Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? -- Message: 4 Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 23:33:32 +0200 From: Karl Labrador karlicio...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? To: evolutioncr...@gmail.com, Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: aanlkti=njqj3ofvbl-vxsum03kzhfs77qykw2magx...@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux -- Message: 5 Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:52:11 +0200 From: Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? Cc: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: 4c7ecb0b.2010...@gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you enable the intel enhanced speed step... normaly speedstep (and frequency scaling in general) ain't very good for servers environment... isn't it? Il 01/09/2010 23:33, Karl Labrador ha scritto: I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com mailto:evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux -- Message: 6 Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 16:11:04 -0600 From: EkaInfinitosekainfin...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? To: 'Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list' hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: 003f01cb4a22$93051b40$b90f51...@com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I know I personally feel better about having my server cores running full bore instead of trying to dynamically scale themselves. For my gameservers and database servers, I want full power all the time, power consumption can sit down and be quiet. Until chipmakers introduce processors with precognitive abilities, I would rather take the hit on the power bill than have performance or customer experience suffer. This is why I am in IT and not financial. ~Eka -Original Message- From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Marco Padovan Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 1552 Cc: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you enable the intel enhanced speed step... normaly speedstep (and frequency scaling in general) ain't very good for servers environment... isn't it? Il 01/09/2010 23:33, Karl Labrador ha scritto: I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com mailto:evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
Could everyone kindly stop spreading false information if you don't know what you're talking about? On some bios, you need to have the speedstep technology (which turboboost is a part of) enabled to make use of turboboost. You can enable speedstep in the bios, and the associated turbo features, without making use of underclocking - which is a kernel/userland configured utility. In linux, you'd simply make sure the cpufeq system is loaded up with the performance governor (always 100%), or, depending on your distro, passed off to the userland governer with the userland tools set to performance mode. Your CPU will never underclock itself. This is separate from turbo mode, which overclocks active cores. It can do this, basically, because the chip is designed to support the heat from all cores at 100%. If some cores are not at 100%, the others can be slightly overclocked as the excess heat wont overheat the chip. (Its slightly more complicated than this, but thats the general idea) I see no reason to have it disabled - though if your system is running near 100% across the cores I don't think it'll see much use (I could be wrong). ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
Linux server mailing list hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: 4c7ec544.8000...@gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux st... -- Message: 4 Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 23:33:32 +0200 From: Karl Labrador karlicio...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? To: evolutioncr...@gmail.com, Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: aanlkti=njqj3ofvbl-vxsum03kzhfs77qykw2magx...@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your fee... -- Message: 5 Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:52:11 +0200 From: Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? Cc: Half-Life... hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: 4c7ecb0b.2010...@gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you... -- Message: 6 Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 16:11:04 -0600 From: EkaInfinitosekainfin...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? To: 'Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list' hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: 003f01cb4a22$93051b40$b90f51...@com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I know I personally feel better about having my server cores running full bore instead of try... -- Message: 7 Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:23:36 +0200 From: Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: 4c7ed268.7050...@gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Agree with that... scaling UP is done AFTER the workload requires it... I think we are c... I know I personally feel better about having my server cores running full bore instead of trying to dynamically scale themselves. For my gameservers and database serve... -- Message: 8 Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 19:15:32 -0400 From: Ben Mendis dragonwis...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com Message-ID: aanlktimgzdyrcrvbw1o6+nuzjtsn3fwz-mpx+uq9g...@mail.gmail.comaanlktimgzdyrcrvbw1o6%2bnuzjtsn3fwz-mpx%2buq9g...@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 If I understand it correctly, Turbo mode allows you to over-clock your active cores when othe... End of hlds_linux Digest, Vol 31, Issue 2 * ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or vi... ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
