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Black Shark stuttering even worse running from RAMdisk!


doveman

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As I've got 16GB, I installed RAMdisk Enterprise http://ramdisk.tekcities.com/RAMDisk/ramdiskent.htm

and created a 10GB RAMdisk, copied the DCS World folder to it and updated the shortcuts and registry to point to the RAMdisk (S:\Games\DCS World).

 

I'm not sure if it loads any quicker, maybe a bit but the stuttering/freezing is even worse, which doesn't seem to make much sense. In Cold Start in Mozdok, if I rotate the view at the start in the cockpit by holding down Num4, it sticks at one point (the point varies) every one or two rotations and when flying along it keeps freezing constantly.

 

I thought when running from HDD this was being caused by not being able to stream the data from the HDD quickly enough but this shouldn't be an issue with the data on the RAMdrive. I've still got about 3GB free even with the 10GB RAMdrive and Black Shark loaded, so it's hasn't run out of RAM.

 

This is what my RAmdisk Enterprise settings are:

ramdiskenterprise.png

 

On the Image File Processing sub-page, I've just pointed it to F:\DCSW.img, clicked Save RamDisk content and ticked Load RAMdisk content from Image at Driver Start.

 

With my browser open, which does have 34 tabs open at the moment, there seems to be a lot more HDD activity than before I installed the RAMdisk, even though I've still got 3GB free so it shouldn't be needing to use the swapfile any more than before.

Main rig: i5-4670k @4.4Ghz, Asus Z97-A, Scythe Kotetsu HSF, 32GB Kingston Savage 2400Mhz DDR3, 1070ti, Win 10 x64, Samsung Evo 256GB SSD (OS & Data), OCZ 480GB SSD (Games), WD 2TB and WD 3TB HDDs, 1920x1200 Dell U2412M, 1920x1080 Dell P2314T touchscreen

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Can you change the file system from "FAT32" to "NTFS"?

This was a Boutique Builder iBuypower rig. Until I got the tinker bug again i7 920 @3.6Mhz 12Gig Corsair XMS3 ram 1600 Nvidia 760 SLi w/4Gig DDR5 Ram Intel 310 SSD HDD 160 Gb + Western Digital 4Terabyte HDD Creative SB X-Fi HD Audio Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Speaker System Dual Acer 32"Monitors. PSU 1200 w Thermaltake Win10 64Bit.

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Can you change the file system from "FAT32" to "NTFS"?

 

Yeah, I'll give that a go.

Main rig: i5-4670k @4.4Ghz, Asus Z97-A, Scythe Kotetsu HSF, 32GB Kingston Savage 2400Mhz DDR3, 1070ti, Win 10 x64, Samsung Evo 256GB SSD (OS & Data), OCZ 480GB SSD (Games), WD 2TB and WD 3TB HDDs, 1920x1200 Dell U2412M, 1920x1080 Dell P2314T touchscreen

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I got fed up with RAMdisk Enterprise as there's no easy way to save/load RAMdisk images or stop/start the RAMdisk, so I'm looking for an alternative to try.

 

DataRAM RAMdisk only allows a 4GB RAMdisk and I haven't had any luck with SoftPerfect RAMdisk so far (errors out copying files to it in NTFS and BSOD when mounting an image, seems that it's trying to use part of the RAM that it shouldn't be). I tried Gavotte_RAMDisk_1.0.4096.5_200811130 but couldn't get that to work (error code 19 in Device Manager I think) so does anyone know of another free alternative that is suitable (or how to get Gavotte working under W7 x64)?

Main rig: i5-4670k @4.4Ghz, Asus Z97-A, Scythe Kotetsu HSF, 32GB Kingston Savage 2400Mhz DDR3, 1070ti, Win 10 x64, Samsung Evo 256GB SSD (OS & Data), OCZ 480GB SSD (Games), WD 2TB and WD 3TB HDDs, 1920x1200 Dell U2412M, 1920x1080 Dell P2314T touchscreen

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OK, I tried IMdisk and that was much better but then I tried DCSW from the HDD again and it was much the same so it seems the latest update can take the credit and it no longer sticks when looking left or right at the start of Cold Start in Mozdok. I think the stutters when flying are probably less as well but they still occur too often and at the most inconvenient moments, like when I'm in the middle of a tight turn not very high off the ground, when I need to be in complete control and not having the game freeze on me momentarily.

 

With both the RAMdisk and HDD, I still got much the same amount of stutters, although less than before, so obviously they aren't being caused by the HDD being unable to stream the data fast enough. I've benched the IMDisk and the HDD with Crystal DiskMark and the screenshots below show how much faster the IMDisk is than the HDD and if it still stutters running from that, a SSD (which is much slower than a RAMdisk) isn't going to help.

