Is it just me or processing power is stalling?

[hyperlinked]

omg!
he mysql server on my machine is now consuming 50% of the cpu, but it's under almost no load!

That is nuts! What kind of machine are you running that on? What version of MySQL? What's the load when you're actually doing something with the MySQL server?

The only time I've see anything like that on a "normal" machine was this time when a heat sink popped off one of my servers at a data center and it took one of the server admins several days to realize that there was some hardware problem on my server. The processor was cooking in an inferno and so the slightest request ate up the CPU.

[hyperlinked]

John Siracusa has a good write up about this. It is framed within the context of a Snow Leopard review, but he does a great job of explaining the issues at hand.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars/8

I just upgraded to Snow Leopard this weekend. My 8-core desktop has extra pop now. My 4 year old Mac laptop... not so much.

I also spent a huge chunk of my weekend rebuilding the customized webserver environment on my desktop that I use for my development work... not fun and stuff is still screwed up, but it is faster at least.

[msiegel]

it *is* nuts!

this is mysql 4.1.21 on a 1.6GHz core duo with 50MB+ free (totally unused) memory during operation and near zero disk activity.

after a restart the cpu % is also near zero... and mysql server happily processes about 5 reads + 5 writes per second from php (web requests).

but once web activity dies down on the weekend, the cpu % shoots up, to use an entire core -- all for mysqld.

other people have the same problem on a variety of os, but i have *never* seen a resolution. i blame software/os complexity

[Rajagra]

They should pass a law banning the use of compilers and make all programmers work in machine code, entered in hex. Advanced programmers should be allowed to use assembler, but only once they pass a test to show it doesn't make them lazy.

Harsh and unrealistic? Maybe. But imagine what people used to manage with 1MHz CPUs and a few hundred bytes of code, and scale that up to the machines we have today. Where is all that power disappearing? I'm damned if I know. Even accounting for compiler inefficiency and GUI overheads, something has gone horribly wrong.

[msiegel]

imagine what people used to manage with 1MHz CPUs and a few hundred bytes of code, and scale that up to the machines we have today.

yes... today's commodity hardware is unimaginably powerful by 1984 standards


and yet, we still enjoy those same old keyboards XD XD

[vyshane]

I also spent a huge chunk of my weekend rebuilding the customized webserver environment on my desktop that I use for my development work... not fun and stuff is still screwed up, but it is faster at least.

I'm a big fan of using virtual machines for development environments, for the above reason ;-)

[TheSoulhunter]

Is it just me or the overall progress in processing power is stalling since couple years?

Depends on what you want to process I think, and if you just compare CPUs alone or complete systems which would add graphic cards to the equation...
If its about gaming, video encoding/processing, or very specialized tasks like Folding@Home, a brand new system can easily reach 10x the fps/speed of a 3-5 years old one!

[vyshane]

They should pass a law banning the use of compilers and make all programmers work in machine code, entered in hex. Advanced programmers should be allowed to use assembler, but only once they pass a test to show it doesn't make them lazy.

Harsh and unrealistic? Maybe. But imagine what people used to manage with 1MHz CPUs and a few hundred bytes of code, and scale that up to the machines we have today. Where is all that power disappearing? I'm damned if I know. Even accounting for compiler inefficiency and GUI overheads, something has gone horribly wrong.

Good question. I've given it some more thought. Here's a shot at an answer:

It's not that programmers have become lazy. It is simply beyond human ability to implement complex systems using machine code. What people used to do with 1MHz CPUs was limited by what the hardware could do at the time.

When hardware became faster, we tried to build more and more complex software. However, we quickly found out that humans don't scale as well as the hardware. It is beyond human capability to keep track of bits and registers when we are trying to program our iPhone to send out a tweet. Our brain does not have enough bandwidth.

One way to manage complexity is to break things down into manageable chunks. We design layers of abstraction. When we send a tweet from our iPhone, we may be using: TCP/IP, HTTP, SSL, OAuth, XML (or JSON, RSS, Atom), Unicode, Cocoa Touch, Media Layer, Core Services, Core OS. Each layer may dial in a degree of inefficiency.

