Author: m.d.hurd
Date: 09:36:47 11/29/02
Go up one level in this thread
On November 29, 2002 at 11:47:34, James T. Walker wrote: >On November 29, 2002 at 03:05:19, m.d.hurd wrote: > >>On November 29, 2002 at 02:05:16, James T. Walker wrote: >> >>>On November 28, 2002 at 19:27:19, Jeremiah Penery wrote: >>> >>>>On November 28, 2002 at 17:11:08, James T. Walker wrote: >>>> >>>>>On November 28, 2002 at 16:54:25, mike schoonover wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>could it be that the master drive determines the access speed? >>>>>>or,the system gives the master priority,hoging resources? >>>>>>regards >>>>>>mike >>>>> >>>>>Hello Mike, >>>>>The only problem with that theory is the computer where the TB's are on the >>>>>"Master" drive is the slow one. The fastest one uses the 8G/5400rpm as drive C >>>>>(Master) and the 40G/7200rpm as drive D (Slave). The chess programs are on the >>>>>"C" drive in both cases. >>>>>Jim >>>> >>>>I would guess that the reason for the slowdown is because the virtual memory >>>>(pagefile) is on the same drive as the tablebases. So, when it caches >>>>information, it's copying on the same disk, while also trying to access other >>>>tablebases. On the other machine, it copies to a different disk, which will be >>>>much faster. >>>> >>>>Other things that can affect the access speed of tablebases are disk >>>>fragmentation and the physical position of the tablebase files on the disk. If >>>>the files are heavily fragmented on one system, and are contiguous on the other, >>>>the fragmented ones should be quite a bit slower. Files near the beginning of >>>>the disk have faster access times and faster transfer rates than files near the >>>>end of the disk, as well. >>> >>>Thanks for trying to help. I did de-frag the drive on the slow computer and it >>>seemed to help some. It now starts out at almost the same speed but slowly lags >>>behind. For instance, both computers will reach 14 ply in 15 seconds on one >>>computer and 16 seconds on the other. But when getting to say 16 ply at 2:15 on >>>one computer it takes like 3:10 on the other. Also as you might guess, the NPS >>>on the computers gets further apart with time. >>>Jim >> >>Hello Jim >> >>One thing worth checking is the EGTB cache size, which is set in Options. Mine >>was set at 1 mb. It might be worth experimenting with different sizes to see >>what difference each size increase makes. The help file says to use a value of 1 >>to 8 mbs. However I seem to recall someone mentioned 16 mb was a good size to >>use. I suppose the bigger the cache, up to the optimum figure, the less disk >>access. >> >>Regards >> >>Mike. > >Hello Mike, >I'm using 16M I think. Anyway it's the same for both computers. I have gone >through all Bios settings, all ".ini" files and everything I can think of to >make sure the two computers are set up the same. The only difference is the >video cards plus the hard drives are backwards from each other. It's a lot of >work but I'm thinking of swapping the drives around in the slow machine to see >if it helps. I don't think the difference is critical since it only shows up in >late endgames when the tablebases are being hit hard. >Jim I would imagine that the optimum EGTB cache would be different for each hard drive. Some are faster at reading than others, some have a faster access time. So setting both machines at 16 mb might not be optimum. Regards Mike
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