Computer hardware and software
Can Excel 2007 utilize a Quad Core processor? If not now, is Microsoft updating it to be able to?
Question : Can Excel 2007 utilize a Quad Core processor? If not now, is Microsoft updating it to be able to?
I have a heavy duty Excel program that takes 4 minutes to run on Excel 2003. I am purchasing a Quad Core (Intel Q6600, 2.4Ghz) processor computer. I need to know if it makes any difference if I also get Excel 2007. Or should I wait?
quad core processor
Best answer:
Answer by Barry M
Excel 2007 does show some improvement, depending on what processor you have already. It looks to be at least a 50% improvement over a 3 Ghz Core 2 Duo, with improvement being significantly better if your current processor is less powerful. May want to stick with 2003 and see if it performs better than your current system though, as it may already function well on a quad core without requiring 2007.
Excel 2003 will use only a single core, no matter how many you have.
In Excel 2007, you can use multiple cores. And you can tell it how many to use. The default is to use them all, but you could restrict that to just 2 of the 4 if you wanted to.
That said, I don’t think that everything in Excel benefits from multiple cores. For example, there is no way to write a multi-threaded VBA program. You could write your own COM add-in that uses multiple cores, but that isn’t really VBA.
So, you will likely see a speed increase, but it probably won’t be 4 times faster.
Tim
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