Author: Per Jørgensen
Date: 01:21:31 11/04/05
Hello Chesscomputerfriends! I'm writing this message because I need a good advice. You see, very soon I'll buy a new CPU and I have got 2 choices: either I'll buy an AMD 64 Athlon 4000+ or a AMD Athlon 64 x2 4400+. The first one runs very fast; 2,4 GHz and a nice Level 2 Cache of 1 MB. The other one is a Dual-Core CPU, which runs a bit slower (2,2 GHz) a have a Level 2 Cache of 2 x 1 MB. They are both Socket 939. You should know the following about me: I'm doing a lot of testing with Chessengines and I love to let two engines playing against each other. Until now it has been very easy; I have had a Single core CPU (AMD Sempron) and I have been testing with Permanent brain OFF/Pondern OFF. I'll continue to do the same if I'll buy the single-core AMD 64 Athlon 4000+ CPU. Things are getting more complicated if I choose the Dual Core CPU. Basicly this should mean that I can now do the testing with Permanent brain ON/Pondern ON. However, I read several places on the Internet that it might cause problems to use this option because some "RAM-confusion" between the two Cores may occur. In addition, if you use Tablebases during the testing (which I do) this also can cause problems when using Pondern ON. Is this really true?? I would love to hear from some owners of Dual Core CPU's and their experience with using Pondern ON. I have another question concerning the AMD Dual Core CPU: Let's assume that I am having two engines (and not Deep-Versions!) playing against each other. Does it then make a difference for each engine if I am playing Pondern ON or OFF concerning the CPU Power?? I would say no because I'd guess that each engine is using one Core (again under the condition that it is not a Deep Version) and this is independent of Pondern ON/OFF. I think it is working like this: Situation 1) I test two Engines (A and B) with Pondern OFF, A reaches 500.000 positions per second while thinking and B reaches 500.000 positions per second while thinking. Situation 2) Now I test with Pondern ON. Again both engines reach 500.000 positions per second. The only difference is that now they are also thinking when the opponent is thinking. Furhermore I cannot run big applications on my PC because now both Cores are busy. I can do that in Situation 1. Did I understand this correct? Well, once I read on the Internet that this is totally wrong. According to this source there is a huge difference for each engine when playing Pondern OFF (where the engine while thinking have the full capacity of the CPU) and Pondern ON (where it has got only one Core). Basicly it all comes down to how this Dual Core is functioning. I have the feeling that while playing Pondern OFF one Core is working and the other one is "sleeping" (unless you are running other applications on your PC while testing). Maybe I'm wrong in this issue? I would be happy to get some advices and facts from the readers. And especially it could be very interesting if some owners of Dual Cores CPU's would test two engines (NON-Deep Versions) against each other on both Pondern ON and OFF and observe if this makes a difference in the calculationpower for each engine. I really hope that some of you can help me sorting this out. If it turns out that I'm right then I would probably go for the Athlon 4000+ Single core. It is cheaper and it is faster (at least regarding clockfrekvens) that x2 4400+. In addition, I'm not running big applications while testing engines. I might check my E-mail and perhaps some simple Websites but that's all. I guess that these small activities won't make a big impact on the busy working CPU. I thank you for reading my message and I would be delighted to get some reactions. Best regards Per Elbæk Jørgensen, Denmark.
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