Linux vs Windows benchmarking

> > > Would you of guessed the Linux client completed in 9.5 hrs vs just
> 5.5
> > for
> > > Windows by relying on the benchmarks? FYI the optimized linux
> client at
> > the
> > > pperry site was used.
> >
> > I haven't been able to do a straight Linux/Windows comparison, as I don't
> have
> > any dual-booting PCs. I wonder if the disparity might account for the
> > possibility that the E@H science application itself isn't optimized?
> Talking
> > about the
> .../projects/einstein.phys.uwm.edu/einstein_4.80_i686-pc-linux-gnu
> > file, not the BOINC client everyone has optimized.
>
> The Einstein team has said that their application for linux isn't optimized.

Correction: we HAVE optimized. But in spite of our best efforts, gcc is not producing code that is efficient as the instruction stream emitted by the Microsoft Windows compiler. I wish it weren't true, but it is.

I hope that within the coming few days we can get back to this and try and find a better compiler or set of gcc flags for our app under Linux. We've done an awful lot of profiling and optimization work already, so we're surprised that the situation is not better. But it's clearly the case that on identical hardware our app runs significantly faster under Windows.

Bruce