Hyper Threading and FS9

[Guest product]

Bobby,I think you are in the lucky minority- would love to figure out just what your settings are that differ from those of us with only one CPU doing the work!Joel

[Guest product]

... And I just fired up FS2002- what do you know, BOTH CPUs cranking away full steam- what gives with FS9???Joel

[Guest FPSFREAK]

Joel,No big secret or tweaks here. I just enabled HT in my BIOS. When XP booted up it saw the "2nd CPU" and installed what was needed. After the prompt that it was complete I rebooted the machine and fired up FS9. Thats it. I do see a difference in performance w HT enabled. How much I'm still trying to come up with.Bobby

[drdickie 2]

I am not sure why you would crackup over my user name compared with others on the forum. I am a doctor and my name is dickie.I successfully installed the hotfix for the HT technology but it doesn't seem to make any difference, as others had predicted.The hotfix has not been fully tested yet, and MS will only release it to users who want it now and are aware of the potential for problems. I haven't seen any yet.Hence, you have to call personally and they will send it to you free. Followup help, if needed, will be charged at their help center rate.

[Guest JC2]

Dr Dickie, Out of curiosity, how does FS9 perform on your system? I just ordered a new system today with very similar configuration to replace my aging XP1800+ with a GF3. Just wondering how far the sliders will be moving to the right!Jim

[drdickie 2]

I really can't answer that question yet. I am still trying out various options and the plethora of tweaks. Also, my favorite aircraft are the PSS jets and they haven't been patched for FS9. So until I try those, I won't have a strong opinion.So far, I have been somewhat disappointed because I haven't figured out how to eliminate the stuttering. My fps are always around 25. From what I've read, some users move the sliders all the way right and are ok; others have to cut back on clouds, traffic, scenery, etc. in order to get and hold around 25 fps. There seem to be some system-specific effects that I'm sure some of our brighter forum members will figure out sooner or later.You should also know that some users, including me, report screen flickering with the FX video cards. eVGA told me nVidia is aware of the problem and is working on it--probably a new driver (current is 45.23). I only see it using Flight Simulator (2002 and 2004) so it is unclear whether it is a card problem or a program problem. nVidia did release some program-specific fixes in the last driver.The system does run FS2002 well in spite of the flickering, however.

[Guest jdrago]

I have an Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra (256mb), and I get a little flickering, mostly in the area of the clouds. I found that to minimize it, I moved my mip-mapping from 6 back to 4. It helps, but does not totally eliminate.From what I can tell, it looks like a driver issue.- JD

[drdickie 2]

I have installed the HT fix. I then uninstalled FS2004, and uninstalled my video card drivers. I then installed nVidia 45.33 (flicker free!) from guru3d.com, and then installed FS2004.Running FS2004 with all the default settings except screen resolution (1600x1200x32), I get a steady 25 fps (locked at 25 fps) with no stuttering and no flickering using the default 737.I would also add that anytime you make any driver, addon, etc., changes, it is a good idea to delete fs9.cfg and allow FS2004 to rebuild a new one when you start the next time. So, write down your "settings".

[drdickie 2]

Try the 45.33 driver at guru3d.com. It is flicker free.

[Guest mdavis]

I spent a bit of time playing with this hyperthreading issue on my 3.2Ghz box, nVidia FX5900 Ultra (probably of no consequence), 2 gigs of RAM. Interesting, because I think everyone is right here.When I loaded FS9, both virtual CPU's worked essentially in tandem with peaks on both sides during the loading. Most of the work was gradually shifted to the first CPU while the 2nd CPU began to wind down after the load. Sitting on the tarmac in the Cub (default), the computer maintained the framerate lock +/- 1.0 fps. Total CPU load never exceeded 51% but the first CPU ran at max output while the second one idled near zero with an occasional blip. Any time a demand was placed on the system such as panning or a screen change, CPU0 (#1) stayed at full output and CPU1 (#2) picked up what little slack was needed to maintain the fps.MDavis

[Guest product]

That's interesting news, seems like it does utilize both CPU's but only on a limited basis...Joel

[glsimpilot 2]

Well this thread is one I owe some gratitude to. I'm running a P4 3ghz 800fsb CPU with hyper threading. I had been running it for 30 days before I noticed this. I was not getting the "set affinity" option nor the 2 "CPU USAGE" windows. It also did not say ACPI Multiprocessor under computer in device manager. Yes the BIOS had it ENABLED and it stated it was ENABLED during POST.I'm not 100% sure on this but I believe the issue had to do with the fact that when I installed XP Pro it was the original CD before SP1. So I made an XP CD with SP1 slipstreamed into it. It sucked to do, but after formatting and reinstalling XP to C: (I had D: used to backup all my files, including my aircraft and other documents!) I know DO see all the items that claim themselves to a hyper threaded CPU on XP.Will it matter as far as performance? I DON'T KNOW! But I sure did have to make sure everything looked right after making the investment to put this PC together.So thanks!Must go back to loading everything else :-( Wish I were flyin!