Sometime when I use FS9 the simulator is really slow, but Win XP task manager shows 50% of CPU cycles allocated to the system idle process. I'm thinking that, if more CPU cycles could be allocated to FS9 then the sim would be more fluid, with higher frame rates. Any ideas about how to control the allocation of CPU cycles to different programs in Win XP? Many thanks, Rudi

Hi,The System Idle Process is just that, an idle process. You can't kill or relocate it to my knowledge. You wouldn't want to or else the system would freeze. The processor must be kept fed constantly with (idle) instructions. It's the OS's job is to keep the processor busy, in NT/2K/XP the System Idle Process does this.It says e.g. 100% utilization, but it's not smoking your processor, it's really doing nothing and doesn't impact performance.It helps however marginally to 'kill' other processes. See here:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;331796or here:http://library.avsim.net/sendfile.php?DLID=43200or here:http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htmAll the best!Rob "Holland&Holland" de Vries http://www.emotipad.com/emoticons/Flying.gif"To go up, pull the stick back. To go down, pull the stick back harder"

Thanks for the helpful reply.I'm not looking to kill the system idle process thread; what I want to do is increase the proportion of CPU cycles allocated to FS9.As an illustration, let's say I'm using FS9 and I'm getting 6 FPS and I see that the CPU usage is 40% FS9 and 60% idle system process. Is it possible to increase the proportion of cycles allocated to FS9? I mean, no other threads are taking cycles, it's just FS9 and the system idle process occupying the CPU. In these circumstances, it would be nice if FS9 took, let's say, 80% of the CPU cycles - things sure would be smoother.Any idea about how to allocate a greater proportion of CPU cycles to FS9? Again, thanks so much.

You can use taskmanager. List the processes, select fs9.exe, right click and choose Set Priority (this is on XP or Windows 2000).

Hi,FS will only take the cycles from your CPU it needs, increasing it wont make FS run any quicker, please someone correct me if I am wrong.You can increaes the CPU priority for FS as Ken said, all this does is make FS take precidence over any other programs, which can harm certain programs if you have other utlities running outside of FS.Are you by any chance running a dual processor or HT enabled machine?.CheersDan.

Thanks Ken and Dan, Ken great heads-up about setting CPU priority.Dan, just a quick follow-up: if I usually get about 12 fps and then the machine drops to 4 or 6 fps with the CPU running 30% allocated to FS9, don't you think that FS9 would asking for more CPU cycles? One might think that FS9 would start to absorb more and more CPU cycles before cutting fps. Maybe I don't have a feeling for how WinXP allocates CPU cycles. Watching FS9 struggle along at 6 fps while the system idle process chugs along with 60% CPU cycles brings to mind a line from Elvis Costello's 'Watching the detectives': "She files her nails while the detectives are dragging the lake"!As far as running a dual processor or an HT enabled machine - I wish! No, I've got an HP PIV with hyperthreading and 512 mb RAM and a GeForce 440 mx board. I thought this would be a real speed demon, but it only barely manages to keep up with FS9 in its current configuration.Thanks again for the helpful replies.

Your wish is granted, HT = hyperthreading :D. You are seeing 50% cpu activity because the second (logical) processor in your computer isn't being used...and it isn't being used because FS isn't coded to take advantage of multithreading. So basically, when you see task manager reporting 50% cpu usage, it is in fact using 100% cpu usage.-Derek

..... and disable HT and your percentage would show 100%.

RudiWhere are you getting this figure? If you open Task ManagerPerformance, system idle should show 0 to 2%. Under Processes, System Idle will give a much higher number. I don't know what this means, but the figure under Performance is the correct one.David

When you alt-tab back to windows to look at the task manager, FS goes to the background and will take less CPU. While FS is the foreground program, it will take near 100% of the CPU.

Hmmmm... Didn't they say that FS9 *does* take advantage of hyperthreading?

I don't think MS overtly said that it did support hyperthreading, that came from an article by someone who previewed FS on another site and got it wrong.Having said that, I think the Learning Centre app makes use of hyperthreading, however, most users report better performance with HT switched off.Allcott

Hi,No FS does not seem to use HT, in fact it can harm performance in FS when using certain addons, like the F1 Meridian.It is very easy to stop FS from "trying" to use HT, just change the "affinity" in the task manager.CheersDan.

I had a thought (amazing!)....I should be able to, programatically, change affinity of the threads in a program.So, I wonder if it would be a benefit to be able to change the affinity of the threads that FS9 creates.I don't have a HT machine yet, so I would have to rely on someone who does for a little bit of testing.If anyone is interested drop me a line.

Not 100% sure what this program could (or could'nt) do.I find it a pain to have to change the affinity every time I use the F1 Meridian, so if there was some way to make the affinity change when using something like the meridan then that would help.CheersDan.