Removing the DCS process from core zero seems to reduce stutters (MT).

[average_pilot]

I was hesitant to post this because I haven't done any kind of performance tests to validate my subjective impression, but I think the easiest way to test it is more people trying it.

So, as the title says, now I'm changing the affinity of DCS routinely every time I launch it to uncheck the core 0.

It may important to note that I'm still using Windows 10.

[Rene Coulon]

I hope it makes a difference...but as another chap wrote a few days ago...for users to have to fiddle like this is NOT GOOD. this type of performance issue should be ironed out Way before a Beta release.

[Rudel_chw]

8 minutes ago, Rene Coulon said:

this type of performance issue should be ironed out Way before a Beta release.

then what’s the point of a beta release?

[average_pilot]

Yes, eventually, if it really works and the reason why is understood. So far I'm just presenting my anecdotal experience in the hopes it is something worth looking at that may help improve DCS. And if not, well, at least I tried.

[speed-of-heat]

Avoiding Core 0 is pretty good practice as windows tends to run a bunch of stuff on zero

 

The scheduler should account for this … but multicore is hard

[Hiob]

1 minute ago, speed-of-heat said:

Avoiding Core 0 is pretty good practice as windows tends to run a bunch of stuff on zero

 

The scheduler should account for this … but multicore is hard

Unfortunately ED takes a lot of heat for problems that are actually caused by the oddities of windows. The scheduler is just one of the many problems of windows. That isn't to say there are no problems with the DCS code as well - but sometimes I feel sorry for them, having relentlessly figure out how to deal with windows. 

[average_pilot]

24 minutes ago, Hiob said:

Unfortunately ED takes a lot of heat for problems that are actually caused by the oddities of windows. The scheduler is just one of the many problems of windows. That isn't to say there are no problems with the DCS code as well - but sometimes I feel sorry for them, having relentlessly figure out how to deal with windows. 

Multi-thread is indeed hard. I'm still in awe how smoothly the switch to MT went. I'm using MT since the initial release.

[Hiob]

55 minutes ago, average_pilot said:

Multi-thread is indeed hard. I'm still in awe how smoothly the switch to MT went. I'm using MT since the initial release.

Me too, and currently it runs very smooth. I had problems in between though. Probably caused either by the the scheduler or the power service. Unfortunatly I wasn't very scientific in my approach to solve the issue and can't pinpoint the exact solution to the problem. 

Edit: One thing I did - not even with Lasso or some other tool, simply byusing the task-manager - I unchecked all cores on the second ccd (Ryzen) so that DCS runs completely on one ccd (six cores in my case). I didn't even bother to uncheck core 0 at this point.

From cross reading all the related stuff here in the forum, I have the impression that changing "something" with the cores/the scheduler already seem to relieve the problem in some cases. As if windows needed a firm pat on the back skull to get its stuff together.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Hiob

[BIGNEWY]

1 hour ago, average_pilot said:

I was hesitant to post this because I haven't done any kind of performance tests to validate my subjective impression, but I think the easiest way to test it is more people trying it.

So, as the title says, now I'm changing the affinity of DCS routinely every time I launch it to uncheck the core 0.

It may important to note that I'm still using Windows 10.

Can you let us know your system spec also, and thanks for the feedback

[average_pilot]

3 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

Can you let us know your system spec also, and thanks for the feedback

Gigabyte Z390 UD

Intel i7 9700k

RAM 32 GB

Nvidia RTX3080 (driver 536.40)

Edited December 21, 2023 by average_pilot
Damm! RTX not GTX

[The_Nephilim]

15 hours ago, average_pilot said:

I was hesitant to post this because I haven't done any kind of performance tests to validate my subjective impression, but I think the easiest way to test it is more people trying it.

So, as the title says, now I'm changing the affinity of DCS routinely every time I launch it to uncheck the core 0.

It may important to note that I'm still using Windows 10.

You should try Process Lasso, it does this once you set it up. I use it and the basics of it is to put all the active processes on cores 0-3 and then DCS on the rest..

[packer_edge]

Glad I found this thread.  I've spent hours trying to solve my stuttering problem, which at times made the game completely unplayable.   Unchecking core 0 has 100% changed my DCS experience for the better! 

[British_Dragon_14]

I started to put DCS on all my P-Cores 1-8/ 0-7 and everything else outside of DCS on the E-Cores on my 14900K, but I recently tried changing the affinity to use all cores on DCS and it looks like it is using the E-Cores but at approximately 10 to 20%, as well as some P-Cores obviously.

I'm yet to try all cores in VR again. I would like to know if MT has been further refined? As it seems to behave better now, on all cores in 2D, Hyper-Threading off.

