Multicore CPU performance improvement

[Prophet]

Ok first let me say I can understand why ED would change this.

 

For those who remember when dual cores were first coming out, LOMAC had a performance issue. You would get this stuttering from the OS or something trying to load balance the CPU cores. Going through the task manager, and the process tab you could find the lockon.exe right click and go to set affinity and only check one core. The problem was that it wouldnt remember that setting.

 

So a lot of used a program called procaff that would. Currently this is not needed since OS patches were released a while ago resolved the underlying issue.

 

With Black Shark ED decided to change the code to start with affinity for only 1 CPU, and I would imagine anticipating the same problem. But as hinted at in another post (I need to find it again so I can give credit), there is a performance increase with affinity set for the other CPU's. Now I confirmed that DCS.exe is still only using up to 50% total CPU on my dual core, so it really makes no sense. But I got screens to prove it.

 

Default 1 core affinity.

 

 

Changed to 2 core affinity.

 

 

Again, 1 core.

 

 

And 2 cores.

 

 

By all means try for yourself. In some cases the improvement is very good. Especially when the SHTF and the FPS gets low anyways, that extra 10 or so can make a real difference.

Edited November 20, 2008 by =Prophet=

[Groove]

Did you rebooted your PC after changing the affinity or did you closed the game, changed the affinity and restarted "just" the game?

[Xjikz]

Don't know if this is the same on Vista, but you just need to make ALT+TAB and open the task manager

Then you find the process and changes its affinity. No need to restart the game or the computer.

[Feuerfalke]

Indeed! Interesting question, Groove!

 

If you just hit play over and over again, there are a lot of other things, that influenced your perfomance. To have the same circumstances, you should also reboot your machine and do the same steps for each start, except from the CPU-Assignment, of course ;)

 

Just an example: Windows increases swap-files when loading stuff into memory and keeps this size even after the game was closed, if not configured explicitly otherwise. If you reload the game, many resources are probably still stored, increasing loading times and as it also doesn't have to increase swap-files much more than before, this won't eat up CPU cycles either. :smilewink:

[CiniKo]

Wow!! another great tips!!.....changing the affinity my frame goes hi!...

 

thx Prophet|

 

-LuKa-

[Acedy]

I gave this a quick try yesterday and I couldn't see any improvement at all, but I will do another more extensive test later.

[Shepski]

I gave this a quick try yesterday and I couldn't see any improvement at all.

 

 

Me either with a E8400. XP SP2

Edited November 20, 2008 by Shepski

[Feuerfalke]

I guess it largely depends on what tasks are running on that core and what OS you use. XP32, for example, is not really built for multi-processor or multi-core usage, especially without the corresponding updates.

[Stalintc]

I will give this a tryout on my QX6700 later and see if it improves things.

 

I will spread it across two cores and then four also to test.

 

I dont have a huge issue with FPS, but just for kicks ;)

[peterj]

Good find!

I get FPS gains of 10-30 fps, from that it seems they optimized the game for multicore systems.

If you look at the CPU usage history there's load on both cores.

[Legolasindar]

I test this before and not take any change. Run same FPS. Other I test Core 1 assign DCS and Core 2 assign TrackIR not change.I run WinXP 32 Pro.

[Lib]

3 FPS more, but nothing else. I'm still waiting for dual core optimization...

[deviletk]

So does this "fix" work better with 64bit OS? In that case im buying that.

 

EDIT: seems the 32bit guys get no or little benefit.

 

Regards

Alex

Edited November 20, 2008 by deviletk

[REL]

Hey Guys 8=)

Can you please specify the type of OS with the resolute of the tests so we can all come to conclusions?

[Cosmo81]

i kid you not, from 29 to 52.

 

holy crap

 

im on vista 32 bit, hold on ill get screens.

 

CPU set to 1

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8085/screenshot043ek8.jpg

 

CPU set to both.

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/2844/screenshot042in2.jpg

 

and its not like its jumping frames, it is steady 20+ more frames, and im not running anything else in the taskmanager.

Edited November 20, 2008 by Cosmo81

[Pilotasso]

If you guys look at tomshardware latest GFX card roundup you can also see the more cores you have, generaly the better SLI and CF perfomance you get. Not a realy big difference but nevertheless intriguing.

 

Theres this multithreaded code optimization in GFX settings options that I never quite understood either.

 

Is it possible that the OS somehow manages 3D data on different CPU's in the background?

[Pilotasso]

So does this "fix" work better with 64bit OS? In that case im buying that.

 

EDIT: seems the 32bit guys get no or little benefit.

 

Regards

Alex

 

 

or a case of win64 slowdown bug for wich there would be no advantage in the swich. ;)

[REL]

i kid you not, from 29 to 52.

 

holy crap

 

im on vista 32 bit, hold on ill get screens.

 

Wow Cosmo81 that is something !

[deviletk]

or a case of win64 slowdown bug for wich there would be no advantage in the swich. ;)

 

LOL! :D

 

Well as it seems some people get a boost of some to 20-ish extra fps it might be a smart thing to change to "that" OS. So vista huh... I guess i install dual boot again then. :)

[Pilotasso]

That would clear the doubts about perfomance on the OS in the same machine.

[Feuerfalke]

I always wondered about the previous devs-statements that BS runs worse on Vista, due to file-handling and whatever reasons were stated.

 

But Vista is optimized for multiple processors/cores, so I'm not surprised there is a noteable boost. Thanks for the info - I guess I will give it a try, too. :thumbup:

[Shaman]

So now ED must change the .exe to go back to the buggy previous stutter related code? ;)

[Amraam]

I can confirm this also.

 

In some cases, changing the affinity to 2 CPUs more than doubled my FPS!

[Groove]

I always wondered about the previous devs-statements that BS runs worse on Vista, due to file-handling and whatever reasons were stated.

 

But Vista is optimized for multiple processors/cores, so I'm not surprised there is a noteable boost. Thanks for the info - I guess I will give it a try, too. :thumbup:

 

What people talk about is the game performance. What ED is talking about is the handling of file handling with extreme big missions - read: big amount of units on the map.

[Bucic]

Beware! :devil_2:

 

It might be the case where this trick isn't actually providing a GAIN but rather getting rid of some sort of a "bug " and bringing back the nominal performance.

 

Remember dxiag - turn off the hardware sound acceleration trick? In some games-soundcard combination it trippled the FPS. It doesn't mean that one can claim "I get 3 times higher FPS than anyone else". He doesn't get the FPS any higher than a person with no game-soundcard combination issue.

 

So, untill I see XP vs Vista (with the trick) comparison I will say it's a bogus.