Hi, Lovely piece of software, just started experimenting with it. One thing I have noticed - I am running a 2GHz Core2Duo Macbook with 2GB RAM: - Using a DivX to DVD software package (VSO ConvertXtoDVD) - If I boot into Windows XP using bootcamp the software converts at about 1.3x - 1.4x. A 2hr DivX movie takes roughly 1hr35mins to convert. - If I boot into Mac OS, a run my bootcamp partition as a VM, the software converts at about 2.1x - 2.2x. The 2hr movie is finished in under an hour. I am sure there is a simple explanation for this (it's obviously not a complaint!!), I'm just curious to hear anyones theories on it. I expected software to run slowly, is it the way in which the 2 CPU cores are being utilised when running the Parallels software in the Mac OS? Thanks for the time, if anyone can answer... Also, just noticed that Activity Monitor registers CPU % as 112% when encoding - is this normal?
i am completely talking without any true technical knowledge here - this is a total guess! but, I do know that software has to be written in order to take advantage of dual core or multiple processors. so, it could be that your converter software does not on it's own utilize multiple cores. however, parallels might be optimized to use them both and, though parallels adds some overhead, it is allowing your single cpu software to actually utilize both cores? that's my theory!
If your activity monitor says 112%, that is most likely relative to 1 core. In other words, you are using, say, 100% of 1 core and 12% of the second core - or some combination that adds up to 112%.
