How to get the number of actual cores on the cpu on windows?

Question

I know of the existence of std::thread::hardware_concurrency() but it returns the number of virtual cores. The algorithm this is for works at its best(5-10% better) when its targeting the physical number of cores. How could I get that number in c++ on windows?

The "number of physical cores" is becoming a fuzzy measure. A "virtual" core shares all of its hardware, a "physical core" doesn't share anything. What do you call a pair of cores which share their FPU? To integer code, it looks like two physical cores, to FP code it looks like 2 virtual cores. — MSalters, Mar 06 '15 at 09:57

Usman lqbal · Answer 1 · 2019-05-22T18:35:42.033

If you want to get actual number of cores this may helpful for you.

#include <windows.h>
#include <malloc.h>    
#include <stdio.h>
#include <tchar.h>

typedef BOOL (WINAPI *LPFN_GLPI)(
    PSYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION, 
    PDWORD);


// Helper function to count set bits in the processor mask.
DWORD CountSetBits(ULONG_PTR bitMask)
{
    DWORD LSHIFT = sizeof(ULONG_PTR)*8 - 1;
    DWORD bitSetCount = 0;
    ULONG_PTR bitTest = (ULONG_PTR)1 << LSHIFT;    
    DWORD i;

    for (i = 0; i <= LSHIFT; ++i)
    {
        bitSetCount += ((bitMask & bitTest)?1:0);
        bitTest/=2;
    }

    return bitSetCount;
}

int _cdecl _tmain ()
{
    LPFN_GLPI glpi;
    BOOL done = FALSE;
    PSYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION buffer = NULL;
    PSYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION ptr = NULL;
    DWORD returnLength = 0;
    DWORD logicalProcessorCount = 0;
    DWORD numaNodeCount = 0;
    DWORD processorCoreCount = 0;
    DWORD processorL1CacheCount = 0;
    DWORD processorL2CacheCount = 0;
    DWORD processorL3CacheCount = 0;
    DWORD processorPackageCount = 0;
    DWORD byteOffset = 0;
    PCACHE_DESCRIPTOR Cache;

    glpi = (LPFN_GLPI) GetProcAddress(
                            GetModuleHandle(TEXT("kernel32")),
                            "GetLogicalProcessorInformation");
    if (NULL == glpi) 
    {
        _tprintf(TEXT("\nGetLogicalProcessorInformation is not supported.\n"));
        return (1);
    }

    while (!done)
    {
        DWORD rc = glpi(buffer, &returnLength);

        if (FALSE == rc) 
        {
            if (GetLastError() == ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER) 
            {
                if (buffer) 
                    free(buffer);

                buffer = (PSYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION)malloc(
                        returnLength);

                if (NULL == buffer) 
                {
                    _tprintf(TEXT("\nError: Allocation failure\n"));
                    return (2);
                }
            } 
            else 
            {
                _tprintf(TEXT("\nError %d\n"), GetLastError());
                return (3);
            }
        } 
        else
        {
            done = TRUE;
        }
    }

    ptr = buffer;

    while (byteOffset + sizeof(SYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION) <= returnLength) 
    {
        switch (ptr->Relationship) 
        {
        case RelationNumaNode:
            // Non-NUMA systems report a single record of this type.
            numaNodeCount++;
            break;

        case RelationProcessorCore:
            processorCoreCount++;

            // A hyperthreaded core supplies more than one logical processor.
            logicalProcessorCount += CountSetBits(ptr->ProcessorMask);
            break;

        case RelationCache:
            // Cache data is in ptr->Cache, one CACHE_DESCRIPTOR structure for each cache. 
            Cache = &ptr->Cache;
            if (Cache->Level == 1)
            {
                processorL1CacheCount++;
            }
            else if (Cache->Level == 2)
            {
                processorL2CacheCount++;
            }
            else if (Cache->Level == 3)
            {
                processorL3CacheCount++;
            }
            break;

        case RelationProcessorPackage:
            // Logical processors share a physical package.
            processorPackageCount++;
            break;

        default:
            _tprintf(TEXT("\nError: Unsupported LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_RELATIONSHIP value.\n"));
            break;
        }
        byteOffset += sizeof(SYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION);
        ptr++;
    }

    _tprintf(TEXT("\nGetLogicalProcessorInformation results:\n"));
    _tprintf(TEXT("Number of NUMA nodes: %d\n"), 
             numaNodeCount);
    _tprintf(TEXT("Number of physical processor packages: %d\n"), 
             processorPackageCount);
    _tprintf(TEXT("Number of processor cores: %d\n"), 
             processorCoreCount);
    _tprintf(TEXT("Number of logical processors: %d\n"), 
             logicalProcessorCount);
    _tprintf(TEXT("Number of processor L1/L2/L3 caches: %d/%d/%d\n"), 
             processorL1CacheCount,
             processorL2CacheCount,
             processorL3CacheCount);

    free(buffer);

    return 0;
}

Reference https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms683194(v=vs.85).aspx

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 06 '15 at 07:26

2

The function referenced at this MSDN page is your friend here. The example on that page prints out the number of processor cores and the number of logical processor cores.

answered Mar 06 '15 at 07:26

bazza

7,580
15
22

How to get the number of actual cores on the cpu on windows?

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