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Unlock 8 Virtual Cores on rMBP

Squilly

Squilly

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 17, 2012
2,260
4
PA
I was told there was a way to unlock all cores on a rMBP by starting 8 chess games with computer vs computer. The problem: I can only start one. How do you start multiple games?
 
What do you mean "unlock" cores?

It's just a computer. It comes working with 8 logical processors.
 
Why do you want to do what?

Your Mac has one CPU with four real cores, each core having two virtual cores, giving you eight virtual cores as a whole, and if an application is written to take advantage of those, it will use them if it needs to. No need to "unlock" something.

And how many threads is that today? 10?
 
OS X does not support CPU affinity for individual processes. AFAIK, the kernel handles the distribution of processes amongst a CPU's cores. There is no way that I know of to force a process to run on a specific CPU core.
 
duervo said:
OS X does not support CPU affinity for individual processes. AFAIK, the kernel handles the distribution of processes amongst a CPU's cores. There is no way that I know of to force a process to run on a specific CPU core.
Click to expand...

Couldn't you do that dev > null terminal command 8 times to max out the CPU?
 
Just to stress the computer, see what it can do, that's all. I was told by someone that it's recommended.
 
Ask it to play global thermal nuclear warfare. It will unlock all 1024 cores. :)
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Couldn't you do that dev > null terminal command 8 times to max out the CPU?
Click to expand...

You could, but that doesn't guarantee that each one will be pinned to a separate core.

OS X provides no method for CPU affinity. Running a process 8 times is no guarantee that each instance will get its own CPU core for its life ... It probably will, but no guarantees. For example. a scheduled process could start that could temporarily move one of those 8 instances to a core already in use by one of its siblings.

CPU affinity lets you tie a process to a single core for its entire life.

Windows NT (and newer can do it per process), as can Linux (for the past 7 or 8 years or so).

OS X doesn't ... at least anywhere I could find in any if the docs on darwin. Leaving such work up to the kernel CPU scheduler itself. Trust in the kernel, in other words.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Go to the Applications folder, select Chess.app and then press CMD+D, as CMD+D is a Finder keyboard shortcut for "duplicating" files and folders.

Also know, that you can use an avatar now.
Click to expand...

Dually noted and yay! Thanks.
Edit: worked. Fan is blowing like crazy with ridiculous lag and getting increasingly hot. Damn...

----------

Fans are blasting!
AiY25Od.jpg
 
Actually Command + N will open new windows of the chess game without all the work to copy the app over and over again.
 
hansenc said:
Actually Command + N will open new windows of the chess game without all the work to copy the app over and over again.
Click to expand...

I didn't know about that when I made my earlier post (I was at work), but Cmd-N seems to be really flaky; I just did it three times and it only generated one additional game.
 
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