.
After all, LB is single-threaded I think?

[Chris Iverson]

LB is single-threaded, having more cores will not directly benefit an LB program. (Some of the internal bookkeeping Windows does for applications can happen on other threads, so it will help there.)

[lotterynut]

Jun 25, 2018 9:47:05 GMT -5 Chris Iverson said:

LB is single-threaded, having more cores will not directly benefit an LB program. (Some of the internal bookkeeping Windows does for applications can happen on other threads, so it will help there.)

Thanks for all the helpful comments! I did my homework and came to the conclusion that the benefit, only about a 3.6% increase in raw clock speed, would not be great enough to justify the cost. As you all know, the 8th gen i7 Intel chips run at a lower clock speed than 7th gen i7 (because Intel is absolutely committed to the maximum power ceiling - 5 watts, they added cores and slowed the clock to stay in the power budget) so single-thread software theoretically runs slower on them. My oldest machine (the one I am replacing) is close to the end of its life-cycle as the mfg is not making Win10 drivers available, so I am thinking very hard about what to do. I would hate to buy an 8th gen processor machine and get lower performance. I'm thinking that I may get another 7th gen machine now but not go the Xeon route since that doesn't appear to give the performance gain I hoped it would.

Thank you all again for the help! Great forum!

~

[Kuron]

LB can't do threaded apps, natively. But, you should be able to do simple threaded apps using the appropriate APIs and if you know how to write thread-safe code.

I would hate to buy an 8th gen processor machine and get lower performance.

Lower clock speed does not mean a slower processor and has not, for many, many, years. I have an ASUS 8th Gen quadcore i7 laptop. It is solely used in the studio for audio/video processing. It is a beast and I bought it for the speed boost over the 7th gen chips.

www.howtogeek.com/177790/why-you-cant-use-cpu-clock-speed-to-compare-computer-performance/