Sure, abstraction comes at a price. The alternative? There is none. We are not capable of building complex systems without it.

[timw4mail]

Good question. I've given it some more thought. Here's a shot at an answer:

It's not that programmers have become lazy. It is simply beyond human ability to implement complex systems using machine code. What people used to do with 1MHz CPUs was limited by what the hardware could do at the time.

When hardware became faster, we tried to build more and more complex software. However, we quickly found out that humans don't scale as well as the hardware. It is beyond human capability to keep track of bits and registers when we are trying to program our iPhone to send out a tweet. Our brain does not have enough bandwidth.

One way to manage complexity is to break things down into manageable chunks. We design layers of abstraction. When we send a tweet from our iPhone, we may be using: TCP/IP, HTTP, SSL, OAuth, XML (or JSON, RSS, Atom), Unicode, Cocoa Touch, Media Layer, Core Services, Core OS. Each layer may dial in a degree of inefficiency.

Sure, abstraction comes at a price. The alternative? There is none. We are not capable of building complex systems without it.

Abstraction is by far not the only problem.

[sparayurji]

i'm not a sw developer (by far) but i used the computers enough to develop the opinion that since a lot of years ago (but maybe since the beginning) the pc market and in a lesser grade the it world in general have been driven just by one 'credo'. i mean that the final goal is to make money, at any cost. so in my opinion the question is irrelevant. at least is it to put the matter in a pure technical point of view. i think i just discovered warm water...

[hyperlinked]

The alternative? There is none. We are not capable of building complex systems without it.

Unless only one genetic freak of a person is building it, but such people are extremely limited in number and cannot scale to demand.

[hyperlinked]

other people have the same problem on a variety of os, but i have *never* seen a resolution. i blame software/os complexity

Any reason why you haven't upgraded to MySQL 5.0? I don't know if it'll fix this particular problem, but I've had new bursts of speed with each version of MySQL.

[timw4mail]

Any reason why you haven't upgraded to MySQL 5.0? I don't know if it'll fix this particular problem, but I've had new bursts of speed with each version of MySQL.

Really, why are you running such an old version?

[D-EJ915]

granted pretty much I'm the only person who uses my mysql database with my wikis and such but I get like no usage from it lol, all it does is take up ram.

[roaduck]

Is it just me or processing power is stalling?

I think we'll see dual cpu socket motherboards in the next year-eighteen months and also 6-8 core chips migrating from the server and mainframe architechture.I think there is already 2 cpu 12 core servers from AMD and Intel is bound to catch up with the 32 micro metre cores.

I stopped buying an O/S after Win 98 SE because I didn't want a big piece of c**p from Redmond.I'm currently on Tiny XP and it's much less than 1 GB.

Just because multi-cored cpu's and fast RAM and big HDD's are cheap and powerfull, it doesn't mean we should be slowing our computers down with massive buggy software bundles.

I do think software engineers are lazy.There are much more efficient ways to implement things.I'll buy Microsoft software when it gets smaller AND more powerfull - ie: faster.
I'm looking for efficiency which to me means a big processor couple with small efficient software.

I use a standalone browser that's barely more than 1MB - OffbyOne - How big is Windows 7 now - 17 GB? Does it have to be that big to function well?

It's like some people say - Oh chips and memory and storage are cheap so it doesn't matter if I install big, inefficient bloatware that takes an age to scan, boot up and save and shutdown.

Hardware must be partly driven by big lumbering software and I, for one will not be installing it.

Imagine Windows 7 booting in under ten seconds - no chance.

[msiegel]

Any reason why you haven't upgraded to MySQL 5.0? I don't know if it'll fix this particular problem, but I've had new bursts of speed with each version of MySQL.

according to numerous reports i've seen, newer versions have the exact same problem.

to save time, i won't be upgrading any of the software on that server until it's ready to be put to a new use

[Mercen_505]

I come from an era where 640k of memory was 10x what I was used to working with, so I find it appalling that my OS consumes hundreds of megs of RAM on startup, and automatically bogs things down by starting dozens of "services" that 95% of people aren't going to need.

