Generic CPU discussion

GWGeorge007
GWGeorge007
Joined: 8 Jan 18
Posts: 3061
Credit: 4965527686
RAC: 1413975

Tom M wrote:Boinc benchmark

Tom M wrote:

Boinc benchmark listing on the e@h project system details page.

I'm not exactly sure what the "e@h project system details page is", but this is what I think it is, and I don't see any 'benchmark listing'.

https://einsteinathome.org/host/12949005

Plus, you originally said:

Tom M wrote:

Does floating point operations per second map on to RAC when you hold number of CPU threads constant?

Take a look at the top 20 list at u@h for instance.

The same goes for U@H.

George

Proud member of the Old Farts Association

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
Joined: 11 Feb 11
Posts: 4964
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It shows the integer and

It shows the integer and floating point speed as determined by a run of the BOINC benchmark tool in the Manager on the Details page of a host.

This is from your link:

Measured floating point speed:3341.27 million ops/sec

Measured integer speed:9101.15 million ops/sec

The Manager has code that is supposed to benchmark the host every 30 days, but it often goes longer than that or sometimes never benchmarks the host.

You can tell that a host is brand new or that the benchmarks have never been run on the host if the Details page has 1000 million ops/sec for both values as that is what is the default value from the client_state file if the Benchmarks have never been run.

 

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
Joined: 11 Feb 11
Posts: 4964
Credit: 18717006340
RAC: 6390335

 Why I say you can't trust

 Why I say you can't trust the measured FLOPS speed is because if you look at a Raspberry Pi like this one

Raspberry Pi 3B+

Measured floating point speed:1402.33 million ops/sec

Measured integer speed:27725.41 million ops/sec

It shows higher values for the FLOPS ratings than your 5950X example.

You surely don't believe that a RPi 3B+ is faster than a 5950X, do you?

I've seen phones benchmarked in the BILLIONS of FLOPS for both integer and floating point.

Comparing benchmark values between disparate devices is a fools errand.

The problem is the nature of the old benchmark code that is in the client.  It might have been representative of the computers of the 1980's, but certainly does not reflect the true power of modern cpus.

 

GWGeorge007
GWGeorge007
Joined: 8 Jan 18
Posts: 3061
Credit: 4965527686
RAC: 1413975

Thanks Keith.  I wasn't sure

Thanks Keith.  I wasn't sure that that was the correct reading or not since both you and Ian had a small complaint (?) about Tom's use of wording being somewhat confusing.

Now I understand completely!

George

Proud member of the Old Farts Association

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
Joined: 11 Feb 11
Posts: 4964
Credit: 18717006340
RAC: 6390335

The reason we have benchmarks

The reason we have benchmarks in the client is because the original BOINC client code using the original credit mechanism needed to figure out how to calculate the estimated remaining time.

The original mechanism scaled against a theoretical computer capable of 1 GFLOPS in the Whetstone benchmark.

This computer produced 200 Cobblestones of credit in a day.

But the mechanism has never worked for gpus even with an attempt to correct for them later in the code when gpus started being employed.

Computation credit

http://www.boinc-wiki.info/Recent_Average_Credit

 

Tom M
Tom M
Joined: 2 Feb 06
Posts: 6439
Credit: 9568937126
RAC: 8551874

Thank you Keith. When I

Thank you Keith. When I looked at the floating point bench marks on universe at home and compared them to the RAC's it seemed like several of the 128 thread systems had low fp benchmarks but their results were high.

I hate it when I am fuzzy brained and don't even notice it.

Tom M

A Proud member of the O.F.A.  (Old Farts Association).  Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)  I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!

GWGeorge007
GWGeorge007
Joined: 8 Jan 18
Posts: 3061
Credit: 4965527686
RAC: 1413975

Tom M wrote: I hate it when

Tom M wrote:

I hate it when I am fuzzy brained and don't even notice it.

That's what happens to fuzzy brained people.  Me... I just have a brain in fog most of the time.

George

Proud member of the Old Farts Association

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
Joined: 11 Feb 11
Posts: 4964
Credit: 18717006340
RAC: 6390335

If you compare the benchmarks

If you compare the benchmarks for Intel processors against AMD processors you will see a magnitude difference benefitting the Intel processors.

Benchmarks tend to be written with code compilation favoring the market dominant cpu.  Which has been Intel for decades.

Different architectures and branch predictors for AMD hamper AMD in most generic benchmarks.  And then of course some math libraries used in benchmarks actually intentionally hamstring performance when a AMD cpu is detected running.  The MKL math library being well documented as one culprit.

But then AMD with Zen 4 actually gets an advantage over Intel main consumer class cpus with having AVX512 capability that has not been available in Intel cpus for the past couple of generations.  An AVX512 benchmark will favor the latest AMD cpus but won't even run on the latest Intel cpus.

I just would not pay any attention to the benchmark figures and rely more on the RAC output of a host.

 

Tom M
Tom M
Joined: 2 Feb 06
Posts: 6439
Credit: 9568937126
RAC: 8551874

I wonder if we could find a

I wonder if we could find a "fair" CPU benchmark?

A Proud member of the O.F.A.  (Old Farts Association).  Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)  I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
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Credit: 1839085536
RAC: 3867

Tom M wrote: I wonder if we

Tom M wrote:

I wonder if we could find a "fair" CPU benchmark? 

I would be that AMD puts out cpu benchmarking stuff to othat shows theirs being better than Intel's stuff, I would think that someplace like Tom's Hardware or something would come up with an apples to apples comparison between the various cpu's.

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