Sluggish 11.3 due to Hyperthreading?

English Hardware
#1

My brand new laptop was really sluggish until I turned of Hyperthreading in the BIOS. Is this normal? I thought Hyperthreading was an old hat and well supported by Linux? Can anyone please provide some background information?

When I had Suse11.3 installed on my new laptop, I immediately noticed a small lag for pretty much everything: scrolling in Firefox or OpenOffice, KMenu Animations, switching between windows, on-the-fly spellchecking, etc. So I tried updating this and that, and eventually played around with the BIOS options. It turned out that if I disable Hyperthreading within the BIOS, the machine becomes MUCH more responsive! I thought Hyperthreading is supposed to be beneficial, no?

My system:
Dell M4500, Intel i7 M620@2.67GHz, 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD, nvidia FX880M

with Hyperthreading on, I saw 2 processors and 4 cores reported as expected, with Hyperthreading off I now see 2 processors and 2 cores:

> cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 37
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       M 620  @ 2.67GHz
stepping        : 5
cpu MHz         : 1199.000
cache size      : 4096 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 11
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes lahf_lm ida arat tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips        : 5320.61
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6                                                                        
model           : 37                                                                       
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       M 620  @ 2.67GHz                          
stepping        : 5                                                                        
cpu MHz         : 2667.000                                                                 
cache size      : 4096 KB                                                                  
physical id     : 0                                                                        
siblings        : 2                                                                        
core id         : 2                                                                        
cpu cores       : 2                                                                        
apicid          : 4                                                                        
initial apicid  : 4                                                                        
fpu             : yes                                                                      
fpu_exception   : yes                                                                      
cpuid level     : 11                                                                       
wp              : yes                                                                      
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes lahf_lm ida arat tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid                                                                   
bogomips        : 5319.71                                                                  
clflush size    : 64                                                                       
cache_alignment : 64                                                                       
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual                                        
power management:
#2

So I don’t claim to be a Hyper-Threading expert here, but I have not noticed any issues with it turned on with my i7 CPU. As far as I know, this is handled in the Kernel and not a distro specific issues, except for perhaps the kernel version you are using. Hyper-Threading has been around a very long time, since 2002 I think. I would expect your BIOS to have more effect on it working properly, perhaps a BIOS update is required AND, what video driver are you using? You say you have a nvidia FX880M (Quadro?) which supports the most recent nVidia video driver. Here is what I would do if you are not loading the nVidia driver:

You should look at this document before proceeding on…

SDB:Configuring graphics cards - openSUSE

Then, take a look at the procedure I use to install the nVidia driver as I install openSUSE 11.3:

  1. During the install, when you have the option to change your booting setup, I add nomodeset to the kernel load command for the normal load/start of openSUSE. This kernel startup option is already present for the Failsafe selection for openSUSE.
  2. During the first start of openSUSE, I download the latest nVidia Video driver to the downloads folder.
  3. I change/save the System/Kernel option NO_KMS_IN_INITRD from “No” to “Yes” in the /etc/sysconfig Editor in Yast.
  4. I do an update of openSUSE on the first run of openSUSE and then a restart/reboot.
  5. In grub OS selection I add the command line option “3” to the openSUSE start line so that I just go to the run level three terminal prompt.
  6. I login in as root and change to the /home/user/Downloads folder.
  7. I run/install the NVIDIA video driver using “sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-260.19.21.run” and answer all questions as appropriate for my system.
  8. Type in reboot at terminal prompt to restart the system with new video driver.

If I thought I was having a problem with an older kernel, I might suggest you download kernel version 2.6.36.2 and then compile and install it to see if that might be helpful. Message #17 has the most recent version of S.A.K.C. to use.

S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.00

Since I also have an Intel i7 processor, I have not noticed the problem you are having, but I do use the latest nVidia driver, load a new kernel and have an updated motherboard BIOS.

Thank You,

#3

The only thing that comes to mind off-hand is that this may actually be related to a thermal issue. Traditionally, enabling HT carries with it a pretty significant CPU core temperature increase. This may be affecting your overall performance. Perhaps check your CPU temps with lmsensors?

I am running an i7 with 2.6.34.7-0.5-desktop, HT enabled, and have had no issues.

Cheers,
Lews Therin

#4

I’m running an i5 which uses hyper threading as well and have not had any problems with it either in 11.3 or 11.4. I also use the latest nVidia drivers and keep my system up to date.

Cheers!
etech97 :slight_smile:

#5

etech97 wrote:

>
> I’m running an i5 which uses hyper threading as well and have not had
> any problems with it either in 11.3 or 11.4. I also use the latest
> nVidia drivers and keep my system up to date.
>
> Cheers!
> etech97 :slight_smile:
>
>

I thought the difference between i5 & i7 was that i5 does not have
hyperthreading!

Ian

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#6

The i5 does have hyper threading. Here is a llink about the i5 processor:

Intel Core i5 Computer Processor

Cheers!
etech97 :slight_smile:

#7

@Ian Gay…you are right I didn’t read the article correctly…the i5 is straight 4 core processor! Sorry for the miss understanding :slight_smile:

Cheers!
etech97

#8

I am using nvidia driver 260.19.21 (64bit), installed simply by enabling the nvidia community repository. The machine’s BIOS is A6, the lastest available. Oh, and I am on KDE 4.5.4.

I cannot find “lmsensors”, it is not a known command and it is not provided as a file by a package known to yast. However, “apci -t” says “No support for device type: thermal”. However, I would not expect thermal issues to appear right away after booting the machine for the first time of the day.

Also, I can see during boot warnings saying that some devices are unknown and may not function properly. So I will have a look at using a newer Kernel.

#9

You may want to download the latest driver from nVidia’s web site it is 260.19.29 and follow jdmcdaniel3’s instructions on how to install the driver. Installing the driver that way usually works much better; at least for me it does :slight_smile:

Cheers!
etech97