Now, I don't advocate programming in ASM. Been there, done that, happy to stick with C/C++. Hell, I'm happy that I don't have to inline ASM just to get graphics code running fast enough. Many programmers are sloppy, but there a lot of folks such as myself that always want to produce tight, optimized code. The problem is that by and large the software you use is being produced by people who are slaves to middle/upper management. After a while, you get tired of the bull****, and that means you give up and do as little as possible to get the job done on time. Features get cut, or pushed out incomplete, and rather than stopping to patch the things that don't work right you rush into the next set of "must have" features. When your product has so many issues it has a "knowledgebase" on the web, you know you're ****ed.

Compound the problem by upper management insisting on embracing every fancy piece of RAD or middleware that comes around, and you've got 100% of your company's bloated products built on top of other peoples' bloated products, which all happens to run on top of a bloated operating system. It's a recipe for disaster, and it has been propped up by escalating CPU, GPU, and RAM speeds.

Parallel processing is a band-aid, and likely a good thing all around, but until we get a processor and operating system that can intelligently and automatically dole out individual tasks to cores, it ain't gonna work out. Right now the overwhelming majority of software running on my dual core system never touch that second core, and that's a shame.

[sparayurji]

well i also remember what was possible to do with 48 (sinclair) or 64 (cbm) kilobytes of ram. of course it was a different age, but to make an example, there is also a c64 port for a twitter client.
but to be less extreme (not just exercises of style) i think that many open source oses can be defined also as clues that the direction where the computer world is going doesn't consider efficency as a factor.
for example haiku, or many 'compressed' linux distro such as tiny core, dsl, puppy, etc, or other really small oses (ex. kolibry, syllable). most cannot be considered as complete substitutes for the mainstream oses, of course (excluding probably haiku, which has a great potential), but still they prove, without the need to wait for chrome os or for future versions of moblin. and so on...

[AndrewZorn]

Mercen_505, i dont think anyone is really blaming the little guys, we all know how it is to work for someone.  of course it is the guys in business and marketing that come up with a lot of software conceptually.  thats what is interesting about starting a linux install from basically nothing... instead of finding programs one day and wonder what they do, you instead basically know everything that is on your computer and why it's there and if you use it.

a simple solution to your common problem: assign as many big, common tasks (explorer, etc) to the second core as you can, so that when a single-threaded program runs it by default has the whole first one to work with.

[JBert]

Imagine Windows 7 booting in under ten seconds - no chance.

Sorry, but I don't think you realize what your OS is doing.
It works on a whole lot of hardware, with some stuff being 10 years old or even older than that.
And most of all, programs written for windows 9x still work (more or less).

All of this stuff comes at a price, especially when you can't recompile the NT kernel and strip out the stuff you don't need.
The drawback is that your OS may be unable to boot once you do change the hardware...

[roaduck]

Sorry, but I don't think you realize what your OS is doing.
It works on a whole lot of hardware, with some stuff being 10 years old or even older than that.
And most of all, programs written for windows 9x still work (more or less).

All of this stuff comes at a price, especially when you can't recompile the NT kernel and strip out the stuff you don't need.
The drawback is that your OS may be unable to boot once you do change the hardware...

I know that the NT kernal is ancient (Windows 7 is based on the NT kernel) and I don't see why I should change my hardware every 2-3 years because Microsoft forces us to upgrade.There comes a time when you've got to say - who's in control here - You or the software companies.

I have fast boot times JB because I have edited the registry, got selective start up in msconfig and sysedit, turned off all but a few Windows services, got things on manual update only and also I use a start up program that turns things on after a specified time - not all at once.

At the moment there is no incentive to write programs in assembly language mainly a M$ version of C++ or whatever.

Even IBM model 10's mainframes have to have backwards compatibility.

[ch_123]

Have you actually ever tried Windows 7? I say this, because I used to have the attitude that I was going to stick to XP for Windows-related stuff, but Windows 7 is many many times better than it. Far more reliable too.

