As with all things there is no one size fits all when it comes to FSX, thank you MS  :angry: . In my testing of my rig, i7 965 oc'd @4.2 ghz, liquid cooled, 24GB memory, i have found the AM setting of 84 to be the best. 13,14,15 cause stutters and very low fps. I once saw a listing of all affinitymask settings on a MS forum, but for the life of me I can't find it now. With the fps killers KJFK and KORD from FSDT I get roughly 30 fps on the ground with traffic at 75%. I do on occasion get a rate of 15 in major storms while airborne. I was really looking forward to SP3 for FSX until MS gave the guys da boot. Kinda put a bad taste in my mouth after that, for anything MS. But as with any addiction, I just can't drag myself away from a hobby that I have invested 1,000's of hours and untold millions (only if ya ask my g/f) playing. I would first start by using the online FSX config tweaker, that is an excellent tool at getting FSX sort of where you want it. If you ever get FSX to a pristine condition WRITE down and make several copies of your cfg files, as you will never hit that spot again if you have to reinstal. My FSX is very heavy with scenery and other add-ons, so I am consistently looking for ways to improve performance.

Strange things these computers. I'm using an old i7 960 with no OC (3.44Mhz). The best AM for me is 84. With that setting the average CPU utilization is 37%. When I change the AM to 255, the average CPU utilization increases to 57% but the framerate drops by 20%.

 

So, an increase in CPU utilization on my i7 equals a decrease in framerates :mad:  Strange things these computers :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

 

Doug

Ever hear the expression   "Too many cooks in the kitchen"?

 

Sometimes fewer is better  :rolleyes:

Just to muddy the waters.... Processes run several threads no matter if you have a single core CPU, and these threads act on the same information and at some stage stop to communicate. Improving efficiency here is what HT is designed for, so it's not automatically better to turn off HT. And then Windows on a multi core CPU is pretty good at figuring out which threads are suited to which cores and test results are often hard to beat with affinity mask left alone. :huh:

If he is running 84 or 255,  I assume he has HT turned on...

I would hope so or 84 would strangle it. One thing to remember about affinity masks, is that they can only instruct Windows about which cores should be ignored when running the application.

Maybe this is what you were referring to:

 

AM Summary

 

With no AM entry, all main cores are used, and no HT cores (same as AM=15). The purpose of the tweek is to tell FSX to ignore core 0 and move to core 1 and put the Terrain and Textures on cores 2 and 3. Windows will still use core 0. If HT is on, AM=254 will cause FSX to also use the 4 HT virtual cores for T/T. This setting will cause the cpu temp to rise. Mine goes from 62C to 75C. The tweek should make FSX smoother without affecting fps very much. Any other numbers turn off cores for no reason.

 

Quad core without HT, First core free and last 3 on would be: = 14. All four on = 15.

 

HT off = 14 (4 main cores on minus core 0) Code: 0000 1110

 

Quad core with HT, First core free and last 3 on (no virtual cores) would be: = 84.

 

All eight on = 255.

 

HT on = 84 (4 main cores on minus core 0) Code: 0101 0100

 

HT on = 252 (all 8 cores on minus core 0) (higher cpu temp) Code: 1111 1100

 

Hex core without HT, First core free and last 5 on would be: = 62. All six on = 63.

 

HT OFF = 62 (6 main cores on minus core 0) Code: 0011 1110

 

Hex core with HT, First core free and last 5 on (no virtual cores) would be: = 1364. All twelve on = 4095.

 

HT on = 1364 (6 main cores on minus core 0) Code: 0101 0101 0100

 

HT on = 4092 (all 12 cores on minus core 0) (higher cpu temp) Code: 1111 1111 1100
 

Dave

If he is running 84 or 255,  I assume he has HT turned on...

Indeed, HT is on. I've tried it with HT off but no difference.

 

Doug