Microsoft details Windows 8 Task Manager with 64+ logical processors

By Tom Warren, on 27th Oct 11 8:42 pm with 41 Comments

Microsoft revealed its Windows 8 task manager CPU improvements on Thursday.

The software maker has made some subtle improvements to the way it handles the task manager processor list for systems with a huge number of logical processors. The new Metro style Task Manager allows Windows 8 to handle a large amount of cores. Microsoft has switched to a percentage numbering scheme for each processor to show which are being used heavily. In Windows 7, the operating system simply displays a line graph for each logical processor:

Windows 7 Task Manager

The result is a little messy for system administrators. Microsoft’s new Windows 8 Task Manager includes the following:

Windows 8 Task Manager

The improvements won’t affect your average user but they do show that Microsoft is looking at every part of Windows 8 to truly “reimagine” its use across different scenarios. “This is scalability well beyond desktop PCs, and is designed for the server and data center,” explains Windows chief Steven Sinofsky in a blog post on Thursday. “A big part of Windows development is that the OS scales across a wide range of form factors and CPU architectures.”

Image Credit: Microsoft corporation

  • http://twitter.com/ondraster Ondra Moravek

    Can I pls get somewhere to PC that has 64+ logical CPU cores? :) )

    • GP007

      All you need is a server setup with 2 quad socket mobos and 8 8-core Intel CPUs and you’re good to go.

      All in all, probably cost you like, $20k+ at best, just a guess on that though.

    • http://twitter.com/furdworetzky Fur Dworetzky

      Since these are logical cores and not physical cores, you could actually get by with quad-core processors with HT.

    • Anonymous

      I don’t know how much the motherboards are, but the CPU’s themselves may not be as expensive as you think.  All you need is 8 intel quads with HT for about $180 each.  I’m sure the MB’s are not cheap though.

  • http://twitter.com/teusje teusje

    Where do you buy these? :-)

    • Anonymous

      Not Apple, that’s for sure.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, it’s looking more and more like Windows 8 will actually be more aesthetically pleasing than MacOS 10.7.  Fingers crossed that M$ doesn’t start using rich corinthian leather in the UI before launch.

    • Anonymous

      They should hire Ricardo Montalban’s ghost to do the ads.

    • Frylockns86

      KHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANN!!!!!!!!

    • Arkistriph

      Da plane Boss Da PLANE

    • Anonymous

      Windows is already more aesthetically pleasing.  Perhaps you have no seen Windows 7 before?

    • Penta2100

      I still think that the window animations are better though.

    • phil

      Osx lion is pretty nice looking and has smooth animations. Win7 cant really reach that. i dont know if win8 desktop will, thought the task manager looks pretty sweet.

    • Tuxplorer

      Windows 7 is a MILLION times more beautiful than the fugly depressingly grey looking ugly ass OS X Lion from crApple.

  • phil jay

    1024gb ram :D

    • http://twitter.com/OldCongress Gamer

      woow

    • Anonymous

      And only 4% being used!
      I don’t even know how that’s possible.

  • http://twitter.com/furdworetzky Fur Dworetzky

    64 logical CPU cores?
    That’s only eight Core i7s. Just keep playing McDonald’s monopoly.

    • http://twitter.com/ParkerReno Parker Ciambrone

      haha, and the pictured computer has 160 cores if you count :)

  • Anonymous

    Damn, they let you set CPU affinity for processes. That’s some pretty deep sh*t! That should get PC hobbyist/enthusiast smack talk to a whole new level. lol

    • http://twitter.com/ParkerReno Parker Ciambrone

      ummm so does XP and Vista…

    • Anonymous

      And Windows NT, lol.

  • Test1ngi23

    This is off-topic but I really hope they keep the window titles centered! With these 1920 pixel windows, left-justified titles are starting to look silly.

    • Anonymous

      Keep trolling iDiot.

    • Guest

      I thought trolls liked to stick together?

    • Anonymous

      GTFO.

    • Anonymous

      Hey come on now.  I’m sure you can find better stuff than that to bitch about Windows.

  • Ian S

    I fainted

  • Guest

    i want a 64 core computer

    • phil

      Start with 64 bit :P

  • Eberton Konieczny Sobreira

    2032 threads????

    • Guest

      Not unusual in a large multi-user machine.

    • Hino Musouka

      I have 834 on a 3-year laptop two core laptop with browser and mail program (and background apps) opened. 2.5 times that for a server machine is nothing.

  • http://twitter.com/m_assal Mohammed Al-Assal

    Nice PC
    It contains 8 Processors, each has 10 physical cores (20 with hyper-threading),
    each core is clocked at 2.4 GHz and each processor costs 4500$.
    = Total Speed = 192 GHz & Total Cost = 36000$

    + 1024 GB RAM
    + 5 MB L1 Cache
    + 20 MB L2 Cache
    + 240 MB L3 Cache

    + HDD read speed of 981 MB/S

    What exactly is this ???!!!!

  • Mike Baker

    The new task manager looks like a PowerPoint slide :(

  • Tochicx

    so where they saying that pc had a terabyte of ram

  • Gjj

    I TB RAM!!!!! SO MUCH WANT!!!

  • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

    I don’t want a machine like this, I NEED a machine like this! :)

  • rms

    I’m afraid 64 CPU/NUMA is broken in WDP :(

  • http://twitter.com/lightfoot256 Chris

    Actually; my favourite stat in all of those pictures is the uptime; pfft… 29 minutes; is that how long it took to boot to take the screen shot? or is that how long it lasts before crashing… J/K :-D .