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Question about hyperthreading

A

AbsintheCommando

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
145
Hi all, I just inherited a computer with an Intel CPU in it. It is a 3.0 Ghz CPU, with Hyperthreading technology. When I run an application, it only uses ~50% of the CPU, max. Is this normal? Does this actually mean that the app is only using half my CPU power, or it is some chicanery based on the existence of the "virtual" processor thingy? Will my application run faster if I turn off Hyperthreading?

I don't yet have any software that is multithreaded or whatever the term is for apps that use multiple CPUs, but am I right in assuming that such an app would use 100% of my CPU?

Thanks for any help, and if there is already an answer somewhere on the forum I apologize for wasting time. I did search but found nothing.
 
With single threaded apps on dual core cpu's (Windows considers p4's w/HT dual core) it will balance the load by default and use 50% roughly of each processor. If you were to set affinity, it could use one fully and one would stay idle. Yes its normal, its what makes HT so nice :)
 
Actually, the load is only balanced if the application is multi-threaded. In a dual core CPU, it's one thread per core.

Same thing with Hyperthreading, except it's a virtual core.
 
If you turn off HT then your multitasking experience will go down the drain, HT helps highly with multitasking.
 
Try running IE or FF and then listen to music and compress a big file at the same time. If you open process manager it should say like 33% on all your opened processes I think that is how HT works or it will give more cpu power to higher priority processes. I am not real familiar with HT.
 
nice inheritance there, wish i could get inherite a X2 4800+

But you are correct, when you see about 50% that is the logical core at full load. If it can do Video encoding, some of those apps are multi-threaded which will use 100% of the cpu.

Its works pretty well but things can get pretty crappy when at 100% usage with heavier tasks :(
 
Its harder to get 100% usage on a HT equipped cpu than a single core chip. Im telling yah, HT is the dual core concept in its early stages.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
Actually, the load is only balanced if the application is multi-threaded. In a dual core CPU, it's one thread per core.

Same thing with Hyperthreading, except it's a virtual core.
Click to expand...


I had assumed thats what he meant, woops :)
 
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