[itlnstln]

I know that the NT kernal is ancient (Windows 7 is based on the NT kernel) and I don't see why I should change my hardware every 2-3 years because Microsoft forces us to upgrade.There comes a time when you've got to say - who's in control here - You or the software companies.
 

Windows 7 boots faster than XP on the same hardware (3 y/o Dell Centrino-based, single-core 32 bit, Intel integrated graphics laptop) for me and is more reponsive in use..  YMMV, I guess.

[williamjoseph]

Windows 7 boots faster than XP on the same hardware (3 y/o Dell Centrino-based, single-core 32 bit, Intel integrated graphics laptop) for me and is more reponsive in use..  YMMV, I guess.

and very compartamental, can successfully uninstall explorer and Internet explorer and still run 7 w/o issues.  i think it is going to be a wonderfull flagship for MS, just as XP.  sorta try to think of vista:ME as 7:XP.    xp was the fix for ME and 7 is the fix to vista.

[ch_123]

People are all too quick to forget that XP wasn't particularly good when it was first released. In fact, it was almost three years before MS patched it up to a level where it could be depended on (Service Pack 2)

I've always maintained that the worst mistake MS made when designing Vista was taking so long to release it - I think the best way to continuously sell new OSes to people is to ensure that people either don't get too comfortable with the last one, or make the new one relatively similar to it's predecessor. MS went against both of those with Vista, but went with both of them for Windows 7. The Vista=ME comparison is cliched and misleading - Vista was actually an attempt to make something new, not just an unreliable rehash of an older system. Vista was more like Win95. Remember that one? Alot of people stuck to DOS and skipped 95 completely for very similar reasons as to those who stuck to XP over Vista - perceived unreliability and bloat. Windows 98 was more liked as far as I can tell, at least when the initial problems were ironed out.

Then again, the reason it took them so long to release Vista was because they had to spend all their time fixing XP and had to restart development of Vista half way in. I always find great irony in XP fanboys berating Vista for being underdeveloped - the underdevelopment is a direct consequence of XP being so useless in the first place!

[AndrewZorn]

can successfully uninstall explorer and Internet explorer and still run 7 w/o issues

really?

[timw4mail]

really?

Yup. IE is dead on my computer.

[roaduck]

Have you actually ever tried Windows 7? I say this, because I used to have the attitude that I was going to stick to XP for Windows-related stuff, but Windows 7 is many many times better than it. Far more reliable too.

When Windows SHRINKS and gets faster - I'll buy it then.Until then - No Chance.

Windows 7 is 17GB -  A huge O/S to me is 400MB.I also like a small system memory footprint.My version is 50MB of system RAM.On a 4GB RAM system it flies.

I tried AVI to DVD conversion whilst using a torrent client and with 20 web pages utilising Flash open simultaneously on both pcs and the smaller one won by a significant margin.Doing more with LESS resources.


I have tried Windows 7 - My friend lent me his o/c Q6600 HTPC for a weekend.My C2D Dell with a highly optimised Tiny XP installation floored it for boot times and shutdown.

It is like the difference between the old mini cooper and the new mini cooper.
My friend has an old cooper s with a howlett 1540 in it stage 3 tuned,lowered discs all round - worse spec than ther new BMW mini - but the old car does 0-100mph in less than 10 seconds and the new one is left for dead.Tight cornering at 75mph in Kielder a breeze in the Howlett - impossible in the bigger car.The Howy is much faster in hill climbs and can also out-brake the new car.It's power to weight ratio, sometimes you can play a better tune on an older fiddle.

[timw4mail]

It's power to weight ratio, sometimes you can play a better tune on an older fiddle.

True, but some of us don't have the initiative to so heavily customize Windows.

