Hyperthreading in gaming applications

[kanavit]

hi all,

i know that Intel Pentium4 processor with Hyperthreading technology can help boost applications up to 30% on average, but i need to know how much gain HT will get on Aquamark3 gaming benchmark. i've been looking around the net but could not find any satisfactory results.
[url]http://www.Aquamark3.com[url]

thx to all, kanavit

[ClayB]

Kanavit -

I've passed your question on to someone more familiar with gaming applications. I will post any information he sends back. In the meantime, have you tried the AquaMark3 site? I just perused over the home page, but I thought I saw some link that might have a forum for questions and even a repository of performance results that users have generated with the benchmark.

-- clay

[ClayB]

Kanavit -

My sources tell me that the AquaMark3 benchmark has been threaded. A draft version of a whitepaper I've seen on this aspect of the benchmark points out three areas that have been threaded for Hyper-Threading Technology enabled platforms to execute visualization related preprocessing tasks. These areas are:

1. Advanced Object Occlusion Culling System for Outdoor Scenarios
2. Realtime Terrain Tessellation from Quad-Tree based cLOD Data
3. Culling and Sorting of Alpha-Blended Particles in Particle System

Do you have access to a Hyper-Threading enabled system on which to run the benchmark yourself? Perhaps you could report your findings here.

-- clay

[Henry_G_Intel]

Hello Kanavit,
I'm not familiar with the Aquamark3 benchmark nor am I an experienced game programmer but here are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, if the engine used in the Aquamark3 benchmark does not create threads, don't expect a benefit from Hyper-Threading. Second, Aquamark3 requires a graphics card so you need to know whether this benchmark is designed to stress the CPU or the GPU.

Game engines that take advantage of Hyper-Threading are available. It's fairly common to perform video and audio on separate threads, for example. Multithreaded rendering is another common strategy.

Henry

[kanavit]

Thank you for responding to my post.I have gotten some help with outside sources and indeed Aquamark3 benchmarks supports Hyperthreading technology. Aquamark3 measures both CPU and GPU performance seperately and combines overall scores.I managed to get some info from users with P4 hyperthreading with Aquamark3 results.

with HT enabled:

45395

with HT disabled:

44197

as you can see overall on average a 1000 pts boost with Hyperthreading enabled. this is good, hopefully more games will be available supporting hyperthreading technology! again, many thx Kanavit