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What does MPV mode does, only shows more lines or is there something else ?
Does a higher MPV mean higher strength ?
Does a higher MPV slow down analysis ?
What is a decent value I should set ?
Engines typically decide on a PV (principal variation) and their calculations are designed to further pursue that variation. If you force an engine to consider multiple principal variations, it will split its computing time to consider lines using the 2nd best, 3rd best moves it has found and so on.
This will naturally cut down on the time given to any one line, reducing the depth of its search.
Whether or not this improves the overall strength of the output is debatable. Some people are convinced that it does. People in this thread seemed to agree that a value of 3 or 4 was reasonable:
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/using-a-chess-engine-efficiently