Playing chess computers

Out of interest. If i were to play a game against Hiarcs or something similar at a set ELO and a time control of 5 secs per move. would it play stronger at that same ELO if i were to play a G90? 

In other words.....do the length of time you give the computer to think affect it's strength dispite not moving the ELO slider?

Many thanks

there must be some geeks out there who know the answer!

I'd like to think I'm only a semi-geek, but I guess others will have to make that call.

I'm not sure what you mean by "play stronger" or "affect its strength". Do you mean that it would play at a higher elo level, or do you mean that it finds better moves? (These are different ideas.) Of course, people also make better moves if given more time to think, at least up to a point.

It might depend on which engine you're talking about (since they probably have different algorithms for dumbing down the engine), but at least with Hiarcs, it definitely finds better moves at the longer time control. (Set up a tournament in Winboard using the time-odds feature, and the Hiarcs engine using the longer time control will wax the other Hiarcs.) Whether the actual elo strength changes with a change in the time control, I can't say.

If you give a low-elo Hiarcs a longer time control, it looks like it continues calculating for the entire time control, although I'm sure it's at a greatly reduced node count.

Of course, the only really accurate way to answer your question would be to play a lot of games against a dumbed-down engine at both time controls and just see what the scores are.