Shashchess which executable to use

[andro_b]

Pardon a newbie question. Can somebody help me understand which engine executable to choose? There are several. I know they are related to CPU type, but I am no expert on CPU feature sets.

We have:

general-32.exe
general-64.exe
x86-32.exe
x86-64.exe
x86-64-avx2.exe
x86-64-bmi2.exe
x86-64-modern.exe
x86-64-ss3-popcnt.exe
x86-ss41-popcnt.exe
x86-64-sss3.exe

In my case, my machine has: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.41 GHz.

[Graham Banks]

64-bit bmi2 is what I'd use on your maxhine.

[andro_b]

Thank you!

Confusing for a beginner.

[Tibono]

Hi,
Generic selection method:
1) try running each one and eliminate those who crash (most probably because they use instructions that are not part of the instructions set your CPU can handle)
2) benchmark those your CPU can run, and choose the one achieving the highest speed (nodes/s).

Many chess engines include a benchmarking tool, so you can simply run it to check both properties (ability to run & achieved speed).
ShashChess does, so you can run the exe (directly in command mode, without a GUI) --> should display a welcome message such as: "ShashChess 4.0 64 by A. Manzo"
input: bench <enter>
use resulting Total time (search for min) or Nodes/second (search for max) to select the most efficient .exe
Best,
Eric