Is enabling "Hyperthreading" in BIOS a disadvantage with multiple cores?

Is enabling "Hyperthreading" in BIOS a disadvantage with multiple cores?

"I've got an Intel Core i7 920 in an Asus P6T, for which my OS reports having 8 cores. Core i7 is Quad, so presumably this is due to Hyperthreading being enabled in BIOS.
I could imagine that Intel's HT might allow one core to max out when the other ""half"" is idle, but then wouldn't the OS have to first use the even/odd numbered cores?"

Asked by: Guest | Views: 143

Total answers/comments: 2

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Guest [Entry]

It shouldn't hurt. Linux's scheduler is aware of hyperthreading. Hyperthreading doesn't really cost anything if nothing is being run on the extra CPUs. With that said, it probably is not a large benefit unless you are running more than four CPU intensive threads at a time, but it should not hurt.

Guest [Entry]

"you don't have 8 but 4 ""pseudo cores"", 4 physical + 4 virtual cores = 8 in total.

when you disable HT, you might as well get a Core i5, compare the benchmarks between i7 and i5 CPUs (both are quadcore Nehalems, with and without HT) and you know the answer to your question."