Author: Odd Gunnar Malin
Date: 15:49:18 03/07/02
Go up one level in this thread
On March 07, 2002 at 16:38:00, Roy Eassa wrote: >On March 07, 2002 at 16:21:01, John Merlino wrote: > >>On March 07, 2002 at 15:38:59, Roy Eassa wrote: >> >>>On March 07, 2002 at 14:58:10, John Merlino wrote: >>> >>>>As for the manual (actually, you mean the FAQ), all it explains is that chess >>>>engines will try to get as much cpu speed as Windows will give them; EVERY >>>>decent chess engine does this, not just The King. If you are TRULY concerned >>>>about engines taking more than their share of the CPU, then just run comp vs. >>>>comp games with ponder off. >>> >>> >>>Are you saying that, if a $20 program hogs the CPU more than other competing >>>programs, the user should resolve the problem by running out and spending $1000 >>>for a second computer? >> >>Not at all. I said that if you are concerned about unequal distribution/usage of >>the CPU (whether your concerns are valid or not), then just run comp vs. comp >>games with ponder off. That solves the problem and puts both engines on >>identical footing (assuming that both engines use a negligible amount of the CPU >>when idle). >> >>Nor am I agreeing with the accusation that The King "hogs the CPU". Nobody has >>conclusively shown this to be the case. >> >>jm > > >I shouldn't have used the term "hogs the CPU" as that has a negative implication >(sorry). How about, "uses substantially more CPU time than other chess >programs," or something like that? Here you talk about chess programs. It is correct that Chessmaster use give more resources to the engine than Fritz does. The Fritz GUI have many threads with different priorities so they have to ensure that engines runs below the priority the window that shows the pv-lines runs. I think the have will be sure that the user-display and userinput always should work good without delays. This isn't so bad since they run all engines at the same low priority so each engines gets equal cpu-power. Chessmaster (and Shredder Classic!) does not trixing with the priorities but runs all proccesses and engines with normal priorities. You canb see the effect of this by start another program and see how it response, then try to move the window over CM or Fritz and see who manage to update the background best. What is best? From the engines point of view it is CM's method because engines isn't so sensetive for background work on your machine. From the users point Fritz method let you work with other application, surfe the Internet etc. without even notice that you have engines running in background. If you want the engine to produse its best you should just sit and watch and not even have any screensaver that could come in and disturb the engines. I prefere Fritz's method and have put InBetween between CM and TheKing to let Chessmaster act like this. > It's not a BAD thing, and you're right -- it >may not even be true. But if it IS true, I hope there would be a cheaper way to >resolve it in engine-engine matches than having to purchase an entire additional >computer! People are clever beasts and I have a strong feeling that this issue, >if true, can be resolved a different way. Here you talk about engines in engine-engine matches. Than there is no difference between Chessmaster and other GUI's. The only thing to check out is that if the GUI have a native engine like Fritz that these engines are given equal resources that extern engines are given. For Fritz 7 this is true. For Chessmaster The King work like an extern engine and thereby gets equal resources. You should still check this when you install a new Winboard or UCI engine in Fritz or other GUI's that don't run the engines in 'normal' mode. If the engine has its own thread for the serching function Fritz would not reach this thread when it try to lower the priority and the engine would gain power compared to other engines. You will also see that the pv-lines are comming all in one group just before the engine do his move because the pv-window/inputthread have lower priority than the engines search function. If this is a problem there is means for this too. NB! all this priority talk has only signification if you run engine-engine matches on a single cpu machine with ponder on. To conclude. The King (engine) runs like most of other Winboard engines in one thread and does nothing to either lower or higher its priority to gain or lose power. Odd Gunnar
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