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Is hypertheading worth it?

F

ForgeMX

n00b
Joined
Oct 1, 2004
Messages
9
I just got my hands on a P4 that can take advantage of hypertheading. I mostly use photoshop and game. Is hypertheading worth my time? Any suggestions on a motherboard?
 
Only if you have WXP Pro. If you're running anything else it won't 'run'.

Not many games have hyperthreading.

You might as well use it in conjunction with an i875 mobo so that you also get PAT.
 
wallijonn said:
Only if you have WXP Pro. If you're running anything else it won't 'run'.
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Hyperthreading works well with Linux too. Just use a SMP kernel. ;)
 
wallijonn said:
Only if you have WXP Pro. If you're running anything else it won't 'run'.

Not many games have hyperthreading.

You might as well use it in conjunction with an i875 mobo so that you also get PAT.
Click to expand...


Actually, just about everything supports HT, including XP Home. Hyperthreading is NOT SMP. If you're multitasking, then hyperthreading will help you out, as multiple threads will be processed at once.

Even if hyperthreading weren't worth it, you'd be hard pressed to find a new P4 that doesn't have it.
 
Try getting an A64 to fold and DiVX encode at the same time.
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Just speaking from experience man. No personal knock against either cpu. Of course HT helps when multitasking....that's it's job. :) I'm saying it doesn't enhance the benchmark scores when pitted against a A64.
 
I really think that HT is a great feature. I have hisorically been an AMD dude, but as I am starting to use this box0r for more than gaming...I am finding it's well worth it. It sounds like you could benefit from HT. If you have 478 board...go with a 2.4c or 2.8c and OC it good!

M
 
^ Hyperthreading is awesome stuff for sure. I remember how smooth everything was tasking multiple windows, proggies, and what not, and it's just smooth. I miss my 2.4C. :(
 
Hyperthreading is recognized on older MS OSes as SMP. It does work, just not quite as well.
 
it's a good technology that should provide tangible benefits for your daily life.

cheers,

dave
 
Windows XP home does support HT. Just not SMP. It handles 1 physical CPU and 1 virtual. XP Pro does 2 physical and 2 virtual.

HT is great. I multi-task on alot of machines at work and home that are all P4's. When working with machines that don't have it for whatever reason, but are about the same calibur I notice it. It's not earth shattering but in certain apps it can help alot.
 
I thought it was hype, until I tried one. I have compared A64 and a P4 with HT. When playing a game or doing 1 thing the A64 is faster, BUT if you want to do more than 1 thing at once, the P4 with HT feels much more responsive and doesnt `slow down`.

From actually using the pc rather than running benchmarks, the P4 seems best for me.
 
dave_graham said:
it's a good technology that should provide tangible benefits for your daily life.

cheers,

dave
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Damn, you should've been in marketing. :)
 
nigel.pinder said:
I thought it was hype, until I tried one. I have compared A64 and a P4 with HT. When playing a game or doing 1 thing the A64 is faster, BUT if you want to do more than 1 thing at once, the P4 with HT feels much more responsive and doesnt `slow down`.

From actually using the pc rather than running benchmarks, the P4 seems best for me.
Click to expand...

Many people have come to really like HT. Myself, I can't wait for multi-core CPUs. Virtual CPUs are great, but real CPUs are more better ;)

As you know, Intel and AMD are both planning true multicore CPUs, due to arrive sometime in 2005.
 
Can setting priority levels in task manager mimic hyperthreading at all?

I usually set anything cpu intensive to a lower priority so that I can go ahead and do something else if I feel the need, but I'm wondering if that is anywhere near the same level of multitasking with hyperthreading...
 
I stand corrected on WXPH not supporting HT. I got confused reading MS's website description on cpu support.

I keep waiting for dual 478 cpu mobos but I haven't seen any.
 
Josh_B said:
As you know, Intel and AMD are both planning true multicore CPUs, due to arrive sometime in 2005.
Click to expand...

Gonna be great! The era of the multi-tasker is on hand! :D
 
I just have this feeling that they'll keep the dual core chips priced relative to the single core chips vs SMP now.

Single core ~$300
Xeon dual core ~$600

That is probably the single reason most of us tech heads don't have an SMP system *right now*.

