4 ms·

I believe Intel E-cores are all about maximizing performance. Each E-core has 40-50% of the performance of a P-core, but it only takes ~1/4 of the space. You ne

I believe Intel E-cores are all about maximizing performance. Each E-core has 40-50% of the performance of a P-core, but it only takes ~1/4 of the space. You need a few fast cores for tasks that don't parallelize well, but beyond that, you really want to maximize performance per die area and/or power efficiency. It's a bit inconvenient that all cores are not identical, especially in real-time applications such as video games. Some schedulers may also not be able to use them well automatically. But if you care mostly about throughput, E-cores are superior to P-cores.

jeffbee 3y ago
Even the P cores are not identical. On a 14900K there are two cores with +2 speed bins (6GHz) vs all the others (5.8GHz). And there are local thermal effects, because the 8 P cores are arranged in two rows of four. Some of them get heated from all sides, some don't. Optimal scheduling on such a system is not easy.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - wtallis 3y ago
    Please try not to take perceived criticism of Intel as a personal attack, and please don't accuse others of being partisan without stopping to consider whether the bias you perceive is present in the comment itself or only in your reading of it. Jeffbee's comment can be reasonably read as simply pointing out the futility of asking for all cores to be identical: the existence of minor but measurable variations between nominally identical cores is the unavoidable reality that undermines any attempt to insist on complete symmetry between cores on the same chip. This fact is not an attack on Intel; it applies just as much to chips made by AMD, and nobody tried to present this as a unique downside for Intel, and jeffbee doesn't seem to actually be asking for the idealized chip that can be optimally managed by the simplest schedulers.
  - majke 3y ago
    I write low level code. I need to profile it. It's enough pain to try to understand performance in the turbo boost model. Then Intel was adding avx512 throttling. Now the P vs E cores and some P cores having different max ghz from others. AMD adds its own set of problems with the slower (ghz) CCD with x3d. As a developer I don't mind the P/E on my laptop. I actually enjoy the apple silicon version of it. On a desktop though, where cooling and power are not a problem, I would strongly prefer a uniform, predictable architecture.
    - jeffbee 3y ago
      I personally feel that if you have bought a high-end machine and are not thinking about how to get peak performance, you might have wasted your money.

jeffbee 3y ago

Even the P cores are not identical. On a 14900K there are two cores with +2 speed bins (6GHz) vs all the others (5.8GHz). And there are local thermal effects, because the 8 P cores are arranged in two rows of four. Some of them get heated from all sides, some don't. Optimal scheduling on such a system is not easy.

Dalewyn 3y ago
[flagged]
- wtallis 3y ago
  Please try not to take perceived criticism of Intel as a personal attack, and please don't accuse others of being partisan without stopping to consider whether the bias you perceive is present in the comment itself or only in your reading of it. Jeffbee's comment can be reasonably read as simply pointing out the futility of asking for all cores to be identical: the existence of minor but measurable variations between nominally identical cores is the unavoidable reality that undermines any attempt to insist on complete symmetry between cores on the same chip. This fact is not an attack on Intel; it applies just as much to chips made by AMD, and nobody tried to present this as a unique downside for Intel, and jeffbee doesn't seem to actually be asking for the idealized chip that can be optimally managed by the simplest schedulers.
- majke 3y ago
  I write low level code. I need to profile it. It's enough pain to try to understand performance in the turbo boost model. Then Intel was adding avx512 throttling. Now the P vs E cores and some P cores having different max ghz from others. AMD adds its own set of problems with the slower (ghz) CCD with x3d. As a developer I don't mind the P/E on my laptop. I actually enjoy the apple silicon version of it. On a desktop though, where cooling and power are not a problem, I would strongly prefer a uniform, predictable architecture.
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    I personally feel that if you have bought a high-end machine and are not thinking about how to get peak performance, you might have wasted your money.