[AndrewZorn]

i understand your zeal for a slim OS but boot time and hard drive space are really not huge factors nowadays (at least, for most people)

i restart maybe weekly and have plenty of hdd space, even those with tiny 80gb SSDs dont seem THAT bothered by the size of win7.

youre using a ramdisk?  how is boot time relevant if you are using a ramdisk?

i am yet to use nlite on windows 7, but got really into tiny (<200mb) winxp images

[timw4mail]

i understand your zeal for a slim OS but boot time and hard drive space are really not huge factors nowadays (at least, for most people)

i restart maybe weekly and have plenty of hdd space, even those with tiny 80gb SSDs dont seem THAT bothered by the size of win7.

youre using a ramdisk?  how is boot time relevant if you are using a ramdisk?

i am yet to use nlite on windows 7, but got really into tiny (<200mb) winxp images

Well Hard Drive space is something that I aim to keep as much as I can. After all, the games take up a lot of space, so I'd rather have room for two more  big title games, than extra languages, or something else taking up space, related to the OS.

By the way, is there a way to eliminate OS logging in Windows?

[AndrewZorn]

well sure we all like hdd space and i am definitely not in need of most of the features windows has, but to discredit 7 compared to XP based LARGELY on losing 10gb (when most to all computers sold today start at 250gb) is a little bit much

[timw4mail]

well sure we all like hdd space and i am definitely not in need of most of the features windows has, but to discredit 7 compared to XP based LARGELY on losing 10gb (when most to all computers sold today start at 250gb) is a little bit much

That's two or three games that I don't have room for, when I have a 160GB hard drive.

[AndrewZorn]

assuming you are right at the point of filling it...
it's going to be dependent on your hardware and opinion
im just saying its install size isnt a huge downside that makes it inferior

i mean, i can just as easily make it sound trivial.  about (correction) 1% of the total space on a new 2TB drive (ignoring the 1000byte/kb crap)

i think it is fairly proportional to how storage space has grown, when xp was released hard drives were much smaller
i remember xp + office after a fresh install taking up 3gb of my 6gb drive.  it was an older computer, but not something anywhere near 'obsolete' at the time xp came out.

EDIT a bit of quick googling told me that the best at the time of xp's release (well, a month before, in 2001) was 100gb
xp install size calls for 1.5gb+ ("without the page file")
compared to
16-20gb (32, 64bit) required and a 2tb drive out

division says xp is the one that requires more drive space relative to current technology

[williamjoseph]

When Windows SHRINKS and gets faster - I'll buy it then.Until then - No Chance.

Windows 7 is 17GB -  A huge O/S to me is 400MB.I also like a small system memory footprint.My version is 50MB of system RAM.On a 4GB RAM system it flies.

I tried AVI to DVD conversion whilst using a torrent client and with 20 web pages utilising Flash open simultaneously on both pcs and the smaller one won by a significant margin.Doing more with LESS resources.


I have tried Windows 7 - My friend lent me his o/c Q6600 HTPC for a weekend.My C2D Dell with a highly optimised Tiny XP installation floored it for boot times and shutdown.

QUOTE]

old computers are great for legacy issues. But as someone who has a copy of xp home running in vista 64x under an emulation window, its a better experience by far.  it just sounds as if some people are acting as if the motorized vehicle is a passing fad. Larger and larger OS’s are going to be something we are going to have to deal with as technology advances. as far as the hardware, manufactures have gone with the multi core route along with a much small architecture, placing more/small switches onto a chip to do more work with less or the same power requirement on average.  i run the AMD phenom II 955.  over the original phenom 9550 it has a 40% increase in efficiency at an equivalent power level.  If you want to consume large amounts of electricity place a water cooling system onto your processor and OC it to 4.5 ghz.  I have mine OC’d to 3.91 ghz on air cooling alone.  Trying to maintain an old system will eventually become a loosing battle as parts become less available, dump your old files onto a 2tb HD and move on to a newer system that doesn’t care how big your OS is.

[InSanCen]

got selective start up in msconfig and sysedit, turned off all but a few Windows services,

You want Autoruns. Written by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals (which was bought by Microsoft).

Small download, no TSR. just works. Access to *everything* without tedious reghacks. Run as admin, kinda goes without saying.

Search M$ for the link.

[timw4mail]

Please fix your quote, and add capitalization to the beginning of your sentences...

And there's no way the Phenom II has a 40% increase over the Phenom. 33% is probably pushing it. I had a Phenom 9650, and I now have a Phenom II 940 BE.

True, as technology advances, there are some things that will have to change, get smaller, but we should be at the point where there doesn't need to be so much hardware thrown at small things like is so common right now.

