Author: John Merlino
Date: 17:52:01 03/07/02
Go up one level in this thread
On March 07, 2002 at 18:49:18, Odd Gunnar Malin wrote: >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 Wow, Odd. Between the above post and figuring out the OPK thing, I would venture to say that you know AT LEAST as much about how the program works as I do! ;-) Excellent response! jm
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.