Server Hyperthreading ON/OFF?

[omniconsumer]

We have invested in an i7-2600k for a dedicated server.

We were going to dedicate a full core just for the server.

My colleague is insistent that we disable hyper-threading. I don't agree. Am I wrong in thinking this way? I would rather not disable it to be honest. I don't see how it would be a disadvantage to leave it on especially if we are already assigning the affinity to one physical core.

Has anyone come across this issue? Thanks in advance.

 

[ButchCassidy]

Leave hyper threading on..It will help with the additional core offload..

 

[omniconsumer]

Leave hyper threading on..It will help with the additional core offload..

Thanks for your response! Further elaboration please?

 

[[TW]Swag]

I think you colleague may be onto something. Since Hyper-Threading is most beneficial in applications that are multi-threaded and the Unreal Engine is not multi-threaded, it would in fact be best to disable it.

Disabling will allow the operating system and the application to commit the entire processor core to the thread thus giving it a more reliable pipeline of data through put.

In a scenario with a quad core sever, you could have two physic processor cores running two unique Unreal servers, and still have two cores for the base operating system and supporting subsystems of the operating system to still operate. In a hyper-threaded situation you could end up with totally idle cores and totally overworked cores. The Unreal engine isn't multi-threaded, so it should not benefit in the least with hyper-threading.

 

[omniconsumer]

I think you colleague may be onto something. Since Hyper-Threading is most beneficial in applications that are multi-threaded and the Unreal Engine is not multi-threaded, it would in fact be best to disable it.

Disabling will allow the operating system and the application to commit the entire processor core to the thread thus giving it a more reliable pipeline of data through put.

In a scenario with a quad core sever, you could have two physic processor cores running two unique Unreal servers, and still have two cores for the base operating system and supporting subsystems of the operating system to still operate. In a hyper-threaded situation you could end up with totally idle cores and totally overworked cores. The Unreal engine isn't multi-threaded, so it should not benefit in the least with hyper-threading.

Thank you. You have been very helpful.

 

[omniconsumer]

A follow up.

I disabled hyper-threading on my i7 quad core, overclocked it to 4.0ghz, and have disabled speed step. We are currently running a 64 player server off of the first core. Everything seems to be running smoothly so far. I suppose the real test will be when more players join at any given time.

It is best to run this server on one CPU exclusively it seems.

 

[omniconsumer]

Players game play seems to be without complaint so far. Not getting any lag complaints in chat.

Pings are definitely higher when than they should be. Is there something I could tweak in this regard?

Running 50 bots with bot detonator. Process affinity to one core.

 

[82ndab-Bravo17]

I would try with it set to one core other than the first core, since the OS usually uses some of this for its own purposes, I believe.

 

[Floyd]

Have you looked into this thread: [url]http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=57509[/URL]

Especially with regard to the PREFERPROCESSOR= command?

 

[omniconsumer]

I would try with it set to one core other than the first core, since the OS usually uses some of this for its own purposes, I believe.

Interesting. I will have to research this and possibly test it out. Thanks.

Have you looked into this thread: http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=57509

Especially with regard to the PREFERPROCESSOR= command?

Yes, I actually have it set to -PREFERPROCESSOR=0 in my ro2server.bat which points it to my first physical core.