 

imdisk10gbntfscdm.png

 

samsung2tbntfscdm.png

Main rig: i5-4670k @4.4Ghz, Asus Z97-A, Scythe Kotetsu HSF, 32GB Kingston Savage 2400Mhz DDR3, 1070ti, Win 10 x64, Samsung Evo 256GB SSD (OS & Data), OCZ 480GB SSD (Games), WD 2TB and WD 3TB HDDs, 1920x1200 Dell U2412M, 1920x1080 Dell P2314T touchscreen

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I think the stutters when flying are probably less as well but they still occur too often and at the most inconvenient moments, like when I'm in the middle of a tight turn not very high off the ground, when I need to be in complete control and not having the game freeze on me momentarily.

 

I have these to and find them, just as you, very annoying.

I still have a problem with these being "loading" stutters because there is no disk activity whatsoever and they even happen when flying in an small area, even if i have flown around for quite a while in that same small area. And it doesn't have to be extra graphics that come into view, just the ground is enough to give some unpredicted stutter.

I have flown versions of DCS: A-10C with always the same hardware setup where there was no stutter like this at all to versions where it stuttered constantly. And then it should be blamed on loading activity etc... hard to believe. Even with everything set to low and all sliders to minimum, the stutter is still there at the same rate while there is a lot less to load.

 

My own opinion: Since the coming of DCS: World it's gone worse, stutter wise. Today it updated itself to the lastest version ( 1.2.1.6288 ). All the latest versions suffer from more and more stutter the longer i fly. Takes the joy of play away and makes me go tweaking instead which in 99,9% of the cases doesn't bring anything. Guess i tweaked already a lot longer then i played. Get's frustrating from time to time.


Edited by Lange_666

Win11 Pro 64-bit, Ryzen 5800X3D, Corsair H115i, Gigabyte X570S UD, EVGA 3080Ti XC3 Ultra 12GB, 64 GB DDR4 G.Skill 3600. Monitors: LG 27GL850-B27 2560x1440 + Samsung SyncMaster 2443 1920x1200, HOTAS: Warthog with Virpil WarBRD base, MFG Crosswind combat pedals, TrackIR4, Rift-S.

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Well I seem to have tracked the cause of my stutters down to HwInfo64, which is ironic as I was using that to monitor the CPU/GPU usage, etc whilst running DCSW to try and identify what might be causing the stuttering!

 

I rebooted, so that all my normal processes/services were loaded, launched DCSW from RAMDisk and still got the occasional stutter, so I alt-tabbed out and killed HwInfo64 (just happened to be the first thing I tried) and after that I didn't have any more stutter. I quit the mission and started another one just to be sure that alt-tabbing didn't have anything to do with it, but that was fine too. :D

Main rig: i5-4670k @4.4Ghz, Asus Z97-A, Scythe Kotetsu HSF, 32GB Kingston Savage 2400Mhz DDR3, 1070ti, Win 10 x64, Samsung Evo 256GB SSD (OS & Data), OCZ 480GB SSD (Games), WD 2TB and WD 3TB HDDs, 1920x1200 Dell U2412M, 1920x1080 Dell P2314T touchscreen

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Well I tried running from HDD and mostly didn't get any stuttering with HwInfo not running. I still got some quite bad stuttering (on Shooting Range) with the Shvkal activated/scanning when I was flying near the enemy units though. I'll have to try and test in the same conditions running from RAMDisk to see if it makes any difference.

 

The author of HwInfo pointed me to the Known Issues, which says:

 

"3. Higher system load or latency during sensor monitoring.

Description: When performing sensor monitoring, on some systems (depending on sensors present), the user might experience higher system load or latency (including DPC). This can be caused by certain sensors, especially sensors of the "EC" type, "DELL SMI", or disk SMART sensors (depending on controller and disk driver used).

Workaround: Disable monitoring of particular sensor items (right-click and "Disable monitoring") until the latency/load is reduced."

 

I'm not sure this was my problem as I checked my latency before and did so again and it's mostly 15-25 with the occasional spike to 50, 80 or 120 but those happen whether HwInfo is running or not. I also tried disabling monitoring on all the sensors apart from my GPU one and I noticed stuttering in DCSW (running from HDD) that seemed to no longer happen after closing HwInfo, which I don't think was related to the Shkval but I'll have to double-check that.

Main rig: i5-4670k @4.4Ghz, Asus Z97-A, Scythe Kotetsu HSF, 32GB Kingston Savage 2400Mhz DDR3, 1070ti, Win 10 x64, Samsung Evo 256GB SSD (OS & Data), OCZ 480GB SSD (Games), WD 2TB and WD 3TB HDDs, 1920x1200 Dell U2412M, 1920x1080 Dell P2314T touchscreen

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