SMP systems and UT benchmarking++++++

[Remedy]

I've been looking lately at SMP system and benchmarks but notice that they only use Q3A as a gaming SMP benchie. If UT is a cpu intensive engine, then shouldn't it benefit from the SMP factor?

 

[jmcoreymv]

I dont think UT is like double threaded or whatever they call it. The only reason UT would benifit from SMP is because you can tell it to load on the second CPU by itself, so the OS and background apps run on one cpu and UT runs on its own.

 

[Remedy]

You mean multithreading. But UT is like a unsatisfied hungry engine, so its always looking for power. I notice when i play UT with 9 bots plus myself it can get very hectic, system wise. So i figured when it gets real violent in the game, thats when the secondary cpu should kick in.

 

[jmcoreymv]

Well the second cpu wont kick in because UT isnt multithreaded (like you said).

 

[Strafe]

True, the second CPU will never kick in if an app is not multithreaded, however, you may get a bit of a bump because the OS, ICQ and whatever else you may have running can be offloaded to the other CPU.

 

[Remedy]

That is exactly what i was trying to say before. But i want to know how much of a boost will it receive? Hmm..maybe if i tinker with some beta drivers of my own i can probably manipulate UT into actually seeing the secondary cpu.

 

[BoberFett]

Since the rest of your system is probably idle while you're playing, you'd receive maybe a 1-2% improvement with other processes on the second CPU.

 

[BoberFett]

You can't "tinker" something into a multi-threaded app. Multi-threading is very difficult, which is why there aren't many (read: one) game that support it, and why even when that game uses multiple CPUs it doesn't see much of a benefit.

 

[Remedy]

Thanks Boberfett , for crushing my imagination today. :frown: with that good explination.

 

[Maverick]

getting a game to take advantage of multi-threading and parallel processing has to be done at the code level.
that stuff has to be programmed extremely low level in assembly.

the only way you'll ever get UT to have multi-threading is if you were given the source code and you knew how to optimize it at the low level to use multi-processor assembly calls. People go to school for years to learn that stuff Besides...I sincerely doubt Epic will release the source code for UT any time soon