xp32 vs vista64 - black shark

[fred99]

Test rig:

2.4ghz quadcore CPU

4GB 666mhz ram

500GB sata hdd

EVGA 780i sli motherboard

ASUS 8800 GTS 512mb video card

Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS platinum pro

TrackIR 4 Pro

X52 Pro

 

I have done some tests between those two operating systems to see if there are real improvements on the multiple cores aspect of windows vista and the answer is no, at least for me. It is even worse in vista 64, sometimes I lose roughly 10 fps in some areas.

 

I didn't take any screenshots but I still have both systems installed if anyone have questions.

 

Don't waste your time installing vista!

 

-fred

[GunnDawg]

Test rig:

2.4ghz quadcore CPU

4GB 666mhz ram

500GB sata hdd

EVGA 780i sli motherboard

ASUS 8800 GTS 512mb video card

Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS platinum pro

TrackIR 4 Pro

X52 Pro

 

I have done some tests between those two operating systems to see if there are real improvements on the multiple cores aspect of windows vista and the answer is no, at least for me. It is even worse in vista 64, sometimes I lose roughly 10 fps in some areas.

 

I didn't take any screenshots but I still have both systems installed if anyone have questions.

 

Don't waste your time installing vista!

 

-fred

 

Um Vista isnt just an OS for "DCS Black Shark"

[Highwayman-Ed]

That might be fair to say for this one title, but who here just runs one game / simulation / program.

 

I've been running 64 bit Vista for over a year now and other than the initial teething problems obtaining drivers, I've been one of the lucky ones. Other than occasional Nvidia GPU driver issues (ASUS 1GB 7950 GX2), I've never had any problems with it.

 

Since I jumped the Nvidia ship and went back to ATI (Powercolor 1GB 4870) I'm even happier. I've had no issues at all since swapping and my performance has sky rocketed.

 

Intel X6800EE Core 2 2.96GHz

2GB Kingston DDR667

2 x 250GB Maxtor SATA II drives

ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe (yeah I know this is an Nvidia SLI board)

Powercolor 1GB Radeon 4870

Creative X-Fi

Track IR 4 Pro

Saitek X52, Pro-flight Pedals & URZE's collective mod (Saitek Pro Gamer unit)

 

Windows Vista 64Bit Ultimate

Edited December 23, 2008 by Highwayman-Ed

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

I am new to Vista, (Home premium 64 bit) I've just installed it few days ago. I can definately see some fps improvement with manual afinity setting. Interestingly enough, from what I figured, this only works with BS in full screen mode. But it works.

[GunnDawg]

how do you manually do this "afinity" thing ?

[forlorn]

For a modern hardware PC Vista is much better. I can run multicore systems much better and make sure you have enough RAM. 2 GB is too few for 64bit though, have at least 4 GB for 64bit.

[Talon]

For those of you missing the "point" of using Vista with Blackshark, read the entire forum thread here

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=35091

 

and here:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=33715

 

In short: Using Blackshark with Vista (32 or 64 bit) yields approx 10 to 20 fps more consistantly over the same system on XP. But to see the results you must do the affinity trick and do it correctly ( ie. not on the launcher.exe and activate each time or use the affinity tweaks mentioned here and in other threads so that the multi-core affinity tweak auto starts for you.)

Up to you if you want to use XP or Vista, but just know that you will get more FPS on Vista with a multicore system, over XP.

I am currently running Blackshark on a dual boot system, running XP Pro and Vista x64, and I am consistantly getting approx 18-20 fps more in my Vista boot-up than I do when I boot into XP and run Blackshark.

Edited December 23, 2008 by Talon

[Cloudman]

Vista ultimate 64bit here. The trick to run vista 64bit, is lots of ram, 4gb seems the sweet spot. I dual boot xp pro and vista. They both have their pluses and minuses, but to say don't run vista it is kinda harsh. I think you will find that most gamers who run 64bit vista with 4 gig of ram have very few, if any issues.

Edited December 23, 2008 by Cloudman

[Chillspider]

I dont understand the affinity thing everyone i know both cores are always selected even if they only use 1 core. core 0 and core 1 are always selected so i dont see what people are referring to do . Everyone i talked to both cores are always checked. I mean i do change it to 1 core for the progs im running in the backround and keep launcher.exe on both. But i see people saying to set it to both and as far as i can see its automatically on both unless you change it.

[Talon]

Chillspider, you are probably looking at the wrong executeable. The only thing that automatically uses both cores is the "launcher.exe" I believe. Look for the DCS.exe and check again. The DCS.exe is your Blackshark running executeable.

Also, if you run XP, setting the affinity to use both cores in XP results in no FPS benefits. But do the same thing in Vista and you will be pleasantly pleased with your fps increase.

Again, make sure it is the DCS.exe that you are setting. The launcher.exe is just to launch the Graphic User Interface. The DCS.exe will only "pop-up" after the game actually starts, so to see it you will need to "alt-tab" out of the game and check your processor affinity for it.

Also, I recommend doing the following in Vista,

-Set the affinity to auto start with Blackshark's DCS.exe (a few methods to do this on the links here)

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=35091

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=33715

 

-right click the DCS.exe in your Eagle Dynamics/KA-50/bin/ folder, go to properties, click on the compatibility tab, check the box to run as administrator and also check the box to "disable desktop composition". This will automatically turn off all the eye-candy theme of Vista when you start the game, but it will come back on when you exit the game, automatically.

