SuperPI tweaks

[D_o_S]

Tweaks by Kristos
(Edited by D_o_S)

OK, this is a collection of superpi tweaks I picked from numeral forum posts here and there.
When I started, I forgot to write down who posted the tweaks mentioned here so I'll try to credit everyone I can still remember if you're not in it or I credited the wrong person, I'm sorry, let me know and I'll correct it.


note: these tips are for superpi only. some may work well for some benchmarks but may hurt your scores in others. pedro rocha's tweak (best results on A64 + win2000, other combinations may work well too but may also fux up stabillity and therefor your overclock, thus doing your score more bad then good.) is an excellent exampe for this. it will boost your 3dmark2001 score by quite a bit but it will have a negative effect on your pifast score.

(from macci) sometimes you'll get better results with the japanese version of superpi then with the english version but for instance with P-M's (dothan's) it's the other way around.

I don't really know wich OS is better for 1M calculation yet, some say win2k3 server (what sp, I don't know, I'm guessing SP4) although I suspect that for A64 any 64bit OS will be better. also someone mentioned win XP SP 2 is faster then Win2k3 server...

use winXP (pro I suppose) SP1 for 8M, do not!! use win2k3 server.

(from Tom Holck) for 32M, in order of efficience : amd 64 bit, XP64, win2003 32 bit sp4, win xp, win 2000

(from CodeRed) win2003 64 bit is fastest

(from CodeRed) A64tweaker settings for BH-5:
2-7-12-2-2-5-2-2-1-1
Max async latency = 6ns
Read preamble = 5ns
Read Write Queue Bypass = 16x
Bypass Max = 7x
Dynamic Idle Cycle Counter = enabled/16 clocks

(from Hilppa) run --> msconfig --> diagnostic boot mode

This will shut down lot's of services and give you a nice boost

(from Hilppa) Remember to run superpi.exe in Real time mode (from task manager) and turn off explorer.exe and userinit.exe during the run. You can run explorer.exe after the run from task manager. (typically C:\windows\explorer.exe I think)

running superpi in realtime doesn't give me a noticeable gain on Axp or P4.

Some people experienced worse scores from killing explorer.exe and minimizing superpi.

set page file to 0. this didn't help me mutch but I didn't' time it with process timer so it might help a few milli seconds.

I use blackviper's registry patch instead of diagnostic mode... disables a lot of services mostly and adds some other tweaks like the no page file tweak...

if you use page file, delete, defrag and set again.

clean install is best offcourse and defrag right away after installtion aswell best to use a 3rd party defrag tool. most will do a much better job at it then the windows defragger.

Ramdisk tools:MAXMEM is often used. I haven't tried it myself though. afaik, it's slightly better then the boot.ini maxmem tweak but it's not compatible with it.
(from Gautam) there's also RAMdisk

(so the boot.ini maxmem tweak (doesn't always help and slows your system down): look in the advanced options of boot.ini, there is "MAXMEM"

in the boot.ini after /fastdetect add /maxmem=104 (or 105)

for example : multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windo ws Server 2003" /fastdetect /maxmem=104

if the option isn't available through msconfig then the boot.ini will do the trick.

link : http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=21045&stc=1

for the cpu, high mhz is more important then high fsb in dispite of the fact that high fsb is faster in most applications.

for the memory, tight timings are more important then high bandwith, offcourse there are limits to this and you'll have to find a good compromis. Dual channel is also a major plus.

when you get an error, the first time it'll most of the time be "not exact in round" but if you run superpi a seccond time it will give you "not convergent in SQR". Deleting all the files in the superpi folder except the .exe and .txt files will rid you of this error message. Offcourse, if you're overclock is completely unstable you'll just get the errors again, but if you're on the edge where shear luck is the only factor that plays a role between a succesfull and a bad run, this can help.

Reports on pedro rocha's multiprocessor tweak are two fold, good and bad : device manager > pc > computer > acpi uniprocessor pc > update driver > acpi multiprocessor pc

carefull though, this tweak causes higher loads on the psu (12V line, others I don't know), higher cpu heatoutput, cpu and/or gpu (not graka mem afaik) instability.

link : http://www.xtremeresources.com/forum...chmentid=12637

Go to: Control Panel ---> System ---> Advanced ---> Performace Options ---> Advanced

set Processor Schedulling to Programs and Memory Usage to System Cache

there are memory tweakers for just about every platform, use them
for nf2 tweaker (nVidia nForce2 chipset) + A64 tweaker (nVidia nForce3&4 chipsets), look in CodeRed's signature on the xtremesystems fora for the most recent versions.
865 tweaker for Intel i865/i875 chipsets by cpulloverclock.
I855 tweaker for all versions of Intel i855/i852 chipsets except PM by cpulloverclock.
i855 tweaker for Intel i855PM by cpulloverclock.

(from D_o_S) Shell replacements:
A high performance shell is Aston shell. For me, it took away that fraction of a second I needed. Of course, it will not be as fast as shutting down Explorer, but it helps you in other ways too, like faster booting, etc. You can download it here:

http://www.astonshell.com/


most of these tweaks will give you little boosts but will not gain you a full seccond (at least not individually, combined you should at least shave off a second of your score). then again, sometimes, all you need is that extra millisecond faster
offcourse some tweaks can shave off a whole seccond like booting in diagnostic mode or A64+Bh-5 finetweaked with CodeRed's A64tweaker...

to check what helps your score and what doesn't, use ProcessTimer (also from CodeRed I think), it gives you an accurate reading up to 0.0001 of a seccond.
(from Tom Holck) use sisoft sandra to test which tweaks work and wich ones don't.





(thx to OC-Rookie for quite for pointing me towards quite a few of these OS guides) last but not least: here are some links for OS tweaks and others that can help or will come in use. you'll find much double information in these links but better that then no information at all right? :

windows xp performance guide @ IANAG

Tweakhound's Super XP Tweaking Guide

2003 server installation guide @ THG


op tweakguides @ tweakguides.com

tips en tweaks @ Madshrimps
HWFAQ @ Madshrimps

a couple of guides at ExtremeOverclocking fora

The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide @ Rojakpot
virtual memory optimization guide @ Rojakpot
the stuborn paging file guide @ Rojakpot

performance tips for several Windows OS's @ Blackviper
WinXP service settings @ Blackviper
WinXP services explaned @ Blackviper
WinXP registry patches @ Blackviper
Win2K service settings @ Blackviper
Win2K services explaned @ Blackviper
for win2k registry patches, it's a lot of work but you can make your own registry patch, just have a look at the winXP registry patches to get an idea of how it's done.