Hello everyone, I purchased CMGM11 earlier this year to enjoy learning this great game after a very long time away from chess. I must say it is a very impressive program. I currently have a AMD X2 4400 (2.4ghz) dual core cpu with 2 gigs of memory. I am curious as to how the AI ELO ratings would improve with a stronger CPU in my system to fully utilize the software gaming engine. Not that I am able to win many games at this point against the weaker AI opponents. I Googled the internet looking for information pertaining to the game engine strength performance with dual or quad core cpu's and didn't have any luck finding anything. Does anyone have any specific information pertaining to how the Chessmaster Grandmaster engine improves with better CPU's? Does CPU cache or system memory enhance the engine strength? If anyone has any information or can point me to a link I have missed it would be greatly appreciated!

Yes, the faster the CPU, the better it plays. There was some formula for the older versions, but I don't know if it applies anymore. By doubling processing power the rating increases for about 60-80 points.

Every personality has it's base rating which is different than the rating that is displayed on the screen. The base rating is the rating which a personality would have if the game would run with minimal requirements. Chessmaster's peronality has a base rating of 2724, but the rating displayed is higher, because it's adjusted to your computers speed.

RAM is not that important when concearning engine strength. Concearning chessmaster's personality it's not important at all, because all personalities have fixed hash tables. So it doesn't matter if you have 512MB or 8GB of RAM, it will just use those 32 or 64 MB.

So a cpu and memory upgrade is a waste of money as the game AI will not play any better. Nice to know. Thanks for explaining this ebutaljib.

It will play stronger on faster CPU, but it wont play that much stronger that you would notice it with a naked eye

According to this (40 moves in 4 minutes repeatedly)
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/rating_list_all.html

Chessmaster 11 running on 1 CPU is rated 2761
Chessmaster 11 running on 2 CPU is rated 2809
Chessmaster 11 running on 4 CPU is rated 2855


So about 50 points if you double processor power.



It's the same on longer time controls (40 moves in 40 minutes repeatedly)
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/rating_list_all.html

Chessmaster 11 running on 1 CPU is rated 2771
Chessmaster 11 running on 2 CPU is rated 2825