Arena Question

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Bittrsweet

Jan 19, 2015

Is there a way to change the number of cores used in arena WHILE the engine is running? I'd like to be able to do other things on my computer AND still have the engine running, but I also want to be able to bump the engine up to full when i'm not using it. Anyone know?

notmtwain

Jan 20, 2015

Q: Sometimes when Houdini runs my computer appears to be frozen and goes very slow. What can I do to improve the responsiveness of my computer while the engine runs?

There are several ways to keep your computer more responsive while Houdini is thinking:

•	Run the engine at “Lower than normal” priority. Most chess GUI will provide this option, for example:

- Arena has a "Lower than normal process priority" checkbox in the Engine Management Options.

- Shredder GUI will automatically run engines at lower priority.

- Fritz/ChessBase has a "Priority Below Normal" checkbox in the dialog for creating the UCI engine.

•

If you want to use your computer for other purposes while analyzing chess positions, set the "Threads" configuration option to a value smaller than the the number of physical cores of your computer - for example, use 3 on a quad-core computer. This will leave one core available for other applications while the chess analysis runs in the background.

from: http://www.cruxis.com/chess/manual/index.html?cores_and_threads_management.htm Although the FAQ relates to Houdini, the same settings are available in Arena. In particular, setting the priority to "Lower than normal" would appear to be a way to let you use your computer for other things when necessary but revert to chess processing when you are through.

Bittrsweet

Jan 23, 2015

Hmm cool idea, but after trying this 'lower than normal' setting, I find that it only permanently reduces my computer to using one core (I have a dual core computer), and doesn't go back up when i'm not doing anything.