DCS:BS on XP or Vista?

Belphe · February 12, 2009

Hi,

I was just reading some threads here about multicore CPUs and got a bit confused about the performance on different Operating Systems. Let me start with my basic system specs:

- Athlon64 X2 Dual Core ~2,41 GHz

- Sapphire Radeon X1950XT 256Mb

- ~2Gb 667MHz DDR2 RAM

Now, as you can see it's quite an old machine... :cry: but my DCS:BS runs smooth under Win XP Home 32bit OS on Med-High settings. :joystick:

So:

1. Does the game only use ONE core under WinXP?

2. Does the game use TWO cores under Vista?

3. Since Vista needs more rescources (CPU, RAM, etc.) but allows (?) multicore useage, will Black Shark run better under that OS or will the second core be an unnotable addition and the overall performance will get worse?

Regards

-darek

ruprecht · February 12, 2009

1. Does the game only use ONE core under WinXP? yes
2. Does the game use TWO cores under Vista? the game .exe doesn't strictly, but you can set multi-core affinity in Vista and people generally see some FPS improvement.
3. Since Vista needs more rescources (CPU, RAM, etc.) but allows (?) multicore useage, will Black Shark run better under that OS or will the second core be an unnotable addition and the overall performance will get worse? Difficult to tell. I would say that if you have it running satisfactorily on XP32, stick with it.

hope that helps

Jack57 · February 12, 2009

I certainly notice a marked improvement in performance on my machine on Vista compared to XP - in fact I now have have dual boot so I can boot into Vista just to play BS.

I have 2GB of memory like you and as I type this (having just booted into Vista) it is using 500MB. When I run BS it usually sits at about 1.3GB used memory.

Under Vista I average about 20-25fps (occassionally as low as 8fps) without Affinity, and about 30-35 (occassionally as low as 13) with it.

deviletk · February 12, 2009

And setting affinity to both in XP doesnt work?

I remember hearing my friend saying to me "nope, my both cores are checked in the affinity" when i asked him to check and set it to both. I guess he run BS on XP. I hear from everyone here that BS starts with only 1 core, but that isnt true when you ask him. I just dont know what OS he is on and if there is a difference in number of cores on startup depending on XP or VISTA.

-Nighthawk- · February 12, 2009

And setting affinity to both in XP doesnt work?

I remember hearing my friend saying to me "nope, my both cores are checked in the affinity" when i asked him to check and set it to both. I guess he run BS on XP. I hear from everyone here that BS starts with only 1 core, but that isnt true when you ask him. I just dont know what OS he is on and if there is a difference in number of cores on startup depending on XP or VISTA.

Windows XP cannot assign the affinity as well as Windows Vista does (better multi-core management) so even with both cores enabled on XP there is no performance improvement. It only starts with 1 core on Vista, manually assigning the second core gives you a nice improvement, another advantage that Vista has over XP (yes Vista is superior, the average joe thinks otherwise though...)

EtherealN · February 12, 2009

Another point regarding that BS starts on just one core - you do have to set affinity every time you start a new mission, since the game is actually split in two executables; the menu and the game itself. There was however a nifty tool made by some chap on the forum here that can run in the background in the form of a bash script that can set it for you.

Bisch · February 12, 2009

Hi mangacora!

I have (had) almost the same system.

Same CPU, same ATI but with 512MB and same RAM.

I only had 20-25 FPS max during Ka50 automatic starting process.

Looking around and stuff dropped FPS to around 15 or even lower

All this with lowest settings but high resolution (1650x1050)

(non-native resolutions suck imho)

Now I have a 2x3,1GHZ which gave me a little boost.

But I still can't run it smoothly with medium settings.

It's almost smooth with low settings.

So I wonder which resolution you have. I think you re very well off if you can run it smoothly on your system, especially with slightly higher settings than low if I got you right

(going to replace my 1950 by an 4850 today or tomorrow)

Belphe · February 12, 2009

Thanks All for answers!

Athelophobia - that's strange because I use 1680x1050 as well and REALLY, touch wood (knocking in his forehead) I get 25-30 fps above cities with med-high settings (heat blur, traffic, water on med...) TBH, I don't know why! :) This game SHOULDN'T run that well on my rig but I am gratefull for it! ;)

Cibit · February 12, 2009

Hi I had problems in Vista, at first having problems with memory management and also setting up dual monitors. I reinstalled XP 32bit and although it was easier with the multi monitor setup the game itself played worse in xp 32 bit than Vista 64 bit Ultimate. I have since reinstalled Vista again added service pack 1 and have had no issues since. And the game definately plays better.

I have no affinity app running and use 2gig RAM, E6600 on an Nforce 6 mobo and 8800GTX @1920x1200

Hope this is useful

Edited February 12, 2009 by Cibit
screen resolution

Talon · February 12, 2009

My personal experience and experiments sum up to my suggesting that if you want to run BlackShark with the most amount of FPS possible, that you don't install it under XP. Better to do as most of us do and install Vista in a dual-boot configuration (leaving most all of your sims and games in XP) and boot into Vista (32 or 64bit) for BlackShark setting your affinity using one of the many forms on these forums (just do a search for "affinity") to your dual or quad core processor for a very noticeable in-game fps increase.

