Benchmark results for iNumHWThreads = 2 & 6 with HT and without HT

[cancausecancer]

Hi all,

I benchmarked changes to iNumHWThreads, Hyper-threading and some of the bUseThreaded* values to see if I could benefit from tweaking them on my system and I didn't find any benefit (using the benchmarking method I used.)

My benchmark system:

i7-920 @ 3.6Ghz / Rampage II Gene
AMD Radeon 5970 (dual GPU)
Skyrim + Win7 Pro on a 512GB SSD
DDR3-1600 12 GB (9-9-9-24T)

I benchmarked using Fraps to record the FPS and min/max/avg from the start of the opening scene when the text is first displayed until the cart entered the fort.

The first 3 benchmarks were done with Hyper-threading enabled in the BIOS and the last 3 with Hyper-threading disabled. I chose 2 & 6 for iNumHWThreads expecting so see a difference that I could then tweak further.

I enabled all of the regular bUseThreaded* variables in the benchmarks except in benchmark 3. and 4. In 3. and 4. I turned the below bUseThreaded* values off to see if there was any effect:

MultiThreadMovement=0
bUseThreadedMorpher=0
bUseThreadedBlood=0
bUseThreadedAI=0

The results show the Hyper-threading state in green, the count of HWThreads in red and the average FPS in blue.
Here are the results of the benchmarks:

• HT: iNumHWThreads=2, all threaded = 1
  Result: Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 4842, 139262, 19, 61, 34.769
• HT: iNumHWThreads=6, all threaded = 1
  Result: Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 4810, 139324, 12, 62, 34.524
• HT: iNumHWThreads=6, no blood thread, no morpher thread, no AI thread, no movement thread
  Result: Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 4729, 138763, 13, 62, 34.080
• NO HT: iNumHWThreads=6, no blood thread, no morpher thread, no AI thread, no movement thread
  Result: Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 4932, 138529, 18, 62, 35.603
• NO HT: iNumHWThreads=6, all threaded = 1
  Result: Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 4804, 139137, 15, 61, 34.527
• NO HT: iNumHWThreads=2, all threaded = 1
  Result: Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 4894, 139153, 16, 62, 35.170

I'm satisfied with the results and will just have to look elsewhere for low hanging fruit.

[edit] Added note about colored text.

Edited May 25, 2013 by cancausecancer

[gsmanners]

I think you just discovered that the bottleneck for your configuration is not the CPU.

[cancausecancer]

Since I had no luck in the CPU threading department I upgraded from Catalyst 3.1 to 3.4, then to 3.5 Beta hoping to gain some performance and instead I lost 6% frame rate (3.4 and 3.5 Beta were equal.)

After upgrading the drives I thought I'd test the various CrossFire modes to see if I could gain there. I couldn't gain there.

Here are the average frame rates for the CrossFire modes from Fraps. I benched using the opening scene from when the text was first displayed until the cart entered the fort.

CrossFireX Modes:

• NO HT: iNumHWThreads=4, all threaded, XFire Default CCC 13.5
  Result: Frm, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 4636, 139808, 14, 60, 33.160
• NO HT: iNumHWThreads=4, all threaded, XFire AFR CCC 13.5
  Result: Frm, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 3530, 137718, 14, 58, 25.632
• NO HT: iNumHWThreads=4, all threaded, XFire 1+1 CCC 13.5
  Result: Frm, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 3647, 137656, 15, 56, 26.494
• NO HT: iNumHWThreads=4, all threaded, XFire Skyrim CCC 13.5
  Result: Frm, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 4484, 138436, 17, 62, 32.390
• NO HT: iNumHWThreads=4, all threaded, XFire Disabled CCC 13.5
  Result: Frm, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  Result: 3529, 137624, 15, 54, 25.642

Upgrading from Catalyst 3.1 to 3.4 fixed a shadow flickering issue I had so I won't roll back the driver and will have to search elsewhere for performance (shadows & AA probably)

[gsmanners]

A more meaningful benchmark would be the values of certain settings and the subsequent average framerate. This is interesting, but I'm starting to reach the conclusion that anything more than 2 cores is overkill. And you really are getting lousy framerate there. Seriously. You should be getting at least 40 or 50 on average with that system.