CPU Threads

[Anshu sharma]

What do you mean by threads in a CPU, for example I have a Intel i7 10710U processor with 6 core and 12 threads, I understand core what is threads?

 

[Average Nerd]

A thread is a logical core.

Usually, a physical core is split into 2 logical cores, essentially making your 6-core processor a 12-core processor. The performance of a thread is obviously lower than the performance of a physical core, but this is often outweighed by the quite big boost in multicore performance.

 

On many modern Intel CPUs you will find that the cores are divided into P-cores (Performance-cores) and E-cores (Efficiency cores) (For example, my i5 12500H has 12 Cores and 16 Threads, meaning that it has 4 P-cores and 8 E-cores). The difference between the two is, that E-cores only run a single thread, while P-cores run 2 threads.

AMD CPUs don't use this technology, they are either all mutithreaded, or none multithreaded (though the latter is not very common on modern devices with decent specifications).

 

[okkee]

24 minutes ago, Anshu sharma said:

What do you mean by threads in a CPU, for example I have a Intel i7 10710U processor with 6 core and 12 threads, I understand core what is threads?

 

just an appendix https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/resources/hyper-threading.html

[Godlygamer23]

22 minutes ago, Average Nerd said:

A thread is a logical core.

Usually, a physical core is split into 2 logical cores, essentially making your 6-core processor a 12-core processor. The performance of a thread is obviously lower than the performance of a physical core, but this is often outweighed by the quite big boost in multicore performance.

It's not really making it a 12-core processor. Nothing is physically changing within the CPU, except for what I believe are additional registers being used, although this might be dependent on the design of the architecture.

 

Even without SMT as it's being presented through one core having two logical cores...each physical core would still be presented with a logical core within Windows.

That is...with Hyper-threading vs AMD's implementation, your ratio with your physical core count vs logical core count is 1:2, although nothing is stopping cores from having more logical cores, although the benefit of that might be dubious.

 

Essentially, adding a logical core allows the physical core to do additional work while it's waiting for something else, like data coming in. It's another 'compute unit' that the operating system can schedule a task on. This also has the effect of increasing power draw, as the CPU is now spending more time doing work. 

 

Overall, if you have an application that properly supports multiple threads, creating additional logical cores within a physical core can add 30ish percent extra performance, which is significant, but only if the application supports it, and the application itself has components that can be processed in parallel.