On one of my pc's, I even created a triple boot with XP installed first, then Vista x64 bit and then Windows7 Beta. I have Blackshark installed on all 3 OS's and it runs good-fast in XP, runs even better-faster in Vista and in Windows7 it runs the fastest. All of these tested with the same max graphics settings, on the same pc, just different Operating Systems.

For help with dual booting XP and Vista (with XP installed first) or dual booting Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) just google for these terms and you will find plenty of help. When dual booting, use BCDEdit or VistaBootPro (there are still sites offering this 2nd one for free) to edit and customize your dual boot system to boot the way you desire. You can have it so that XP boots 1st by default if no button is pressed or Vista, up to you.

deviletk · February 12, 2009

Thanks for that Talon. I will install Win7 beta on a dual boot then to run BS from. I had Vista dual boot before but never used it. Win7 seems to be the OS that will take over from XP when its done.

Still dont understand why my friends BS always starts with both cores activated though...? Everyone seems to say it starts with 1 and you have to manually set the second core. Dont know why his doesnt need to be manually set. Have to ask him some more questions about this.

connos · February 12, 2009

There is a tool for that and also the game switches to one core after a mission is loaded.

RapidllBlade · February 12, 2009

Can I install Win7 in a dual boot config while still maintaining the integrity of my current XP installation?

EDIT - I have 2 HDD, neither of them currently have a partition.

Thanks

RB

connos · February 12, 2009

Yes in a different partition or hard Disk. There are a lot of how to guides about this available online.

RapidllBlade · February 12, 2009

Thank you.

RB

Bisch · February 12, 2009

Congrats mangaroca!

I envy you and hope there's no need for it anymore when my 4850 comes ;)

RapidllBlade · February 12, 2009

I just installed a new HDD and installed Win7 on it - now my computer does not recognize the other operating system.

On my XP system my system drive is C, optical drive is D, backup HDD is E and I installed the new HDD as F. I installed Win 7 on F Custom Install as per the instructions.

When installation completes it boots straight to Win7. No option for multiboot. When I look at the file system it shows that Win 7 system is on C, my XP system in on D and the optical drive on E - my backup drive is not even recognized.

In manage drives it shows all the drives - I know this isn't a windows support forum but if anyone can provide any ideas. If I uninstall Win7 and try again is my XP going to be intact?

Thanks

RB

connos · February 12, 2009

How you will uninstall? There is not such option. I had the same problem like you but with Vista and i fix it with this tool. It should work fine with 7 also.

http://www.vistabootpro.org/index.php/site/information/dual_boot_windows_7

TheMoose · February 13, 2009

I re installed vista just of the heck of it of trying the new affinity trick to see. The tweak was impressive. But guess what; The Moose is back on Xp.

I have less issues and better performance overall with all other games under Xp.

It’s less a resource hog with CPU and Ram. I’m also noticing that lots of PC game developers seemed to be dropping supporting DX10. COD5 & GTA4 to name a few. Although that’s a shame since I love eye candy… But I guess the vista hype has died down :huh:

I will wait for my new rig before upgrading OS, by then Windows 7 should be out officially. Until then Xp rules for me.:smilewink:

Cheers

RapidllBlade · February 13, 2009

I got mine running in multiboot finally. I am running all other games under XP and Black Shark will be run under Windows 7 (once I get all my drivers dl and installed). Here are some minor tips on what I did for multiboot.

- I installed a third HDD dedicated to Win7 (I have a HDD dedicated to XP and one dedicated to backup files).

- Win7 installed onto the third HDD

- Win7 wouldn't recognize that XP existed and therefore wouldnt give me the option of multiboot so I dl and installed EasyBCD. I ran it as per the instructions and now I have multiboot (I can run XP or Win7 at startup - which ever I chose).

- dl and installed Kaspersky Technical Preview for Microsoft Windows 7

- DO NOT install AVG Free - it is not compatible with Win7 yet. I did, and it installed, but it wouldn't run, so I tried to uninstall and it would not uninstall without going to BSOD EVERY TIME. 4 times of booting in safe mode finally got rid of AVG.

- I am just working on drivers for my Ultra and will update once I get it running.

MOOSE - did you notice a difference with DX10?

RB

RapidllBlade · February 13, 2009

- Newest 8800 Ultra drivers installed

- DX11 installed

- Black Shark installed and running

= Frames with XP were about 25-35 max

= Frames with Win 7 and setting affinity to all cores are no less than 35 ever and I saw 71 frames several times. The only thing I did notice is the occasional stutter that I didn't have with XP but I can live with it.

RB

Sign In

DCS:BS on XP or Vista?

Recommended Posts

Belphe

ruprecht

Jack57

deviletk

-Nighthawk-

EtherealN

Bisch

Belphe

Cibit

Talon

deviletk

connos

RapidllBlade

connos

RapidllBlade

Bisch

RapidllBlade

connos

TheMoose

RapidllBlade

RapidllBlade

Recently Browsing 0 members