Hyper threading or Multi threading

The AI is multithreaded but does not depend on hyperthreading for features.
If you have a hyperthreading cpu it will just run better.

hi surther

the threading the stardock has in the code is for the a.i to do his thing while you are thinking about what to do during your part of the turn.. In some games you do your turn hit done then the games has to start it's turn. Here the a.is are doing their thinking during times of your inativity (and that could be just milliseconds) so when you hit done, They are ready to move very quickly. It's a pretty amazing way to speed up the game. Good luck in the game. hope to see you around the forum

rich


~SDC~

I see, so it is not a matter of how smart the a.i.or how it handles multiple strategies, but rather how quickly it will resolve it's strategy. Or in other words hyperthreading technology will not help the a.i. be smarter, only faster. Is that more or less correct?

since it can do "extra" processing time during your move, it can make better strategies than if it was designed to limit processing time to the human's patience while the computer moves.

Intel hopes that cpu hyperthreading will give a boost to multithreaded programs. I don't believe this boost will be greater than 1-2%. Clock speed and memory speed will be *FAR* more significant in this game than whether the cpu supports hyperthreading.

(caveat: I don't have galciv yet, so this answer is based just on my knowledge of cpu design and multithreaded programming.)

Lucian is right on the money. I read a very detailed review comparing Intel hyperthreading/non-hyper vs. AMD traditional memory/nForce DUAL channel memory configuration and in almost every test (not just games) the dual channel memory capability provided the most significant boost to performance (as much as 15% with ALL OTHER COMPONENTS THE SAME).

HYPErthreading, extra emphasis on hype.

Joe,
What does that mean in terms of GalCiv?

surther,

Quick Answers:
Will the AI be any different : No
Will I be able to use multiple threads : YES
Will the game run slower than with a HT processor : YES, but not by much.

Long Answers:
Multithreading is something in software. It will work on any CPU. Basically, while the computer is idling waiting for you to do something another thread will become active. In this game, the AI will be thinking during these free times.

Your computer is always running multiple threads. The CPU can only work on one at a time, therefore the operating system (WINDOWS) schedules how much time each thread gets, and will swap the threads running on your CPU. With HT, those CPU's can run 2 threads at the same time, but each thread only gets half of the CPU (this is a simplification). Therefore 2 CPU's are better than 1 with HT, but 1 with HT is better than 1 without HT .

PS : At my company (design software for engineers), I have a 2x HT enabled P4-Xeon machine. With HT turned on, I see a 20% improvement while running our software. The results are not typical of all uses, some groups are seeing less improvement. (generally 5% - 25% range)

Thank You PloreOSU

Speaking of threads that end this one as far as I am concerned. You've answered all my questions. Go Buckeyes!! (I live in MI but graduated from ND so any enemy of my enemy...) GO IRISH!!