I've got two main computers, one has a VIA Nano at 1.6GHz, the Other a Phenom II 940 BE @ 3.00GHz. Despite the speed difference, the Nano does pretty much the same thing. I've got an S3 card in the Via rig, and a Radeon HD 4870 in the Phenom II rig.

With the exception of some sound glitches, the Nano rig is as capable of playing Crysis as is the Phenom II. That's 1 core at 1.6GHz, vs. 4 cores at 3GHz.

[roaduck]

Is it just me or processing power is stalling?
 
No need for a RAMDISK for 50MB memory use.On an older pc or a cheap modest pc Tiny XP is quick.On a modern multicore it is cat-quick.I can install O/S from scratch with just a flashing white cursor on a black screen and any driver I want - I like to customise.Very few things in my house are off the shelf.
 
I also use windows in a box - no more going through endless menu trees.
 
XP is dead ! Long live TinyXP
 
Even though Linux is my OS of preferance, I cannot ignore Windows as there a lot of software which have no quality linux replacements and then Games.
18 Jul 2007 was the last date you could legally buy Windows XP. Microsoft simply stopped selling them so that they can promote Vista. But XP fans there is a news to cheer … eXPerience has just relesed TinyXP Rev09.

TinyXP contains all the updated drivers to the day and there are several custom installation options. It’s based on XP SP3. The best thing about this is that allows you to install Windows XP without the much hated Internet Explorer, Outlook express and Windows media player. These are the available install options.

• TinyXP With IE/OE/WMP (With Added Driverpacks)
• TinyXP With IE/OE/WMP (Without Added Driverpacks)
• TinyXP Without IE/OE/WMP (With Added Driverpacks)
• TinyXP Without IE/OE/WMP (Without Added Driverpacks)
• TinyXP BARE With IE/OE/WMP (With Added Driverpacks)
• TinyXP BARE With IE/OE/WMP (Without Added Driverpacks)
• TinyXP BARE Without IE/OE/WMP (With Added Driverpacks)
• TinyXP BARE Without IE/OE/WMP (Without Added Driverpacks)
• TinyXP With Repair Option (Product Key Already Filled In)

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Tiny XP installs thousands of registry hacks, that improve the system so much you’ll never want to go back to the standard version. As if that’s not enough, it even includes a bunch of cool options at boot time for trouble shooting, and even a fully functional copy of the Damn Small Linux live CD!
The installation will automatically install follwing components.
Service Pack 3 Final (Build 5512)
All Hotfixes Up To May 2008
DirectX DLL Libraries (24 to 36)
Flash Player v9.0.124.0 (IE) – / – Plugin DLL v9.0.124.0 (Firefox/Opera)
Royale Theme (Options 1 to 4) – / – Classic Theme

The following applications are also included in CD are Acronis Backup & Restore, Damn Small Linux 4.3, Hirens Boot CD 9.5 and SpinRite 6.0. You can download the TinyXP ISO which is only 700 MB using torrents.
Here is a link to download it from The Pirate Bay - The world’s most loved torrent tracker. You will also find installation instructions there.
Download
 
 
http://techome.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/xp-is-dead-long-live-tinyxp/
________________________________________________________________
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Open the program and find the setting your looking for.Its that simple!!!!!!!!!

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[timw4mail]

Doesn't work with entering Japanese through the Microsoft IME, last I checked.

[roaduck]

Doesn't work with entering Japanese through the Microsoft IME, last I checked.

You're right Tim - Tiny XP only comes in English Language, all the other languages are discarded.

There must be a way to add language support for Microsoft Global Input Method Editors (IMEs) though.

Maybe this will help Tim http://www.declan-software.com/japanese_ime/#XPinstall

[AndrewZorn]

liking to an XP torrent?


anyway
i just have to say

I've got two main computers, one has a VIA Nano at 1.6GHz, the Other a Phenom II 940 BE @ 3.00GHz. Despite the speed difference, the Nano does pretty much the same thing. I've got an S3 card in the Via rig, and a Radeon HD 4870 in the Phenom II rig.

