I've seen some posts in this forum and/or others about adjusting/setting/revising the affinity mask to increase performance. Can someone provide me with a lesson primer on how to do this. I've opened the task manager & resource monitor on my Win7-Pro Alienware computer and can see the "affinity" which says that my fsx.exe is running or can run on all 8 CPUs, and fsx.exe's priority is set to "normal". What do I need to do to tweak the settings for improved performance. I normally run fsx with addon planes (e.g.,QW 757), My Traffic, FSDiscover, ASE, EFBFSX, FS Real Time, and ORBX-FTX.Do I adjust "Priorities" and Affinity and if so, how, and to what level? Or is there an easier way. I usually have a lock-up if FS Real-Time and EFBSFX are running at the same time and I pause FSX to hit some buttons on my plane. After unpausing, FSX attempts to reload the graphics (probably for the time adjustment) and locks. It doesn't happen on the first pause, but after about 4-5 pauses it will lock-up.TonyAlienware Aurora 64-BitWin7-Pro 3.2Ghz Intel Core i7 96012Gig RAM ATI Radeon HD 5800

I've seen some posts in this forum and/or others about adjusting/setting/revising the affinity mask to increase performance. Can someone provide me with a lesson primer on how to do this. I've opened the task manager & resource monitor on my Win7-Pro Alienware computer and can see the "affinity" which says that my fsx.exe is running or can run on all 8 CPUs, and fsx.exe's priority is set to "normal". What do I need to do to tweak the settings for improved performance. I normally run fsx with addon planes (e.g.,QW 757), My Traffic, FSDiscover, ASE, EFBFSX, FS Real Time, and ORBX-FTX.Do I adjust "Priorities" and Affinity and if so, how, and to what level? Or is there an easier way. I usually have a lock-up if FS Real-Time and EFBSFX are running at the same time and I pause FSX to hit some buttons on my plane. After unpausing, FSX attempts to reload the graphics (probably for the time adjustment) and locks. It doesn't happen on the first pause, but after about 4-5 pauses it will lock-up.TonyAlienware Aurora 64-BitWin7-Pro 3.2Ghz Intel Core i7 96012Gig RAM ATI Radeon HD 5800

Try this excellent tutorial: http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041Jim

Thanks for the link Jim, here's what I saw as it applies to the Affinity Mask tweak (in part):AFFINITY MASK:This is ONLY for quad core processors. I have never seen a dual core make use of this tweaki7.. Do not bother setting more than a 4 core affinity maskPlease reserve using this tweak until you have completed all other tuning. Once you have your sim running the best you can, then you may try this. It tends to not work well with Intel i7 and DO NOTE, Hyperthread is USELESS to FSX and therefore trying to set a high affinity mask for 8 cores is USELESS. 4 of the 8 i7 cores are virtual and FSX will not use them, at all, regardless of what you see on the CPU monitor. As I read the above, the Affinity Mask tweak won't work for me because I have an Intel i7 with 8 cores (0-7). If I'm correct in this interpretation, I shouldn't even attempt to use the tweak.TonyAlienware Aurora 64-BitWin7-Pro 3.2Ghz Intel Core i7 96012Gig RAM ATI Radeon HD 5800

Thanks for the link Jim, here's what I saw as it applies to the Affinity Mask tweak (in part):AFFINITY MASK:This is ONLY for quad core processors. I have never seen a dual core make use of this tweaki7.. Do not bother setting more than a 4 core affinity maskPlease reserve using this tweak until you have completed all other tuning. Once you have your sim running the best you can, then you may try this. It tends to not work well with Intel i7 and DO NOTE, Hyperthread is USELESS to FSX and therefore trying to set a high affinity mask for 8 cores is USELESS. 4 of the 8 i7 cores are virtual and FSX will not use them, at all, regardless of what you see on the CPU monitor. As I read the above, the Affinity Mask tweak won't work for me because I have an Intel i7 with 8 cores (0-7). If I'm correct in this interpretation, I shouldn't even attempt to use the tweak.TonyAlienware Aurora 64-BitWin7-Pro 3.2Ghz Intel Core i7 96012Gig RAM ATI Radeon HD 5800

I agree. That's the way I read it too. There was some additional discussion about 8 cores/affinity mask over in the large i7 980X thread in the Hardware Forum that might be of interest. As I understand it, FSX has to be programmed to use more cores and programming was stopped when the Aces Team was dissolved. Future versions, if any, will probably take advantage of the cores. You have the right system for the future though as the CPU with the most cores wins. GHz use to be the benchmark. Now it's cores.Best regards,Jim