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7257
March 17th, 2004 02:00
What is Hyper threading GOOD for???
After trying to work through a minor software prob. I was having, (http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_other&message.id=37073) I went into my bios and turned off Hyper Threading and also changed the HAL driver in System Properties. It fixxed the error msg I was getting before, just as I (and another member) thought it would. But then I was wondering how that would affect my performance.
So I ran the PassMark Performance Test (v4.0) software that came with Norton SW 2003 to see "the damage", and to my suprize it ran faster than it did with HTT turned on (from 345 to 360). The biggest change in the tests was Max Mega FLOPS more than trippled!!! From 215 (with HTT) to 675 (without HTT).
So my question is why does HTT hold back the number of Mega FLOPS. And is there a plus side to HTT that this test prog. doesn't show? It's my understanding that benchmark programs place loads on a system that are representative of the software of the time. And sometimes new inovations in hardware may not score that well on test programs written before said hardware was around.
crusier2
194 Posts
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March 17th, 2004 02:00
CatoftheNight
523 Posts
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March 17th, 2004 04:00
It's good for Multi-Tasking, and running multi-threaded programs. You won't see any performance improvements in Benchmarks, and actually msot likely get better scores with it off. In the near future, when some programs are written to take advantage of HT, then you will se performance differences. But for now, you'll only see a performance difference in things like Video encoding/editing, or in areas where you would like to have one program do this, and while it's doing that, you can run off and do this...
Personally, I'd recommend leaving it on, as long as it doesn't cause problems with your older programs written before HT is around (i.e. before '03).
And actually, when running Halo (Power guzzling 3D game) I got 4 more frames average with HT on, than with it off.
Message Edited by CatoftheNight on 03-16-2004 11:13 PM