Hyper-Threading: Enable Or Disable?

Topic

New Reply

Hi,

A friend mentioned to me that Intel’s HT CPU’s actually work like two half-speed P4 CPU’s so my 2.6Ghz HT CPU actually runs (in HT mode) at 1.3. He said if you set it to non HT mode you will actually see some performance gains depending upon the task you are doing.

Firstly, is this true and secondly my motherboard has an enable hyper threading option … is that what I would change to get supposed benefits?

Thanks

Reply | Quote

Replies

I assume Intel has a performance paper on this; they typically have comparisons of each generation of Pentiums on standard industry benchmarks.Finding that on the site is another matter, however…..

Reply | Quote

Modern CPUs have multiple Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs), Register Sets, Memory Paths, Instruction Fetch units etc.

Hyperthreading provides the ability for two different threads to be using different parts of the same CPU at the same time. If there are two or more computable threads then Hyperthreading can give you significant performance improvements since it makes much more efficient use of the resources available on the CPU.

If there is only one computable thread then it may run a few per cent slower due to the extra hardware and software needed to support hyperthreading. I suspect this is not sufficient to be measureable with most real applications.

StuartR

Reply | Quote

Thanks to all of you for those replies!

Reply | Quote

Of course it could be argued that the manufacturer of a CPU chip probably knows more about what components and features it should contain to produce optimum efficiency than does even the technical layman…

But equally of course I could never advocate such a view with the overclockers amongst us…

Reply | Quote

Of course it could be argued that the manufacturer of a CPU chip probably knows more about what components and features it should contain to produce optimum efficiency than does even the technical layman…

But equally of course I could never advocate such a view with the overclockers amongst us…

Reply | Quote

Thanks to all of you for those replies!

Reply | Quote

Modern CPUs have multiple Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs), Register Sets, Memory Paths, Instruction Fetch units etc.

Hyperthreading provides the ability for two different threads to be using different parts of the same CPU at the same time. If there are two or more computable threads then Hyperthreading can give you significant performance improvements since it makes much more efficient use of the resources available on the CPU.

If there is only one computable thread then it may run a few per cent slower due to the extra hardware and software needed to support hyperthreading. I suspect this is not sufficient to be measureable with most real applications.

StuartR

Reply | Quote

You could if you wish, but having so many spare CPUs, motherboards, etc — hey, if one goes up in flames, there are so many more!

Reply | Quote

You could if you wish, but having so many spare CPUs, motherboards, etc — hey, if one goes up in flames, there are so many more!

Reply | Quote