WPrime is a computer program that calculates a set number of square roots using Newton's method for estimating functions verifying the results by squaring them then comparing them with the original numbers.[1]

Significance

WPrime is popular in the overclocking community for testing the performance and stability of computer processors, as Super PI is single-threaded. Its popularity stemmed from being able to utilize 100% of a multi-core processor's computing time enabling its use as a multi-threaded benchmark application in competitions,[2] computing reviews,[3] and marketing campaigns.[4]

Criticism

The use of Newton's method for testing stability is inherently unreliable due to the self-correcting nature of the algorithm with subsequent iterations correcting any potential errors. WPrime would theoretically only detect instability from several consecutive errors. Additionally some have argued that the multi-threading algorithm used is not indicative of real world performance[5] though much of this was due to poor implementations of multi-threading in consumer applications the early days of multi-core processors.

References

  1. ↑ Ben-Mayor, Ben (2015-05-05). "Test your Processor Performance with wPrime". Major Geeks. Retrieved 2015-10-05.
  2. ↑ "GIGABYTE Announces Core Prime Overclocking Contest on HWBOT". gigabyte.com.au. Retrieved 2015-10-05.
  3. ↑ Lvcoyote (2014-06-12). "Intel i7 4790K Devil's Canyon CPU Review". Overclockers. Retrieved 2015-10-05.
  4. ↑ "iCafe Increases Revenue with Improved Uptime, Performance, and Reliability with Intel® Xeon® Processor-Based Server" (PDF). Intel Communities. Intel. 2008.
  5. ↑ "About wPrime". wprime.net. Retrieved 2015-10-05.
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