Intel HyperThreading Technology

[bloodhound]

Hi. i have a intel 2.3 Ghz laptop

 

just downloaded pcmark 04 to see whats my laptop like . and i saw one interesting thing in the system details section

 

 

u can see that it says Hyperthreading is available but disabled. I never knew it was available , there was no mention of that when i bought the computer etc. Has pc mark diagnosed my computer wrong. is it possible to enable hyper threading in mine>

 

 

help

[Dave]

If you actually have HyperThreading, then Windows XP uses it but none of the other windows operating systems do. Of course, pcmark could've misread the information, just look at your hardware specs I suppose.

[5614]

nope, hyperthreading is only enabled by default on processors more than 3.03GHz as that is the recommended minimum speed for hyper threading.

 

however does anyone know exactly how it works? i ask because i am wondering whether it would be advantageous to me on a 2.53GHz comp.

[bloodhound]

i have found at that all pentium 4 processors are capable of hyperthreading. ist just that intel disabled some "paths" (for loss of a more appropriate word) in the processor architecture.

[badchad]

I'm running an Intel 2.6 Ghz on my Dell. There is a boot screen where I can simply turn hyperthreading on and off. I don't remember the exact command, but it's hitting something like F1 during startup. I'm fairly certain mine was enabled when I bought the comp. as well.

[5614]

i think it's f2... its the BIOS, it is there in all P4, but i thought it was disabled by 99% of manufacturers on processors under 3.03GHz as that was the intel recommended minimum speed.

 

is anyone running it at the moment on less than 3GHz????

[bloodhound]

Like i said. not all p4 processors HT capability. but you can't choose to enable due to the fact that its been disabled physically by intel during the production.

 

[edit my laptop is now 2.8Ghz. the numbers done matter nowdays. its all to do with the amount of work a processor can do in a cycle. AMD's have shorter cpu pathways, thus will be able to do more work with less clock speed..

[5614]

im gonna try enabling hyper threading on my computer... brb

[5614]

hmmm, the option isnt threre.... seemingly you need to have a 'B' revision P4 processor on which you can enable HT from the BIOS, however 'A' revision P4 processor you cant... or you need a BIOS update, im not really sure... does anyone know?

 

its certainly not there in my BIOS though.

[bloodhound]

thats cos its been disabled physically man. no amount of bios or firmware upgrades will do the job.

[5614]

physically disabled or physically isnt there?

 

if its physically disabled, surely i can physically re-enable it?

[bloodhound]

try looking it up on google.

[5614]

In summary, do not expect HT to change your life that much unless you use a computationally intensive program such as a video editing or a high-end game designed to really take advantage of HT benefits, almost all of which are not yet commercially available.

 

reading ads/disads on all different sites, it seems it would not be ultra useful for the average home or work user... only those extreme users in professional video/game editing/making.

[bloodhound]

well it would definitely help encoding videos and encoding audio files from cd. it also speeds up load of times for programs. vairous effects rendering in image programs like photoshop would take less time. quite useful

[5614]

i cant find anything about enabling it... except from when it says "in the BIOS" wich doesnt help me.

 

my friend has it enabled, he says it helps with rendering things, other than that you cant tell the difference - that's what he found anyway.

 

most sites say the ONLY programs it helps is imaging/video and that it DOESNT help booting or the average program or game.

[Dave]

It'll make little or no difference to everyday usage, as it says in the article. I spent a week with HT enabled and a week with HT disabled. Didn't notice a thing.

 

(Note: I also edit video on a semi-professional level using Avid Xpress Pro. However, I didn't find much improvement there either tbh.)