CAS timings

[Nutmeg]

So I always kind of wondered what they actually mean. I read the wiki article on it, but

*woosh*
head

So yeah, are lower numbers better or higher ones?

[Flying Fox]

Ever since this it has been shown it does not make a discernable (other than benchmarks) difference. But lower is better. Plus on Intel platforms this matters even less.

[flip-mode]

In super duper dumb terms, CAS latency numbers indicate the time it takes to do something, so:

5 units of time is more than 4 units of time so 4 is faster (less time) than 5.

But that's hugely simplified because there are a bunch of factors involved.


As Flying Fox said, CAS timings are not worth messing with unless your some Liq-Nitro freak hell bent on beating someone else's benchmark score even if by only 1/100th of a percent. Sometimes those timings can have 1-3% impact and in rare instances the impact can be higher but those are rare and very specific instances.