Fronte my test: Your CPU multiplier Will increase by one if you enable turbo boost regardless the CPU utilization!!! CPU utilization is took into account only when increasing +2 the first core... Are you useing i7z tool to say that it does not increase when under load? Could everyone kindly stop spreading false information if you don't know what you're talking about? On some bios, you need to have the speedstep technology (which turboboost is a part of) enabled to make use of turboboost. You can enable speedstep in the bios, and the associated turbo features, without making use of underclocking - which is a kernel/userland configured utility. In linux, you'd simply make sure the cpufeq system is loaded up with the performance governor (always 100%), or, depending on your distro, passed off to the userland governer with the userland tools set to performance mode. Your CPU will never underclock itself. This is separate from turbo mode, which overclocks active cores. It can do this, basically, because the chip is designed to support the heat from all cores at 100%. If some cores are not at 100%, the others can be slightly overclocked as the excess heat wont overheat the chip. (Its slightly more complicated than this, but thats the general idea) I see no reason to have it disabled - though if your system is running near 100% across the cores I don't think it'll see much use (I could be wrong). ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
At 05:43 AM 9/2/2010, Nephyrin Zey wrote: Could everyone kindly stop spreading false information if you don't know what you're talking about? On some bios, you need to have the speedstep technology (which turboboost is a part of) enabled to make use of turboboost. You can enable speedstep in the bios, and the associated turbo features, without making use of underclocking - which is a kernel/userland configured utility. In linux, you'd simply make sure the cpufeq system is loaded up with the performance governor (always 100%), or, depending on your distro, passed off to the userland governer with the userland tools set to performance mode. Your CPU will never underclock itself. This is separate from turbo mode, which overclocks active cores. It can do this, basically, because the chip is designed to support the heat from all cores at 100%. If some cores are not at 100%, the others can be slightly overclocked as the excess heat wont overheat the chip. (Its slightly more complicated than this, but thats the general idea) I see no reason to have it disabled - though if your system is running near 100% across the cores I don't think it'll see much use (I could be wrong). I think turbo mode may make TSC drift more, because the PLL is calibrated to the quartz crystal on the CPU and if it runs hotter it may drift over time more often. So people who use TSC as their timecounter may see odd things happen (lotsa ntp drift) G. Monk Stanley gary at summit-servers dot com | gary at DragonflyBSD dot org http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/~gary ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
At 05:43 AM 9/2/2010, Nephyrin Zey wrote: Could everyone kindly stop spreading false information if you don't know what you're talking about? On some bios, you need to have the speedstep technology (which turboboost is a part of) enabled to make use of turboboost. You can enable speedstep in the bios, and the associated turbo features, without making use of underclocking - which is a kernel/userland configured utility. In linux, you'd simply make sure the cpufeq system is loaded up with the performance governor (always 100%), or, depending on your distro, passed off to the userland governer with the userland tools set to performance mode. Your CPU will never underclock itself. This is separate from turbo mode, which overclocks active cores. It can do this, basically, because the chip is designed to support the heat from all cores at 100%. If some cores are not at 100%, the others can be slightly overclocked as the excess heat wont overheat the chip. (Its slightly more complicated than this, but thats the general idea) I see no reason to have it disabled - though if your system is running near 100% across the cores I don't think it'll see much use (I could be wrong). I think turbo mode may make TSC drift more, because the PLL is calibrated to the quartz crystal on the CPU and if it runs hotter it may drift over time more often. So people who use TSC as their timecounter may see odd things happen (lotsa ntp drift) G. Monk Stanley gary at summit-servers dot com | gary at DragonflyBSD dot org http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/~gary ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
Uhm... it's all about the whole server (and rack)... AFAIK turbo mode is supported by intel and get activate only when temp and tdp are within certain value ranges... I doubt that just a jump from 2.8 to 3ghz would create all these troubles... as the same cpu can be used within a desktop case with no forced airflow and without air-conditioned environment Il 02/09/2010 12:04, Gary Stanley ha scritto: I think turbo mode may make TSC drift more, because the PLL is calibrated to the quartz crystal on the CPU and if it runs hotter it may drift over time more often. So people who use TSC as their timecounter may see odd things happen (lotsa ntp drift) G. Monk Stanley gary at summit-servers dot com | gary at DragonflyBSD dot org http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/~gary ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you enable the intel enhanced speed step... normaly speedstep (and frequency scaling in general) ain't very good for servers environment... isn't it? Il 01/09/2010 23:33, Karl Labrador ha scritto: I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com mailto:evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
I know I personally feel better about having my server cores running full bore instead of trying to dynamically scale themselves. For my gameservers and database servers, I want full power all the time, power consumption can sit down and be quiet. Until chipmakers introduce processors with precognitive abilities, I would rather take the hit on the power bill than have performance or customer experience suffer. This is why I am in IT and not financial. ~Eka -Original Message- From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Marco Padovan Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 1552 Cc: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you enable the intel enhanced speed step... normaly speedstep (and frequency scaling in general) ain't very good for servers environment... isn't it? Il 01/09/2010 23:33, Karl Labrador ha scritto: I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com mailto:evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
