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Hyperthreading and NT4

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by doublejj

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It's a 'feature' of W2k server that Performance Monitor reports exactly double the number of physical processors installed in a server, if the chips feature 'hyperthreading' technology.

In our 4-way setup W2ks reports 8 cpus (4 physical , 4 virtual). Not a problem. Vendor assure us this is 'normal'.

For NT4 though - with its 4 cpu maximum - how does this work ? Does it see 2 physical and 2 virtual (there fore ignoring 2 physical) or does it see 4 physical and 0 virtual ? (maximising performance)

Its not critical - 'cos you can switch off Hyperthreading - but it an intersting questing i think.

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by nettek

The only thing I could find from Microsoft was that hyperthreading is supported in 2000 and .NET, but there is no mention of NT 4.0.

The following quote is from the Compaq/Hewlett Packard web site:
"NT 4.0 does not support Hyper-Threading, and there are currently no plans to include this support. Installation of NT 4.0 with Hyper-Threading enabled will have no affect on the server, and will not change the number of logical processors available to the server since NT 4.0 does not support logical processors."

In your case, NT 4.0 would only recognize the 4 physical processors, whether hyperthreading is enabled or not.

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