-before clicking on the blackshark icon to start the game, right click on the sidebar and turn it off. You can always turn it back on after your done flying in Blackshark.

These thing may help some of you that may have some resource issues and help your system run a bit quicker when gaming in Vista.

 

I personally do all of these, even with a very strong system, as well as turn off any background process's by optimizing Windows Vista ( Should be done for XP as well to get the maximum from your system). Many sites on the net, Some googled here

Google Links

Edited December 23, 2008 by Talon

[fred99]

For those of you missing the "point" of using Vista with Blackshark, read the entire forum thread here

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=35091

 

and here:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=33715

 

In short: Using Blackshark with Vista (32 or 64 bit) yields approx 10 to 20 fps more consistantly over the same system on XP. But to see the results you must do the affinity trick and do it correctly ( ie. not on the launcher.exe and activate each time or use the affinity tweaks mentioned here and in other threads so that the multi-core affinity tweak auto starts for you.)

Up to you if you want to use XP or Vista, but just know that you will get more FPS on Vista with a multicore system, over XP.

I am currently running Blackshark on a dual boot system, running XP Pro and Vista x64, and I am consistantly getting approx 18-20 fps more in my Vista boot-up than I do when I boot into XP and run Blackshark.

 

I don't know but I have done the affinity trick, on DCS.exe and as I said there are no difference and it is sometimes even worse.

 

This might be because I am not running FULLSCREEN ? I will try the game with fullscreen enabled on both OS and I will post the result.

 

-fred

[Talon]

Do let us know if it is a fullscreen thing. I always run my sims full screen so I honestly have not tried anything in a window.

[fred99]

Do let us know if it is a fullscreen thing. I always run my sims full screen so I honestly have not tried anything in a window.

 

I will try it in a few minutes. I was running in a 1680x1050 window, which is basically fullscreen on my monitor. The reasons for this are because I need to manually set the affinity and I also have to restart Saitek DirectOutput service, alt-tabbing each time was getting annoying.

 

-fred

Edited December 23, 2008 by fred99
typo

[Mxyzpylk]

Test rig:

2.4ghz quadcore CPU

4GB 666mhz ram

500GB sata hdd

EVGA 780i sli motherboard

ASUS 8800 GTS 512mb video card

Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS platinum pro

TrackIR 4 Pro

X52 Pro

 

I have done some tests between those two operating systems to see if there are real improvements on the multiple cores aspect of windows vista and the answer is no, at least for me. It is even worse in vista 64, sometimes I lose roughly 10 fps in some areas.

 

I didn't take any screenshots but I still have both systems installed if anyone have questions.

 

Don't waste your time installing vista!

 

-fred

 

Have to disagree as will a lot of people here also. Vista is much better then XP at running BS. Just in the affinity setting alone you can increase FPS about 25 - 30%. I have a dual boot system and I tested it on both XP x32 and Vista Ultimate x64. Vista wins hands down.

 

Don't know why you're not seeing any increase using Vista x64.

 

So go ahead and install Vista x64. Don't be afraid.

[Mxyzpylk]

I don't know but I have done the affinity trick, on DCS.exe and as I said there are no difference and it is sometimes even worse.

 

This might be because I am not running FULLSCREEN ? I will try the game with fullscreen enabled on both OS and I will post the result.

 

-fred

 

I'm not running full screen either and I see an increase of at least 10FPS in Vista x64 using the affinity trick.

[fred99]

It looks like having the game running in fullscreen DOES increase the FPS now. Attached are the screenshots for XP.

[fred99]

Screenshots from Vista64:

[fred99]

Another vista screenshot

[Talon]

Excellent, glad to see you are noticing improvement.

You may also want to try some of the optimizing tips/tricks I suggested in a previous post here as well as check those links I posted for a few automatic methods of activating the multi-core affinity for BlackShark.

[ericinexile]

I see a BIG improvement with Vista 64 Ultimate. 15 FPS + improvement and far less stutters.

 

Smokin' Hole

[Chillspider]

When i launch BS i only get launcher.exe i do not have a process called Blackshark.exe or DCS.exe. And im on Vista 32. Nevermind i found DCS.exe and as said before Vista has everything set on 2 cores by default every time on mine and everyone i know who has vista.

Edited December 24, 2008 by Chillspider

[Acedy]

The GUI and the game engine are separate processes. The GUI is launcer.exe, DCS.exe only appears after starting a mission.

[Purg]

When i launch BS i only get launcher.exe i do not have a process called Blackshark.exe or DCS.exe. And im on Vista 32. Nevermind i found DCS.exe and as said before Vista has everything set on 2 cores by default every time on mine and everyone i know who has vista.

 

Mine occassionally does as well, however, if you check the CPU utilisation it will show that only core 0 is being utilised if you touch nothing.

 

I use Affinity II and even though it may show all 4 of my cores selected, if I hit apply with all 4 cores, the CPU shuffles its processes and I get ~10-15fps increase instantly.

[Prophet]

When i launch BS i only get launcher.exe i do not have a process called Blackshark.exe or DCS.exe. And im on Vista 32. Nevermind i found DCS.exe and as said before Vista has everything set on 2 cores by default every time on mine and everyone i know who has vista.

 

No it doesn't. Read the threads, its been discussed a million times. Wait until you are in the pit and then check.

 

Unless you have done something different, this has already been proven multiple times.

 

We wouldnt have gone through all of this effort if it was already that way by default.