Agree with that... scaling UP is done AFTER the workload requires it... I think we are currently at the state of the art... but I agree with you in having full speed all the time... First thing I strip out in the kernel cfg is the frequency scaling support :D Il 02/09/2010 00:11, EkaInfinitos ha scritto: I know I personally feel better about having my server cores running full bore instead of trying to dynamically scale themselves. For my gameservers and database servers, I want full power all the time, power consumption can sit down and be quiet. Until chipmakers introduce processors with precognitive abilities, I would rather take the hit on the power bill than have performance or customer experience suffer. This is why I am in IT and not financial. ~Eka -Original Message- From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Marco Padovan Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 1552 Cc: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you enable the intel enhanced speed step... normaly speedstep (and frequency scaling in general) ain't very good for servers environment... isn't it? Il 01/09/2010 23:33, Karl Labrador ha scritto: I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovanevolutioncr...@gmail.com mailto:evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
If I understand it correctly, Turbo mode allows you to over-clock your active cores when other cores are idle. With Speed Step, your cores would normally operate a lower speed, like 50%, and increase on demand. With Turbo, your cores would normally operate at 100% but if one of them isn't needed it gets disabled and the rest get a boost to 110%. (Not sure on the numbers, someone else can correct me.) So my question is what do you consider full bore? Do you consider it full bore to lock all your cores at 100%? Or to over-clock all of them to 110%? Or to disable all but one and over-clock that one core to the max? If consistency is the goal, I would keep Turbo turned off. I'm sure the engineers at Intel did some smart math to make sure Turbo would, in general, improve over all performance; but improvements to the average performance might come at the cost of significant temporary performance loss. I don't have any science to back up that supposition, so maybe it's not a valid concern. Better safe than sorry, right? On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 6:11 PM, EkaInfinitos ekainfin...@gmail.com wrote: I know I personally feel better about having my server cores running full bore instead of trying to dynamically scale themselves. For my gameservers and database servers, I want full power all the time, power consumption can sit down and be quiet. Until chipmakers introduce processors with precognitive abilities, I would rather take the hit on the power bill than have performance or customer experience suffer. This is why I am in IT and not financial. ~Eka -Original Message- From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Marco Padovan Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 1552 Cc: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you enable the intel enhanced speed step... normaly speedstep (and frequency scaling in general) ain't very good for servers environment... isn't it? Il 01/09/2010 23:33, Karl Labrador ha scritto: I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovan evolutioncr...@gmail.com mailto:evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
As I said earlier turbo mode requires speedstep to be enabled (at least on the supermicro mobos I've tried)... so the cpu will also downclock when idle (that's the speed step speciality...) I dunno if certain motherboards allows you to use turbo without enabling speedstep... mines doesn't :( Il 02/09/2010 01:15, Ben Mendis ha scritto: If I understand it correctly, Turbo mode allows you to over-clock your active cores when other cores are idle. With Speed Step, your cores would normally operate a lower speed, like 50%, and increase on demand. With Turbo, your cores would normally operate at 100% but if one of them isn't needed it gets disabled and the rest get a boost to 110%. (Not sure on the numbers, someone else can correct me.) So my question is what do you consider full bore? Do you consider it full bore to lock all your cores at 100%? Or to over-clock all of them to 110%? Or to disable all but one and over-clock that one core to the max? If consistency is the goal, I would keep Turbo turned off. I'm sure the engineers at Intel did some smart math to make sure Turbo would, in general, improve over all performance; but improvements to the average performance might come at the cost of significant temporary performance loss. I don't have any science to back up that supposition, so maybe it's not a valid concern. Better safe than sorry, right? On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 6:11 PM, EkaInfinitosekainfin...@gmail.com wrote: I know I personally feel better about having my server cores running full bore instead of trying to dynamically scale themselves. For my gameservers and database servers, I want full power all the time, power consumption can sit down and be quiet. Until chipmakers introduce processors with precognitive abilities, I would rather take the hit on the power bill than have performance or customer experience suffer. This is why I am in IT and not financial. ~Eka -Original Message- From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Marco Padovan Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 1552 Cc: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you enable the intel enhanced speed step... normaly speedstep (and frequency scaling in general) ain't very good for servers environment... isn't it? Il 01/09/2010 23:33, Karl Labrador ha scritto: I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovanevolutioncr...@gmail.com mailto:evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled?