With the exception of some sound glitches, the Nano rig is as capable of playing Crysis as is the Phenom II. That's 1 core at 1.6GHz, vs. 4 cores at 3GHz.

s3 is a brand.  what card?

but regardless, either you are using "capable" very literally, as in, they are both 100% capable (which makes no real point...) or you are doing something very wrong

not that 4 cores at 3ghz really helps much for games

[roaduck]

You want Autoruns. Written by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals (which was bought by Microsoft).

Small download, no TSR. just works. Access to *everything* without tedious reghacks. Run as admin, kinda goes without saying.

Search M$ for the link.

I was using Autoruns 3.01 in 2003.It's even better now.
The whole Sysinternals software suite is excellent.

I use Tweaker Total Commander - system optimiser as well - tiny and powerfull.

Thanks InSanCen.

[roaduck]

Well Hard Drive space is something that I aim to keep as much as I can. After all, the games take up a lot of space, so I'd rather have room for two more  big title games, than extra languages, or something else taking up space, related to the OS.

By the way, is there a way to eliminate OS logging in Windows?

I think this is for XP before SP2 - After SP2 I don't think it can be disabled :

Disable event logging: You can even turn off Event Logging all together if you want.
Click on Settings on the left hand navigation panel.
Click on Advanced Options.
At the bottom of the page, click on Looking for additional settings?.
From there, scroll down until you see Collect events in the left column. Click on the true in the right column.
Select False from the drop-down menu and click Save.

To scrub the event logs :

Go to - Start - Control Panel - Administative tools - Event viewer (local) - Open - Application/Security/System/Antivirus and right click each one and click "Clear All Events"

There must be a batch program to do this tedious chore somewhere or a way of keeping the logs small as well.

Batch file for Windows XP
================

Event Log Backup utility (elback.exe)

Event Log Backup utility lets you quickly save event logs from different locations in one place. You can find elback.exe in Event Log Explorer application folder.

ELBACK BatchFile

runs BatchFile to backup logs.

 

ELBACK DestDir EventLogs [/clear]

backups EventLogs to DestDir with optional clear option.

 

BatchFile format:

; - comment line

DestDir EventLogs [/clear]

 

DestDir - specifies a destination folder (or /NOBACKUP option).
If the destination folder name contains spaces, it must be enclosed in quotes.

EventLogs - specifies a particular event log or group of event logs which you want to backup to DestDir.
Event logs must be separated by spaces. If event log name contains spaced, it must be enclosed in quotes. Remote event logs are specified as \\ComputerName\LogName. You can use wildcard characters (*) to specify all event logs (\\ComputerName\*).

/clear - optionally clears EventLogs after backup.

Sample BatchFile with comments:

=====================
;backup to C:\Backup Application and system from Server, then clear
C:\Backup\ Server\Application Server\System /Clear

;Backup all logs from Server2 to C:\My Backup, without clearing.
"C:\My Backup\" Server2\*

;Clear all logs from 192.168.1.11
/Nobackup \\192.168.1.11\* /clear
=====================

You can automate BatchFile creation from Event Log Explorer tree. More information is available in Export to backup batch.


http://www.eventlogxp.com/help/elback.html


Batch file for Windows 7
===============


Event Viewer One Click Clear
How to Clear the Windows 7 Event Viewer with One Click
Published by Zardoc
2 Weeks Ago
 Event Viewer One Click Clear
How to Clear the Windows 7 Event Viewer with One Click

Information     This will show you how to create a command line shortcut that will clear all of the Event Viewer logs in one click.   




Here is a batch file that can help you clear the event viewer in one click.

Download this file above..

Unzip on your desktop.

