Does Hyperthreading Help or Hinder DC?

[mastertech01]

Just wondering if plans to upgrade to a 3.06 will help DC using hyperthreading or is it one of those things that will not be supported or actually hurt DC performance?

 

[Crazee]

Take a look at this linky

 

[mastertech01]

Thanks Crazee!

 

[Baldy18]

Only seems to help if you ran two different projects that used different portions of the CPU. Two instances of the same project wouldn't be helped by hyperthreading.

 

[Crazee]

Actually if you look at the thread, Barbary got good results running 4 instances of Seti using hyperthreading.

 

[Idoxash]

don't know if anyone else has done this but i can get around 4.5 hrs on my PIII 1266mhz cpu with the 512 cach... running only one cli.... but after reading this post earler today i set it to run 2 cli at one time and my total time drop to around 4.2.... so im guessing in 4.2 hrs that i will put out 2 wus??? if this the case then it means that running 2 wus at one time on my computer is far better use of the cpu then running just 1 wu... I don't know i guess im going have to wait and find out what will happen any thoughts on this would be kewl!

 

[Spacehead]

I've read a few threads over at the SETI@home msg boards where people claim to get faster times running 2 instances on a single CPU rather than one instance. Not too many people claim this, but a few do.
Most people report getting 2 WU's finished in twice the time. I've never tried it so i don't really know.

 

[mechBgon]

Any cruncher is a good cruncher (as long as it's not OC'ed so high that it gives a stack of 5-minute "results"). That being said, I'm surprised his results aren't even faster. I downloaded the TLC work unit and crunched it in 3hr 15min on my AthlonXP 1600+ @ 1750MHz/166FSB. That's only 21 minutes longer, not bad considering it's sub-2GHz and $60 out the door for the CPU and heatsink

 

[Idoxash]

for the last few weeks there has been something up with my seti... use too i could get around 8 wus a day out of this PIII i have now im lucky to get 5 a day... sometimes even lower.... do not know the prob but im startting to think maybe formatting will help out... who knows right now eh...

 

[Idoxash]

where do you get that (TLC wu) from?

 

[mechBgon]

Link to the TLC work unit, courtesy of Smokeball: http://www.teamlambchop.com/bench/benchfile.htm To run the client with the "-stop_after_process" option, I made a text file with the following line, then saved it as a .bat file in the folder with the client:

setiathome-3.03.i386-winnt-cmdline.exe -stop_after_process

As TLC's instructions say, you can look at the state.sah file and see on line 18 how many seconds of CPU time were needed to process the WU.

 

[Baldy18]

Originally posted by: Crazee
Actually if you look at the thread, Barbary got good results running 4 instances of Seti using hyperthreading.

I eat my words then. However it will probably give different results for different projects and some probably won't fair as well as SETI does.

 

[mastertech01]

I may be using it for D2OL. I have no idea if it will be as successfull. I know my motherboard supports hyperthreading when a processor is avaliable and Im just pre-planning for now. My single processor does a right fine job already though.

 

[Crazee]

Originally posted by: Baldy18

Originally posted by: Crazee
Actually if you look at the thread, Barbary got good results running 4 instances of Seti using hyperthreading.

I eat my words then. However it will probably give different results for different projects and some probably won't fair as well as SETI does.

No need to eat your words and you are definitely right I am sure it varies by project and the only way we will find out is by playing with it

 

[Baldy18]

You buy me one and I'll play with it with every project and make a huge database of results.

 

[Crazee]

Originally posted by: Baldy18
You buy me one and I'll play with it with every project and make a huge database of results.

Okay I will buy you one if you buy me two

 

[BadThad]

Here you go. A nice analysis by a TeAm member:

Barbary Thread

 

[DJSnairdA]

A lot of CPU's react differently to SETI i've noticed.

For example, my dad's 1.2ghz performs slower than my 850mhz (possibly VLAR's too..)

I wouldn't think two processors at once would be faster though.. it's twice as much processing..

 

[barbary]

Seems my coments aren't needed as somebody found my benchmark thread from last Janurary.

I'll just add that it was no fluke. I still have the same machine on my desk and it has turned out 18/20 WU's every day since I bought it.

Despite a fair amount of DOD playing!!

 

[ColinP]

Barbary..

What speed Xeons are in the 530 ??

I was wondering if this would give similar performance ?
Is hyperthreading supported on all the 530s ? I guess they all have the same mobo so is there any difference in the later CPU ?

cheers mate,

Col

 

[barbary]

I have 2.2Ghz processors. It has to be the ones with 512k l2 cache to have hyperthreading.