Linux Multicore?

[cpt.joo]

Hey all,
This might not be the right place but i used to host a server long time ago and came here for advice, but now i just used dedicated hosts.

Does a TF2 server on Linux support multicore?

CentOS 5.5, 32bit (TF2 didn't like 64bit back then)
Intel Xeon 3230-Quad Core (just 4 cores)
4GB DDR2 Memory (sticks have to be replaced for more)
NOTE: it's using PAE which means it can use the full 4GB unlike Windows in 32bit.
500GB (two drives)
100 (Mbps) public/private uplink speed
2TB of bandwidth
8 IP addresses IPv4

Those are the specs. They are running 2 32 mans servers and they lag like all hell.

They say that the everyone else is lagging and the server is fine, they also say that one server can't use more than 1core.

*EDIT* Also is there any way to tell how much FPS / tic rate of a server without talking to one of the admins?

[BehaartesEtwas]

srcds servers do not run on more then one core at the moment. you can make use of the other cores of course if you have more then on server.

that cpu is 4 years old and TF2 has changed a lot since then. it might be difficult to run 32 slot servers on it... but if you get one running, the second should not be a problem (thanks to the 4 cores).

what might help: switch to 64 bit ubuntu server edition. 64 bit is better on modern machines, PAE is not a good replacement for that (especially not for game servers!) and also other architecture dependent parts in the kernel are more evolved than in the 32 bit version. also centos has very very old kernels and system libraries, which make it very difficult to get a smooth running server.

if you don't have the rcon password of the server (I wonder why you have the precise specs then), you can read the server fps with net_graph 4. ideally it should be exactly equal the tickrate (typically 66, 100 is not better). more is just waste of resources, and might lead to the aliasing effect (and thus actually be worse).