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Guest manniko

Equal load distribution to all cores of a Q9650

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Guest manniko

Hi Folks,my situation is as follows:got a new machine and thought it would work seemless with FSX and PMDG A/Cs but it doesn't do the job like I anticipated it would do.Machine: INTEL Q9650 CORE 2 QUAD Q9650 12M 13338 GB OCZ RAM ( 4 GB Patch installed for FSX)Windows XP Pro 32 bit G-Force GTX 850 with 1 GB RAMP45 Motherboard 2 x 22" TFT MonitorsSituation:Installed FSX and ajusted all the display possibilities real moderate - nothing squeezed to ULTRA High. Installed PMD MD-11 A/s. Basically it works real good and I get very nice frame rates. Sometimes up to 200 fps (depends on the situation) - but nearly never below 30 fps. But sometimes my machine seems to get a hickup and it freezes for a second or more. Sometimes even for 5 - 10 seconds and then it will recover. Very annoying if it happens during landing. As I watch the load of the 4 cores, I noticed, that always core 1 is fully loaded - mostly around 99 to 100%. All other 3 cores have a lot less load. The overall load of my Quad Core CPU is around 30% - 50% not more. My Question:Is there any possibility to adjust my system in a way that all cores will be equally loaded? I have some add-ons (FS-Map) here I can assign a certain core to that program to put the high load to. Is there any known solution to my problem? Help and advice would be highly appreciated. Regards Manfred Kohl (OERK)

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Couple things here:1. 8GB of RAM is absolutely useless in XP - get Vista 64. The 1GB video card is likely actually making matters worse for you because the 1GB of RAM on it cuts into the available User VA space.2. Make absolutely certain you have the latest drivers for everything, especially the motherboard chipset, and make sure that the BIOS is set correctly as far as RAM timings etc.Now, with respect to the core loading, it doesn't work like that. How much of each core gets used depends on how the application is programmed. (this is called "multithreading") FSX has one main application thread that does most of the work and then a some smaller threads that help with things like terrain load-in etc. This is why you don't see all 4 cores being fully utilized, it's just not how the engine is programmed. Some applications have much better multithreading than others do.At any rate, the problem is probably not in your hardware. I would also ensure you don't have any programs running in the background like real time antivirus scanners etc that could cause that hitching you're seeing.


Ryan Maziarz
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Guest manniko
Couple things here:1. 8GB of RAM is absolutely useless in XP - get Vista 64. The 1GB video card is likely actually making matters worse for you because the 1GB of RAM on it cuts into the available User VA space.2. Make absolutely certain you have the latest drivers for everything, especially the motherboard chipset, and make sure that the BIOS is set correctly as far as RAM timings etc.Now, with respect to the core loading, it doesn't work like that. How much of each core gets used depends on how the application is programmed. (this is called "multithreading") FSX has one main application thread that does most of the work and then a some smaller threads that help with things like terrain load-in etc. This is why you don't see all 4 cores being fully utilized, it's just not how the engine is programmed. Some applications have much better multithreading than others do.At any rate, the problem is probably not in your hardware. I would also ensure you don't have any programs running in the background like real time antivirus scanners etc that could cause that hitching you're seeing.
Hi Ryan,thanks a lot for your fas and prompt reply and offer to help. We appreciate that any time as we see that you are always jumping on with grateful advices. 1.) I know that WIN XP can only utilize a max. of - I guess 3.6 GB with the patch and the additional switch in the boot.ini - When I ordered this machine, I intended to install VISTA 64 bit on it but deviated from my decision because of some threads I read which reported a lot of problems with VISTA 64. So I wanted to go the safe way and went back to WIN XP Pro. Anyway I bought now the WIN XP Pro 64 bit version and I think I will give it a try - or would you advise to install VISTA 64 bit instead ? Regarding the graphic card (G-Force GTX 850), it is the latest Graphic Adapter from G-Force and I suppose to have the latest driver installed. If the graphic card is the perpetrator what could I do in this case?2.) Ok, understood that FSX is not supporting a leveled load for more cores - unfortunately not. Normally I do not have any other programs running simultaneously (this computer is solely used for FS fun). Parallel to the FSX I am only running FS-MAP which sucks a lot of load ( and memory, because of the large maps ) but I can put here the load on another core ( I usually use core 3 for FS-MAP). But I have Kaspersky Antivirus running in the background and today afternoon I will try to switch it off in order to see if there is any improvement of the situation. Thanks a lot Ryan and greetings from Riyadh (OERK)Manfred Kohl (OERK - Riyadh)