I was wrong... EIST do not include down-clocking :) So: boost can be enabled even without enabling power saving... (but maybe it will never kick in due to higher temps / higher power drain in the cpu?) with i7z tool I have yet to be able to see the boost kick in... even while compiling a kernel (that put a lot of stress on all the cores... but without freq increases) Il 02/09/2010 01:30, Marco Padovan ha scritto: As I said earlier turbo mode requires speedstep to be enabled (at least on the supermicro mobos I've tried)... so the cpu will also downclock when idle (that's the speed step speciality...) I dunno if certain motherboards allows you to use turbo without enabling speedstep... mines doesn't :( Il 02/09/2010 01:15, Ben Mendis ha scritto: If I understand it correctly, Turbo mode allows you to over-clock your active cores when other cores are idle. With Speed Step, your cores would normally operate a lower speed, like 50%, and increase on demand. With Turbo, your cores would normally operate at 100% but if one of them isn't needed it gets disabled and the rest get a boost to 110%. (Not sure on the numbers, someone else can correct me.) So my question is what do you consider full bore? Do you consider it full bore to lock all your cores at 100%? Or to over-clock all of them to 110%? Or to disable all but one and over-clock that one core to the max? If consistency is the goal, I would keep Turbo turned off. I'm sure the engineers at Intel did some smart math to make sure Turbo would, in general, improve over all performance; but improvements to the average performance might come at the cost of significant temporary performance loss. I don't have any science to back up that supposition, so maybe it's not a valid concern. Better safe than sorry, right? On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 6:11 PM, EkaInfinitosekainfin...@gmail.com wrote: I know I personally feel better about having my server cores running full bore instead of trying to dynamically scale themselves. For my gameservers and database servers, I want full power all the time, power consumption can sit down and be quiet. Until chipmakers introduce processors with precognitive abilities, I would rather take the hit on the power bill than have performance or customer experience suffer. This is why I am in IT and not financial. ~Eka -Original Message- From:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Marco Padovan Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 1552 Cc: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] newer xeon / i7 cpus: turbo mode enabled or disabled? Yeah, the name sounds cool :P but the question is: turbo mode can be enabled ONLY if you enable the intel enhanced speed step... normaly speedstep (and frequency scaling in general) ain't very good for servers environment... isn't it? Il 01/09/2010 23:33, Karl Labrador ha scritto: I've got turbo mode enabled on my Xeon X3450 box. I don't see why not? It's so fancy! :-D On 1 September 2010 23:27, Marco Padovanevolutioncr...@gmail.com mailto:evolutioncr...@gmail.com wrote: What are your feelings about TURBO mode when running a dedicated server focusing on linux steam games hosting? Personally I think that in theory it should be good to have it enabled (can give an extra juice on certain cores if others in idle)... but what about thinks like fps stability and tickrate? Does the constant frequency fluctuation is giving you any trouble? ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