I don't need it bad enough to double the cost of my rig. I really hope they don't go that route with it tho.
 
I have a Pentium 4 3.2E, and it is so nice to have hyperthreading. But like everyone said is that if your going to play like CS:S and When you die dork around with some C# programming, which I do alot :), then the P4 really helps when the game is running and your compiling. But for just gaming, like another machine that i have, the 64 is much better if you don't want to multitask.
 
0ldman said:
I just have this feeling that they'll keep the dual core chips priced relative to the single core chips vs SMP now.

Single core ~$300
Xeon dual core ~$600

That is probably the single reason most of us tech heads don't have an SMP system *right now*.

I don't need it bad enough to double the cost of my rig. I really hope they don't go that route with it tho.
Click to expand...

Yes, but we'd sell our own mothers to get a hold of the dual core unit(s) ;)

Not only that, but for those folks w/S940 boards, update the BIOS and voila - instant SMP! For anyone lucky enough to have a dually, or a quad CPU box, well, you get the idea.
 
yea, but I can't sell my mother... she doesn't live here anymore...

children, on the other hand...

"We're going to have to sell our son, Tweak, into slavery"
 
HT is implemented pretty hard core in photoshop. It makes a huge difference on some jobs.
 
rally9x said:
HT is implemented pretty hard core in photoshop. It makes a huge difference on some jobs.
Click to expand...

Photoshop was also one of the early SMP-ready desktop apps for *any* version of Windows. (Photoshop has a long SMP history on the Mac, of course.)

The *original* higher-end Win32 Photoshop platform OS-wise was, of course, Windows NT (specifically NT Workstation 4.01), and Adobe likely didn't find it very difficult to make Photoshop HT-aware because they had the SMP to work from.

Actually, most of Adobe's higher-end apps are HT-aware (Pagemaker, Acrobat Professional, etc.). The HT-support in Acrobat Pro comes in really handy when doing batch conversions from Word.
 
fore1337 said:
Can you Ocerclock in HT mode?
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That's the beauty of it, you take a "low-end" 2.4C or 2.8E and overclock it to it's limits. $140-$160 high-end CPU with HT. :D

- James
 
I have a P4 w/ HT (see sig) and I'd say I use me computer for about 60% office, photoshop, autocad, etc. and about 40% gaming. I always have more than one program open. It's not uncommon to have Access, Word, Excel, Photoshop and Mozilla all running at the same time. For my situation the P4 really just feels much faster than any Athlon. I realize if I were to buy a AMD chip my gaming would probably see a big performance gain, but my 3.0c does well enough for me =) I played through and beat Doom3 on this computer just fine, with some quality settings on too.

I think it definetly depends on the person and how much they do with what programs.
 
hyperthreading is good for photoshop, which favors P4s. It's also good if you do a fair amount of general multitasking. It's not as good as two processors, but it's still more responsive in general when multitasking than Athlon 64 systems for example. P4s don't do so well for gaming and some other applications. If you have a program (or programs) you need to run that favor(s) one, then choose that CPU. Otherwise it's not that big a deal. For most general home use the smoothness of multitasking on a hyperthreading CPU is nice.

I chose my P4 a year ago for the multitasking but more importantly for photoshop. If I were building now, since the Athlon64 boards have stabilized more I'd probably get one of them anyway since they're so fast now, but I don't regret getting the P4.

IMO the A64 is a better CPU with a better future, but hyperthreading would be nice i must admit. Dual cores would be better still and I can't wait for those.
 
Lord of Shadows said:
The new dual core intel cpus dont have ht =(
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They don't have symmetric multi threading, they have symmetric multi processing, what SMT is pretending to be.

Where's the problem?
 
0ldman said:
They don't have symmetric multi threading, they have symmetric multi processing, what SMT is pretending to be.

Where's the problem?
Click to expand...

Problem is that having 4 logical processors would be much better than 2. This is not a technical limitation BTW, it is a hidden feature that intel will reserve for high end cpus in the near future. Also, it may be a way to differentiate desktop and server class chips i.e. desktop = dual core, server = dual core + ht. That is my thought!
 
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