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Manfred,I had the same problem of yours running my quad core.I managed to partially solve it and making things "smoother" using the facility coming together with FSInn/Copilot.It is called Multicore Optimization and it allows you to choose one core only for FSX rendering and others for Xp related services.I assume it was originally designed for dual core cpus but it made a nice improvement on my FPS as well.Another solution you might want to take alook at is here: http://forums.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?t=161337.I tried it myself too, but to be honest I could not appreciate any difference with this.Hope this helpsNick

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It is called Multicore Optimization and it allows you to choose one core only for rendering and others for Xp related services.
DO NOT DO THIS IT IS SNAKE OIL if you use FSX SP1 or SP2. It may have been helpful with the original release of FSX but it most definitely isn't with FSX SP1 and later, doing this would actually slow FSX down significantly.

Cheers, Andy.

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Manfred,I had the same problem of yours running my quad core.I managed to solve the problem of making things "smoother" using the facility coming together with FSInn/Copilot.It is called Multicore Optimization and it allows you to choose one core only for rendering and others for Xp related services.I assume it was originally designed for dual core cpus but it made a nice improvements on my FPS as well.Another solution you might want to take alook at is here: http://forums.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?t=161337.I tried it myself too, but to be honest I could not appreciate any difference with this.Hope this helpsNick
Hi Nick,thank you for your reply and help. I read already a lot about that stuff and will give it a try. Especially the possibility under FsInn/FS CoPilot and their possibility to tweak a MultiCore process seems to be interesting. I guess, I will give it a try after I install WIN XP 64 or VISTA 64 .Regards from Riyadh Manfred Kohl (OERK)
DO NOT DO THIS IT IS SNAKE OIL if you use FSX SP1 or SP2. It may have been helpful with the original release of FSX but it most definitely isn't with FSX SP1 and later, doing this would actually slow FSX down significantly.
Hi Andy,thanks for reply and advice. I have the original version of FSX and Acceleration installed - I guess FSX Acceleration includes SP1 and SP2 as far as I knkow. I always make a DriveImage Backup before I play around and try to twiggle around with things. If it goes bad, a fast restore of my complete data could be done. Thank you again Andy and regards from Riyadh - in the middle of nowhere. Manfred (OERK)

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Hello Manfred, yes Acceleration is the same as SP2 more or less. This tweak wont do any permanent damage but it will make FSX perform worse overall, you can do the same test just by simply setting the affinity of the processes with the Windows task manager, this is all this so called optimisation is.Simply bring up the task manager when FSX is running and right click on the FSX.exe and select "set affinity".You will now get a pop up box with some check boxes and ticks in it, deselect one or more ticks and you are done, FSX will now perform worse than it did before. The first thing you will probably notice is that the ground scenery textures will start to get more blurry.


Cheers, Andy.

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Guest manniko
Hello Manfred, yes Acceleration is the same as SP2 more or less. This tweak wont do any permanent damage but it will make FSX perform worse overall, you can do the same test just by simply setting the affinity of the processes with the Windows task manager, this is all this so called optimisation is.Simply bring up the task manager when FSX is running and right click on the FSX.exe and select "set affinity".You will now get a pop up box with some check boxes and ticks in it, deselect one or more ticks and you are done, FSX will now perform worse than it did before. The first thing you will probably notice is that the ground scenery textures will start to get more blurry.
Hi Andy,some people obviously never sleep ;-) - the responses are coming so fast and at any given time. Andy, I will give the "affinity" settings via the task manager a try - it is fast and easy to do and we will see the performance change immediately and a re-change is done quickly as well. Any advice for me regarding XP 64 or VISTA 64 ?? I bought already XP 64 but it won't be a problem to get also a original VISTA 64 . Only the installation time is here relevant. I can buy the OEM Versions of the OSs for very reasonable prices. Ciao and always happy landings and greetings from the desert. BTW: Please excuse my sometimes humpy English - I am a German but I try my best to make my wordings as clear as possible. Manfred (OERK)

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Your English is probably better than mine and I am British born and bred :( XP 64 or Vista 64 should be fine they are both pretty well supported now driver wise, if you do have a problem getting drivers it will only be with old hardware like scanners and such.


Cheers, Andy.