You can use the task scheduler to give it a high priority so you won't get a UAC prompt

See Brink's Tip HERE

Or, just copy this script and paste in notepad and save as Clean Viewer.BAT

Right click to run the file
Code:
 
@echo off
SET VEVLOGCLR=wevtutil cl
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-ADSI/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-AltTab/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Backup"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Bits-Client/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Bits-Client/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-CAPI2/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-CertificateServicesClient-CredentialRoaming/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-CodeIntegrity/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-CodeIntegrity/Verbose"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-COM/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-CorruptedFileRecovery-Client/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-CorruptedFileRecovery-Server/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-CredUI/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DateTimeControlPanel/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DateTimeControlPanel/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DateTimeControlPanel/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DCLocator/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Dhcp-Client/Admin"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Dhcpv6-Client/Admin"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis-DPS/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis-DPS/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis-DPS/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis-PLA/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis-PLA/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis-WDI/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Networking/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Networking/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Diagnostic/Loopback"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnostic/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticDataCollector/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticResolver/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-DxgKrnl/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-EFS/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-EventCollector/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-EventCollector/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-EventLog-WMIProvider/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-EventLog/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-EventLog/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-FileInfoMinifilter/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Firewall-CPL/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Forwarding/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Help/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-HotStart/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-HttpService/Trace"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-International/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-IPSEC-SRV/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Acpi/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-EventTracing/Admin"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-BootDiagnostics/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Prefetch/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Process/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Registry/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-WDI/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-WDI/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-WDI/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-LanguagePackSetup/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-LanguagePackSetup/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-LanguagePackSetup/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-LDAP-Client/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-MemoryDiagnostics-Results/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-mobsync/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-MPS-CLNT/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-MPS-DRV/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-MPS-SRV/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-MUI/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-NetworkAccessProtection/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-OfflineFiles/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-OfflineFiles/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-OfflineFiles/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-OfflineFiles/SyncLog"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-PowerCfg/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-PowerCpl/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-PrintService/Admin"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-QoS-qWAVE/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-ReadyBoost/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-ReliabilityAnalysisComponent/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-RemoteAssistance/Admin"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-RemoteAssistance/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-RemoteAssistance/Tracing"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Resource-Exhaustion-Detector/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Resource-Exhaustion-Resolver/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Resource-Leak-Diagnostic/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-ResourcePublication/Tracing"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-RestartManager/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-RPC/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-RPC/EEInfo"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Sens/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-ServiceReportingApi/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Services-Svchost/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Services/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-AuthUI-Common/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-AuthUI-CredUI/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-AuthUI-Logon/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-AuthUI-PasswordProvider/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-AuthUI-Shutdown/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-DefaultPrograms/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Shwebsvc"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-ZipFolder/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Speech-UserExperience/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-stobject/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Subsys-Csr/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Subsys-SMSS/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-SystemHealthAgent/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-PnPDevices/Admin"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-PnPDevices/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-PnPDevices/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-PnPDevices/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-RemoteConnectionManager/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-RemoteConnectionManager/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-RemoteConnectionManager/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-UAC-FileVirtualization/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-UAC/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-User-Loader/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-VolumeSnapshot-Driver/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-WinINet/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Wininit/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Winlogon/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Winlogon/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-WinRM/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-WinRM/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Winsock-AFD/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Winsock-WS2HELP/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Winsrv/Analytic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-Wired-AutoConfig/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-WLAN-AutoConfig/Operational"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-WMI-Activity/Trace"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-WSC-SRV/Diagnostic"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Microsoft-Windows-WUSA/Debug"
%VEVLOGCLR% "OSession"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Application"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Security"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Setup"
%VEVLOGCLR% "EndpointMapper"
%VEVLOGCLR% "ForwardedEvents"
%VEVLOGCLR% "HardwareEvents"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Internet Explorer"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Key Management Service"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Media Center"
%VEVLOGCLR% "ACEEventLog"
%VEVLOGCLR% "System"
%VEVLOGCLR% "Windows PowerShell"
SET VEVLOGCLR=
exit

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/25480-event-viewer-one-click-clear.html

[timw4mail]

s3 is a brand.  what card?

but regardless, either you are using "capable" very literally, as in, they are both 100% capable (which makes no real point...) or you are doing something very wrong

not that 4 cores at 3ghz really helps much for games

Its an S3 Chrome 440 GTX. Capable as in an average of 30 FPS, at at least 1024x768, on the lowest settings.

I guess I was trying to state that Crysis is optimized.