How does engine strength scale with hardware?
Say I run Komodo on my 4-core machine. How much stronger would Komodo be if I used an 8-core machine? A 40-core machine? A 4000-core machine?
Is there a general relation for this? Also, does this scaling depend on which engine is used, and if so, why?
engines
asked 4 hours ago
AllureAllure
1,735522
add a comment |
Say I run Komodo on my 4-core machine. How much stronger would Komodo be if I used an 8-core machine? A 40-core machine? A 4000-core machine?
Is there a general relation for this? Also, does this scaling depend on which engine is used, and if so, why?
engines
asked 4 hours ago
AllureAllure
1,735522
+1; also of interest: how the strength scales with the increasing RAM availability.
– GloriaVictis
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Say I run Komodo on my 4-core machine. How much stronger would Komodo be if I used an 8-core machine? A 40-core machine? A 4000-core machine?
Is there a general relation for this? Also, does this scaling depend on which engine is used, and if so, why?
engines
asked 4 hours ago
AllureAllure
1,735522
Say I run Komodo on my 4-core machine. How much stronger would Komodo be if I used an 8-core machine? A 40-core machine? A 4000-core machine?
Is there a general relation for this? Also, does this scaling depend on which engine is used, and if so, why?
engines
engines
asked 4 hours ago
AllureAllure
1,735522
asked 4 hours ago
AllureAllure
1,735522
asked 4 hours ago
AllureAllure
1,735522
asked 4 hours ago
AllureAllure
1,735522
asked 4 hours ago
AllureAllure
1,735522
1,735522
+1; also of interest: how the strength scales with the increasing RAM availability.
– GloriaVictis
2 hours ago
add a comment |
+1; also of interest: how the strength scales with the increasing RAM availability.
– GloriaVictis
2 hours ago
+1; also of interest: how the strength scales with the increasing RAM availability.
– GloriaVictis
2 hours ago
+1; also of interest: how the strength scales with the increasing RAM availability.
– GloriaVictis
2 hours ago
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
Multicore is important for chess engines, but it doesn't scale forever.
- Up to certain depth, no matter how much hardware you have, you just don't have enough computational power
- Yes. Scaling is heavily implementation dependent. For example, a simple mutex would make multithread programming much easier (any decent programmer will agree here), but that'd also make the engine run much slower than another engine runs without mutex locking.
- 40 cores machine will play stronger than an 8-core machine, although it's hard to state how much. A 4000 core machine should also play stronger than a 40 core, but it's harder to justify the costs for smaller Elo improvement.
answered 3 hours ago
SmallChessSmallChess
15.4k22250
add a comment |
I didn't do the experiment but I think it should be something like 
As @SmallChess said in his answer: required computational power grows exponentially and at a certain depth it would be just way too big.
for simpler position however it's not the case because the engine would've explored all the possibilities before reaching its full capacity (ie: maximum depth)
answered 24 mins ago
MrMaxPayneMrMaxPayne
946
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "435"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fchess.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f24338%2fhow-does-engine-strength-scale-with-hardware%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Multicore is important for chess engines, but it doesn't scale forever.
- Up to certain depth, no matter how much hardware you have, you just don't have enough computational power
- Yes. Scaling is heavily implementation dependent. For example, a simple mutex would make multithread programming much easier (any decent programmer will agree here), but that'd also make the engine run much slower than another engine runs without mutex locking.
- 40 cores machine will play stronger than an 8-core machine, although it's hard to state how much. A 4000 core machine should also play stronger than a 40 core, but it's harder to justify the costs for smaller Elo improvement.
answered 3 hours ago
SmallChessSmallChess
15.4k22250
add a comment |
Multicore is important for chess engines, but it doesn't scale forever.
- Up to certain depth, no matter how much hardware you have, you just don't have enough computational power
- Yes. Scaling is heavily implementation dependent. For example, a simple mutex would make multithread programming much easier (any decent programmer will agree here), but that'd also make the engine run much slower than another engine runs without mutex locking.
- 40 cores machine will play stronger than an 8-core machine, although it's hard to state how much. A 4000 core machine should also play stronger than a 40 core, but it's harder to justify the costs for smaller Elo improvement.
answered 3 hours ago
SmallChessSmallChess
15.4k22250
add a comment |
Multicore is important for chess engines, but it doesn't scale forever.
- Up to certain depth, no matter how much hardware you have, you just don't have enough computational power
- Yes. Scaling is heavily implementation dependent. For example, a simple mutex would make multithread programming much easier (any decent programmer will agree here), but that'd also make the engine run much slower than another engine runs without mutex locking.
- 40 cores machine will play stronger than an 8-core machine, although it's hard to state how much. A 4000 core machine should also play stronger than a 40 core, but it's harder to justify the costs for smaller Elo improvement.
answered 3 hours ago
SmallChessSmallChess
15.4k22250
Multicore is important for chess engines, but it doesn't scale forever.
- Up to certain depth, no matter how much hardware you have, you just don't have enough computational power
- Yes. Scaling is heavily implementation dependent. For example, a simple mutex would make multithread programming much easier (any decent programmer will agree here), but that'd also make the engine run much slower than another engine runs without mutex locking.
- 40 cores machine will play stronger than an 8-core machine, although it's hard to state how much. A 4000 core machine should also play stronger than a 40 core, but it's harder to justify the costs for smaller Elo improvement.
answered 3 hours ago
SmallChessSmallChess
15.4k22250
answered 3 hours ago
SmallChessSmallChess
15.4k22250
answered 3 hours ago
SmallChessSmallChess
15.4k22250
answered 3 hours ago
SmallChessSmallChess
15.4k22250
15.4k22250
add a comment |
add a comment |
I didn't do the experiment but I think it should be something like
As @SmallChess said in his answer: required computational power grows exponentially and at a certain depth it would be just way too big.
for simpler position however it's not the case because the engine would've explored all the possibilities before reaching its full capacity (ie: maximum depth)
answered 24 mins ago
MrMaxPayneMrMaxPayne
946
add a comment |
I didn't do the experiment but I think it should be something like
As @SmallChess said in his answer: required computational power grows exponentially and at a certain depth it would be just way too big.
for simpler position however it's not the case because the engine would've explored all the possibilities before reaching its full capacity (ie: maximum depth)
answered 24 mins ago
MrMaxPayneMrMaxPayne
946
add a comment |
I didn't do the experiment but I think it should be something like
As @SmallChess said in his answer: required computational power grows exponentially and at a certain depth it would be just way too big.
for simpler position however it's not the case because the engine would've explored all the possibilities before reaching its full capacity (ie: maximum depth)
answered 24 mins ago
MrMaxPayneMrMaxPayne
946
I didn't do the experiment but I think it should be something like
As @SmallChess said in his answer: required computational power grows exponentially and at a certain depth it would be just way too big.
for simpler position however it's not the case because the engine would've explored all the possibilities before reaching its full capacity (ie: maximum depth)
answered 24 mins ago
MrMaxPayneMrMaxPayne
946
answered 24 mins ago
MrMaxPayneMrMaxPayne
946
answered 24 mins ago
MrMaxPayneMrMaxPayne
946
answered 24 mins ago
MrMaxPayneMrMaxPayne
946
946
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Chess Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fchess.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f24338%2fhow-does-engine-strength-scale-with-hardware%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
+1; also of interest: how the strength scales with the increasing RAM availability.
– GloriaVictis
2 hours ago