Author: Richard A. Fowell
Date: 20:42:59 12/31/04
Go up one level in this thread
On December 31, 2004 at 10:58:33, Roy Eassa wrote:
>On December 30, 2004 at 03:35:13, Richard A. Fowell wrote:
>
>>My copy of Chessmaster 9000 for Macintosh showed up today ( I had pre-ordered it
>>through Amazon.com in the spring). It comes on DVD-ROM (and will not launch
>>without the DVD-ROM in the drive) and requires OS 10.2 as a minimum.
>>
>>Compared to Chessmaster 6000 Mac, the new version:
>>
>>- Runs native in OS X
>>- Has "The King 3.23" (7/7/2002) engine
>>- Apparently has endgame tablebases (though I have yet to get it to use them).
>>
>>Probably a few other things too.
>>
>>-Richard
>
>
>Please let us know how strong it plays, approximately, compared to other Mac
>programs and to Windows programs on similar-speed hardware.
My guess is:
- Chessmaster 9000 is weaker than the imminent HIARCS 9.6 for Mac
release, but significantly stronger than any other Mac chess engine.
- On similar Windows hardware, several Windows programs are significantly
stronger
than CM9000 - up to 90 points, in the case of Shredder.
My reasoning:
It is notoriously difficult to measure the strength of chess programs accurately
without
playing a lot of games between them (which I don't plan on).
I'm basing my my guess based on this month's SSDF rating list.
Here are the 11 "non-sibling" engines on this months SSDF rating list:
THE SSDF RATING LIST 2004-12-31 100049 games played by 267 computers
Rating + - Games Won Oppo
------ --- --- ----- --- ----
1 Shredder 8.0 CB 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2805 23 -22 1075 71% 2645
2 Deep Fritz 8.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2791 25 -24 896 72% 2628
3 Junior 8.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2772 25 -24 832 66% 2656
4 Gandalf 6.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2749 49 -46 225 63% 2658
5 Hiarcs 9.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2739 22 -21 1068 62% 2656
6 Chess Tiger 2004 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2723 27 -26 710 59% 2657
7 Chessmaster 9000 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2717 36 -36 376 55% 2679
8 Rebel 12.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2684 32 -32 484 57% 2633
9 Ruffian 1.0.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2675 27 -27 684 52% 2657
10 Deep Sjeng 1.5a 256MB Athlon 1200 MH 2673 31 -31 493 52% 2662
11 Crafty 18.12/CB 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2617 27 -27 687 50% 2617
Of these 11 engines, four are now (or will soon be) available on the Macintosh:
5 Hiarcs 9.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2739 22 -21 1068 62% 2656
7 Chessmaster 9000 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2717 36 -36 376 55% 2679
9 Ruffian 1.0.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2675 27 -27 684 52% 2657
11 Crafty 18.12/CB 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2617 27 -27 687 50% 2617
Two questions about using these results to predict performance on the Macintosh:
- how similar is the chess engine source code between the Mac and Windows
versions?
- how efficiently does the chess engine object code run on Intel vs. PowerPC
CPUs?
In the past, I've probed at these questions by running a problem test like the
LCT-II test
on both platforms. If the results are the same, but the timing is different, I
conclude
that the engines are probably the same, but the CPU efficiency is different.
With respect to the level of similarity:
HIARCS: I would think HIARCS 9.6 is likely to be somewhat stronger than HIARCS
9.0 on Windows:
- HIARCS 9.6 Macintosh is presumably believed stronger than the earlier version
of HIARCS 9.0
- In the past, the chess engine source code for HIARCS has been identical
between Mac and Windows
- In the (quite distant) past, older HIARCS engines had better nps/MHz speed on
PowerPC than Intel
(http://web.archive.org/web/20001118051800/http://gambitsoft.com/chess/games/hiar6me.htm)
Chessmaster 9000
- Both Chessmaster 9000 for PC and for Mac use the "The King 3.23" engine.
- I have no benchmarks comparing "The King's" CPU efficiency between Intel and
Mac.
Ruffian
- The Mac OS/X Version is 2.02, so it may be better than version 1.01 above
- I have no benchmarks comparing Ruffian's CPU efficiency between Intel and Mac.
Crafty
- I think (though I don't have it) Crafty 18.12 has been compiled for the Mac
- CPU benchmarks have indicated Crafty does better on Intel vs. PowerPC CPUs.
In particular, the spec2000 benchmark 186.crafty runs 30% faster per MHz on
a 2600 MHz AMD Athlon vs. a 2200 MHz PowerPC 970.
-Richard
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