Author: Tom Kerrigan
Date: 14:33:44 03/27/03
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On March 27, 2003 at 15:57:20, Bernardo Wesler wrote: >Hi all: I have never received a concrete answer about this amazing three (lets >say) parameters regarding the "final' performance of an engine. >Ram memory, hash table and processor speed. >A concrete example and my non answered questions: >PC pentium 4, 1.8 Ghz; ram 512; windows xp pro.; Chessbase GUI; blitz games 15 >min per side; 4 man Tbs. >The most hash table size I put, the less processor speed i get? I mean if i put >64 mb hash table, does the processor run faster than if I put 388? and therefore >i obtain a better result from the chess program? >You realize that I definitively want to know if anybody can help me out (him by >himself or referring me to issued articles)to find out the best settings between >my hardware and a chess program in order to get the best results from it. >Thank you very much. There was a thread recently about how the amount/speed of RAM you have does not affect most chess programs. (Or at least it does not affect one of the more memory intensive programs, Crafty, except in a bizarre case with Eugene's Itaniums.) Hash table size does not affect processor speed, but it can affect the NPS you search (there's a difference). As soon as your hash table exceeds a few megabytes, though, it will not affect your NPS. Increasing hash table size gives you rapidly diminishing returns. I remember running tests where anything over 16 or maybe 32MB only gave me a percent or so of benefit (in terms of times to solutions, not NPS). But unless you need your memory for something else, you might as well set your hash table to the maximum size possible before you start thrashing (i.e., your hard drive going nuts because you don't have enough physical memory and you have to use virtual memory). Increasing processor speed (frequency) gives you ideal benefit, i.e., a 2GHz processor will usually search twice as many NPS as a 1GHz processor. Basically, buy a fast processor and make your hash tables big. -Tom
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