Re: SuperMicro i7 (UP) - very slow performance

On Wed, 22 Sep 2010, Tom Evans wrote:
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Ian Smith <smithi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It seems far more than just CPU performance is awry.  Adam's data from
his i7 shows 2.7 times Bryce's speed for the md5 -t, maybe a lower EST
rate? - but that could no way account for buildworld taking 22.5 hours.

Recent buildworld (albeit i386) on my Thinkpad T23 ran just shy of 3.5
hours, without -j on an 1133MHz P3-M, 768MB of 133MHz RAM, 5400rpm UFS
disk - with X/KDE running meanwhile (~5-7% CPU penalty).

md5 -t is quite a small benchmark, even with his misfunctioning CPU it
took <6 seconds to complete.

If his problem is a misapplied heatsink/fan, then his CPU could be
throttling when it gets hot, the hotter it gets the more it throttles,
which could explain his massive buildworld walltime. Perhaps running
something like:

apply -0 "md5 -t" `jot 10`

would display a notable difference.

Intel chips are quite good at running without much cooling and not
dieing, using thermal throttling to preserve the CPU.

I guess you mean on-package, without p4tcc or ACPI throttle support?

From Bryce's original message:
# Disable throttle control (and rely on EIST)
hint.p4tcc.0.disabled="1"
hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled="1"

which is sensible, and seems to have been applied to all CPUs, but from
http://www.bryce.net/files/dmesg.boot we see for each of cpu[0-7]:

est0: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu0
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (20, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2667, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (19, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2533, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (18, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2400, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (17, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2267, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (16, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2133, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (15, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 2000, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (14, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 1867, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (13, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 1733, it may be invalid
est0: Invalid id16 (set, cur) = (12, 21)
est0: Can't check freq 1600, it may be invalid

which looks a bit ominous? What does 'sysctl hw.acpi dev.cpu' say?

Running multiple md5s or say 'dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/null bs=1M &'
in a short sleep loop echoing "`date` `sysctl -n dev.cpu.0.freq` plus
indicative coretemp sysctls might reveal something as it heats up?
Surprisingly (?) the dmesg shows no ACPI thermal zones (detected).

cheers, Ian_______________________________________________
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