Long start times from desktop to main menu

[Simicro]

Hi all,

I'm retuning after a long absence... I'm running of fresh install of DCS. All is fine and I get a some fluid flights... except the loading time at start to get to the home screen knowing that I've set the program to bypass the Launcher.

Start from desktop: 00 sec
Login screen : 40 sec
Nvidia ad creen: 42 sec
DCS splash screen: 42 sec
DCS home screen: 76 sec

My PC: i7-14700KF, 32 Gb DDR5, 1.8 Tb SSD, RTX 4070Ti Super 16 Gb, Windows 11

I attach the log.

I read the forum and already tried:
- Full repair of DCS through the Launcher
- Excluded \Program Files\Eagle Dynamics in my virus scanner settings (Win 11 default anti-virus)
- Excluded \Saved Games\DCS\
- Deleted \Saved Games\DCS\ 
- Preload radius set to 50 000 instead of 150 000 (even if you see 150 000 in the current log)
- Disabled completely antivirus

... to no avail.

dcs.log

Edited Sunday at 02:40 PM by Simicro

[Akula]

Disable hyper threading and try it again. 
 

ED broke hyperthreading support (again) a few updates ago. 

[silverdevil]

7 hours ago, Simicro said:

... to no avail.

also. DCS is arguably much slower when being scanned by AV software. if you are comfortable, you can add exceptions of DCS folders to the AV software.

[Simicro]

1 hour ago, Akula said:

Disable hyper threading and try it again. 
 

ED broke hyperthreading support (again) a few updates ago. 

 

Thanks, much appreciated. I'm not very knowledgeable or confident with the BIOS and I don't want to break something, especially that my other sims run flawlessly. So I will think about it. Do you have other suggestions?

4 minutes ago, silverdevil said:

also. DCS is arguably much slower when being scanned by AV software. if you are comfortable, you can add exceptions of DCS folders to the AV software.

 

 

Sure, as I said I excluded already the main DCS folder as well as Saved games. And I do not use any addon or software related to DCS and triggered by DCS.

[BIGNEWY]

On 8/17/2025 at 4:59 PM, Akula said:

Disable hyper threading and try it again. 
 

ED broke hyperthreading support (again) a few updates ago. 

Sorry but you are incorrect. 

On 8/17/2025 at 11:21 AM, Simicro said:

Hi all,

I'm retuning after a long absence... I'm running of fresh install of DCS. All is fine and I get a some fluid flights... except the loading time at start to get to the home screen knowing that I've set the program to bypass the Launcher.

Start from desktop: 00 sec
Login screen : 40 sec
Nvidia ad creen: 42 sec
DCS splash screen: 42 sec
DCS home screen: 76 sec

My PC: i7-14700KF, 32 Gb DDR5, 1.8 Tb SSD, RTX 4070Ti Super 16 Gb, Windows 11

I attach the log.

I read the forum and already tried:
- Full repair of DCS through the Launcher
- Excluded \Program Files\Eagle Dynamics in my virus scanner settings (Win 11 default anti-virus)
- Excluded \Saved Games\DCS\
- Deleted \Saved Games\DCS\ 
- Preload radius set to 50 000 instead of 150 000 (even if you see 150 000 in the current log)
- Disabled completely antivirus

... to no avail.

dcs.log 85.11 kB · 10 downloads

Thanks for the log, we have a fix coming in the next patch for people experiencing longer load times, it should help. 

[Akula]

8 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

Sorry but you are incorrect. 

I don’t think so….. I currently have hyperthreading disabled again and DCS runs incredibly well. fast load times, preload radius loads very quickly vs seeing a slow transition of water to ground terrain then buildings and so on. 
 

To be fair I will add that I did change my memory clock from 5400 to 5600 using “memory try it” in my BIOS. I suck at manually tweaking my memory so I had to use MSI’s feature. That little adjustment sped up my load times, BUT - if I re-enable hyperthreading it basically kills any hope of flying without some sort of lock up. 
 

I really do think that there is an issue here and I hope ED really does take another look at hyperthread support because it is like night and day when it’s disabled vs enabled. In all my experiences hyperthread enabled ruins the game vs hyperthread disabled fixes every long load and stuttering issue. 

I will do a little research into tweaking my memory manually and see if it’s a memory issue conflicting with the CPU but it doubt it’s a factor since I never had to do anything like this after the update that was released almost a year ago that directly addressed full and hyperthread support. That update was amazing.  Since then it has been touch and go with hyperthread support. one update fixes it and another ruins it and so on. 
Curious to know how others are doing with this. 

[BIGNEWY]

2 minutes ago, Akula said:

I don’t think so….. I currently have hyperthreading disabled again and DCS runs incredibly well. fast load times, preload radius loads very quickly vs seeing a slow transition of water to ground terrain then buildings and so on. 
 

To be fair I will add that I did change my memory clock from 5400 to 5600 using “memory try it” in my BIOS. I suck at manually tweaking my memory so I had to use MSI’s feature. That little adjustment sped up my load times, BUT - if I re-enable hyperthreading it basically kills any hope of flying without some sort of lock up. 
 

I really do think that there is an issue here and I hope ED really does take another look at hyperthread support because it is like night and day when it’s disabled vs enabled. In all my experiences hyperthread enabled ruins the game vs hyperthread disabled fixes every long load and stuttering issue. 

I will do a little research into tweaking my memory manually and see if it’s a memory issue conflicting with the CPU but it doubt it’s a factor since I never had to do anything like this after the update that was released almost a year ago that directly addressed full and hyperthread support. That update was amazing.  Since then it has been touch and go with hyperthread support. one update fixes it and another ruins it and so on. 
Curious to know how others are doing with this. 

Long load time issue has nothing to do with hyperthreading, for sure some CPU's work better without it, especially ones with E cores. 

But disabling hyperthreading on one system may not be correct for another. 

As mentioned we have a fix coming for the long load times. 

thank you 

[71st_Mastiff]

for some reason DCS opens up how many time just to start?

It's A PITA! when starting in VR. up to 3 minutes.

[BIGNEWY]

1 hour ago, 71st_Mastiff said:

for some reason DCS opens up how many time just to start?

It's A PITA! when starting in VR. up to 3 minutes.

Something isnt right there, I would suggest making a new thread with your dcs log and dxdiag 

thanks