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My experience with a Q9650 on a ASUS Rampage with 1066 4Gb memory is good. I've not found a need to over clock, I can run FSX with ASX and run Outlook simultaneously with Norton 2009 in the background (this is a much improved NAV over previous releases). I will get a rare stutter in dense scenery.My understanding is a stutter is a CPU getting behind the flow. I recommend the approach you are taking to isolate if your antivirus is holding you up.


Dan Downs KCRP

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Guest manniko
My experience with a Q9650 on a ASUS Rampage with 1066 4Gb memory is good. I've not found a need to over clock, I can run FSX with ASX and run Outlook simultaneously with Norton 2009 in the background (this is a much improved NAV over previous releases). I will get a rare stutter in dense scenery.My understanding is a stutter is a CPU getting behind the flow. I recommend the approach you are taking to isolate if your antivirus is holding you up.
Hi Dan,thanks also for your note and reply. Yes, my first approach will be to deactivate my Antivirus (Kaspersky full paid version ) prg and will first see the result before I will dig deeper into the problem. First thing, when I come home today.Greetings from Riyadh Manfred (Riyadh - OERK)

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Hi Dan,thanks also for your note and reply. Yes, my first approach will be to deactivate my Antivirus (Kaspersky full paid version ) prg and will first see the result before I will dig deeper into the problem. First thing, when I come home today.Greetings from Riyadh Manfred (Riyadh - OERK)
Hi Manfred, what is your target FPS rate? I had crashes/ and hanging screens with the unlimited setting, since putting it to 70 it does not happen anymore. Just an idea, eventhough my system is not as good as yours.Tom M

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Situation:Installed FSX and ajusted all the display possibilities real moderate - nothing squeezed to ULTRA High. Installed PMD MD-11 A/s. Basically it works real good and I get very nice frame rates. Sometimes up to 200 fps (depends on the situation) - but nearly never below 30 fps. But sometimes my machine seems to get a hickup and it freezes for a second or more. Sometimes even for 5 - 10 seconds and then it will recover. Very annoying if it happens during landing. As I watch the load of the 4 cores, I noticed, that always core 1 is fully loaded - mostly around 99 to 100%. All other 3 cores have a lot less load. The overall load of my Quad Core CPU is around 30% - 50% not more.
I had this situation with my quad core when I first got it. I heard from a reliable source that FSX doesn't play nice with all quad cores, so I changed the affinity mask in FSX.cfg to only use 3 of my 4 cores. Once I did that, I was smooth sailing.To test, add the following to the fsx.cfg under the [JOBSCHEDULER] tag:AFFINITYMASK=7This will force FSX to only use three cores. It worked for me.- JohnFSX SP2Windows XP SP3 32bit

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Hi Manfred, what is your target FPS rate? I had crashes/ and hanging screens with the unlimited setting, since putting it to 70 it does not happen anymore. Just an idea, eventhough my system is not as good as yours.Tom M
Hi Tom,thanks for the reply - normally I had the FPS rate set to indefinite, but reduced it to 50 - no improvement.I will hang on that issue ;-)Thanks Tom, greetings from the desertManfred ( RIyadh - OERK )
I had this situation with my quad core when I first got it. I heard from a reliable source that FSX doesn't play nice with all quad cores, so I changed the affinity mask in FSX.cfg to only use 3 of my 4 cores. Once I did that, I was smooth sailing.To test, add the following to the fsx.cfg under the [JOBSCHEDULER] tag:AFFINITYMASK=7This will force FSX to only use three cores. It worked for me.- JohnFSX SP2Windows XP SP3 32bit
Hi John,thanks for the advice and reply on my problem. To add the '' Jobscheduler "" tag 7 is already on my to-do-list. Will hope it will help. Will do it now and will report on it.Greetings from the desert,Manfred (Riyadh OERK)

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Hi Folks,my situation is as follows:got a new machine and thought it would work seemless with FSX and PMDG A/Cs but it doesn't do the job like I anticipated it would do.Machine:INTEL Q9650 CORE 2 QUAD Q9650 12M 13338 GB OCZ RAM ( 4 GB Patch installed for FSX)Windows XP Pro 32 bitG-Force GTX 850 with 1 GB RAMP45 Motherboard2 x 22" TFT Monitors
This is kinda off topic, but what in the world is a GTX 850? You sure you don't mean 8500 GT or GTX 260/280?

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