Win2K and my Intel P4 w/HT

[simmorya]

i have just bought a new PC system with an intel p4 3.0GHz with Hyper-Threading processor. I want to format and install my Windows 2000 Professional w/SP4 cd but I have heard Windows 2000 Pro isnt good for hyper-threading and it should be disabled in the system bios. I am unable to turn it off in my BIOS and i have downloaded the BIOS update and its done nothing..

If anyone knows how i can turn off Hyper-Threading, your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[premier69]

hi i was wondering the same thing i have the same CPU as you have and I am wondering how well win2k with sp4 supports Hyper Threading?

Is it as well as winxp? is there any drivers avaiable?

[kenb]

Been running w2k -sp4 with HT enabled for about a year and have experienced no problems. I can also confirm that running several cpu intensive programs with HT enabled significantly improves the responsiveness of the machine.

No additional drivers are required.

[stew]

Windows 2000 should run HT chips falwlessly, used them at work a numer of times and they run well... I think XP Pro might be a better OS for using HT chips however I haven't used it first hand.

[Nejmann]

Well I'm not running my P4 (Windows 2000 Pro) in HT-mode because it slows down things not specifically optimized for HT (a very few!). 3DMark and all games run slower on Windows 2000 with HT enabled (tested with two installs). There is no benefit in running HT on Windows 2000.

With XP Pro/2003 it's another story. The benefit in 3DMark and games is zero but it doesn't slow down anything and helps in those programs optimized for HT/dual processor use.

[MadGutts]

I have a 2 P4s with HT, They are running W2k server, and w2k... i have no problems at all. they have been running 4 months now....

[MerlinTheWizard]

If you install Win 2000 from scratch, you must install the multiprocessor HAL if you want to have hyperthreading used at all.

Win2K will think your motherboard has 2 separate processors. So, thread scheduling will NOT be optimal at all. Win XP and 2003 are HT-aware, and so, they know better how to run different threads on the P4-HT in a sensible way.

In some cases, it will hinder performance on Win2K. In some others, it won't make a difference at all, and in rare occurences, it will improve performance a tiny bit.

Just to see the difference, run SiSoft Sandra's benchmarks, especially the multimedia one. On XP/2003, the figures will be almost twice what they are on 2000. Tested.

[kenb]

Maybe I should have been a bit more specific.

I assumed a clean install of win2k with HT enabled. Yes I agree that individual programs are unlikely to benefit from HT on win2k. What I was saying is that HT helps to keep the pc responsive from a user perspective when running multiple cpu intensive tasks (again within limits). For example try running 2 copies of seti@home on a win2k HT enabled pc and again on a non HT pc. From a user perspective you will find that the HT enabled pc remains responsive to user input whilst the non HT pc feels like it is ploughing through mud. On a less subjective analysis you will find that the processing time for an individual seti@home work unit will nearly double on the non HT pc whilst on the HT enabled one the processing time per work unit will increase between 10-20% enabling it to process more work within a given time.