[speed-of-heat]

I have for the last few release just let dcs do its thing, but I still force much my other background apps to ecores

[AJaromir]

I don't know if it belongs in this discussion. But no matter what I do, I always have to disable core parking in Windows 11 Home by manually editing the registry, otherwise I experience severe stuttering. Once I disable core parking, the problem is almost over. But still, sometimes it happens that the game just doesn't have a stable FPS even in the main menu, which fortunately is always fixed after a game restart. I don't know what to do anymore so I don't have to manually reconfigure the system. I've tried things like in windows settings to put DCS.Exe in the list of applications to be run in high performance mode, but that didn't help either. I'm getting a little desperate.

OS Windows 11 24H2

MB: ASUS ROG STRIX Z790H Gaming WIFI

CPU: Core I9 - 13900KF

RAM: 64GB G.Skill DDR5 Ripjaws S5 5600MHz CL28 Dual Channel Kit 2x 32GB

GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4090 VENTUS 3X E 24G OC

SSD: Samsung 990 PRO 2TB and Samsung 980 Pro 1TB

If you want, I can post you my whole BIOS settings, list of all drivers and ultilities installed, whatever you want.

Edited December 29, 2024 by AJaromir

[Aluminum Donkey]

On 12/21/2023 at 7:41 AM, average_pilot said:

Multi-thread is indeed hard. I'm still in awe how smoothly the switch to MT went. I'm using MT since the initial release.

No kidding. I found the transition to MT gave nothing but benefits. It is incredibly well-done for an Open Beta, actually I find that out of the games I like DCS is the only one that runs worth a damn. Very well-done software considering the absolutely insane complexity of it.

Stuttering and nonsense is much more likely to be a Windows problem than anything to do with DCS itself.

AD

On 12/27/2024 at 4:00 AM, speed-of-heat said:

I have for the last few release just let dcs do its thing, but I still force much my other background apps to ecores

Yeah, I messed around with Process Lasso a lot and it doesn't make much difference on my 8-core system (Ryzen 7 5800X.) I found the only thing that made a worthwhile difference was to use MSI Utility to set the graphics card to High priority interrupt, and then set everything else below that as either Normal or Undefined interrupt priority. After that, I set Windows to Ultimate Performance Plan and that's it.

Smoothed everything out nicely and gives better framerates to boot!

AD

[speed-of-heat]

On 12/29/2024 at 3:03 PM, AJaromir said:

I don't know if it belongs in this discussion. But no matter what I do, I always have to disable core parking in Windows 11 Home by manually editing the registry, otherwise I experience severe stuttering. Once I disable core parking, the problem is almost over. But still, sometimes it happens that the game just doesn't have a stable FPS even in the main menu, which fortunately is always fixed after a game restart. I don't know what to do anymore so I don't have to manually reconfigure the system. I've tried things like in windows settings to put DCS.Exe in the list of applications to be run in high performance mode, but that didn't help either. I'm getting a little desperate.

OS Windows 11 24H2

MB: ASUS ROG STRIX Z790H Gaming WIFI

CPU: Core I9 - 13900KF

RAM: 64GB G.Skill DDR5 Ripjaws S5 5600MHz CL28 Dual Channel Kit 2x 32GB

GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4090 VENTUS 3X E 24G OC

SSD: Samsung 990 PRO 2TB and Samsung 980 Pro 1TB

If you want, I can post you my whole BIOS settings, list of all drivers and ultilities installed, whatever you want.

try using this ParkControl – Tweak CPU Core Parking and More 1) it's free  2) it seems to work every time. the setting you showed has nothing to do with core parking, it wont hurt but it wont help that (it just makes sure you are using the right graphics card) 

also make sure you have your power plan set to ultimate or at the very least high performance 

[AJaromir]

14 hours ago, speed-of-heat said:

try using this ParkControl – Tweak CPU Core Parking and More 1) it's free  2) it seems to work every time. the setting you showed has nothing to do with core parking, it wont hurt but it wont help that (it just makes sure you are using the right graphics card) 

also make sure you have your power plan set to ultimate or at the very least high performance 

No. I will not use 3rd party software for something that I can control via built-in windows tools.

Here in the video you can see that the number of game instability issues decreases with high load. Here I've set the resolution to an absurdly high level using Nvidia DSR. And it runs damn well.

 

[speed-of-heat]

11 hours ago, AJaromir said:

No. I will not use 3rd party software for something that I can control via built-in windows tools.

If you could do it clearly, you aren’t …

Edited January 5 by speed-of-heat

[exhausted]

15 hours ago, speed-of-heat said:

If you could do it clearly, you aren’t …

If he needs help using the tools he has in Windows then you should try to help, otherwise trying a hard sale on tools he doesn't want is not going to persuade him.