Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 11:01:43 09/18/98
Go up one level in this thread
On September 17, 1998 at 21:32:58, Serge Desmarais wrote: > You seem to give too much importance to the engine difference... I think it >was said that Fritz on a K6 200MMX (as opposed to a P II 200MMX) was about >25-30% slower MAXIMUM. But to reach a depth of ONE ply deeper in the same time, >one computer has to be between 500 to 600% faster! This is an old argument that I do not agree with. The false premise is that in order to get stronger you have to search another ply. Imagine it this way instead. Rather than saying, 25% is useless because it doesn't give you an extra ply, consider thatn with a 25% increase in nodes per second, a shot that takes you a minute to find before will now only take 80% of this time to find, which is 48 seconds. I would gladly suffer a lot in order to find a 60-second shot in 48 seconds. I think that what I have said is enough, but I think that I can continue and find another flaw. If it is fair to give one side a 25% disadvantage, it should be fair to give a 25% advantage instead. Since either of these is fair, perhaps you could randomly pick between these alternatives with no concern. Choice one is to let you go 80K nps while your opponent goes 100K nps, which means you are 25% slower. Choice two is to go 125K nps while your opponent goes 100K nps, so you are 25% faster. If you think for me to go 25% slower is fair, then you should have no problem with my going 25% faster. But the difference from my point of view is 56%. Whatever Newborn says, I will win more games if I go 56% faster than I otherwise would. Both of the extremes cannot be "fair" at the same time, given your lower bound of 25%. You can't just look at the deviation from equal hardware, you have to consider what would happen if the hardware were swapped, in order to really see it from your opponent's point of view. bruce
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