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Subject: Re: Chessmaster 9000 for Macintosh has been released.

Author: Richard A. Fowell

Date: 22:34:42 01/01/05

Go up one level in this thread


Is the 970 the "G4" or "G5"? I have a G4.

-Richard

On January 01, 2005 at 09:35:10, William Bryant wrote:

>On December 31, 2004 at 23:42:59, Richard A. Fowell wrote:
>
>>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
>
>Richard,
>
>I will be glad to send you a binary of Crafty 19.17 optomized for the 970.
>I can get 3M NPS when run of a duel platform.
>I runs as a UNIX process (from the terminal).
>
>Let me know if you would like me to eMail ti to you.
>
>William



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