Introduction:

Hyperthreaded systems allow their processor cores’ resources to become multiple logical processors for performance. This can be detected from the command line on Windows.

Requirements:

Access the Windows command line.

Procedure:

Hyperthreading is when a physical processor core allows its resources to be allocated as multiple logical processors. A single physical processor will often not use all of its resources (such as its registers) and can allow the unused portions to become available as separate logical processors.

These logical processors can be viewable to an OS such as Windows as separate processors. These logical processors are also available for processes or threads to run on them at the same time in parallel. This helps greatly for performance.

To determine if your Windows system is using hyperthreading, you will be able to with access to the command line. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a management infrastructure that provides access to control over a system. This control provides an API to assist in the system’s management. wmic is a command line interface to WMI.

With the command line open, you can type:

wmic

to enter the interactive wmic interface. Then, you can type:

CPU Get NumberOfCores,NumberOfLogicalProcessors /Format:List

to view the amount of physical and logical processors. The output will be something such as:

NumberOfCores=2
NumberOfLogicalProcessors=2

This shows that hyperthreading is not being used by the system. The amount of (physical) cores will not be the same as the number of logical processors. If the number of logical processors is greater than physical processors (cores), then hyperthreading is enabled.

More Information:

Within wmic, type:

/?

for more information on wmic use and syntax.