Affinity Mask with HT I7 4790k

[Alessandrov81 2]

Greetings,

 

regarding affinity mask I noticed divergences of opinion on the forum (most use 84 or no AF, someone particular values like 243 ie).

 

I'm so wondering what AF should i set for my I7 4790K with ati R9 270x (don't know if GPU matters on this), HT ON

 

I noticed that using AF=84 ruins the perfomance: insufficient CPU load (20-30%) and blurries (with FFTF 0.01-0.05). Also i can't understand why i sholud leave many cores unused...

 

With no AF instead  it goes pretty well using all phisical and logical cores.

 

Tryed also AF=243 with similar results to AF=84

 

Finally i tryed to set an AF that leaves just Core 0 (phisical) unused (for OS): AF=254 (11111110), i think it slight more FPS than no AF but i feel the flight beeing more smooth... don't know if it is just a feeling!

 

So i'm simply asking what AF do you think i should set? And, moreover, WHY?

 

I7 4790K @4.7GHZ

ATI R9 270x

Corsair 8GB

P3d V2.4 Settings more or less like Rob's one and the following cfg. entries:

 

FFTF=0.01

OptimizeParts=1

TBM=160

TextureMaxLoad=9

SWAP_TIMEOUT=3

 

ORBX Sceneries

REX 4

A2A aircrafts. 

 

fine FPS (imho): 30 stable in orbx sceneries pretty everywhere except complex cities where i get 22-27. Just a few (rare) blurries, specially in mountain areas. I have another question here: is it normal to get blurries most with mountain rocks? Don't have many problems in cities but in mountains i have more issues... can't understand why... 

 

tks in advance

regards

[RW1 615]

Blurries around the mountains is common for me too with Orbx, i run AM254 as well and its very good, but i also have unparked cores registry hack, W7 OS parks all your cores by default thats why you see no action in the other cores.

 

Rick

[SolRayz 392]

So i'm simply asking what AF do you think i should set? And, moreover, WHY?

 

 

 

You need to set AF that best suits your system, and only you can know by proper testing.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/444793-one-tweak-to-rule-them-all-how-to-set-affinity-mask-correctly/

[Alessandrov81 2]

Blurries around the mountains is common for me too with Orbx, i run AM254 as well and its very good, but i also have unparked cores registry hack, W7 OS parks all your cores by default thats why you see no action in the other cores.

 

Rick

 

Hi Rick, looks like i miss some basics... can't understand you when you say you have "unparked cores registry hack" can you send a link about it? With AF=254 i see all cores working exc. 0...

You need to set AF that best suits your system, and only you can know by proper testing.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/444793-one-tweak-to-rule-them-all-how-to-set-affinity-mask-correctly/

 Tks SolRayz, i read:

 

"I also see minimal activity on cores 1 and 2, which indicates system activity, so I will reserve these two cores, as well as core 4, for the system and other programmes and assign cores 3,5,6,7 and 8 to Prepar3D. 5 cores is plenty for Prepar3D and 3 is fine for the system and other programmes."

 

so i should look to which cores work less in my system and try to put "0" on those? Being a noob, i believed that reserving a single core system and the other to P3D I would get the best results ... I think with a setting the right of AF (with more system reservation) should get better results using external addon (ASN)... correct?

 

tks again

[Nyxx 6,993]

0=OFF

1=ON

[yorgosGK 7]

I am with a 4790k at 4.7Ghz. I have HT off and AM=15....

Seems to give me the best experience.

[Alessandrov81 2]

0=OFF

1=ON

 

Yes i know tks. The thing i would like to know is what cores should i activate, also i didn't understand that it is system specific, i believed that all I7 4790K could use the same AM... 

 

how many cores should i leave to system? 1? 2? 3? Also, it is better to leave core 0 unused + others that p3d use less with my system?

 

i'm using just ASN with p3d

[RW1 615]

 

 

Hi Rick, looks like i miss some basics... can't understand you when you say you have "unparked cores registry hack" can you send a link about it? With AF=254 i see all cores working exc. 0...

 

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Windows-7-amp-Core-Parking-a-better-way-to-Turn-It-OFF-m1861804.aspx

[Nyxx 6,993]

Read this

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/464695-optimize-parts1/?p=3203012

[Alessandrov81 2]

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Windows-7-amp-Core-Parking-a-better-way-to-Turn-It-OFF-m1861804.aspx

 

intersting reading, i think i saw all cores working... maybe because i used the windows optimize file found in NickN guide.... didn't know exactly what it does... :-)

 

when i will returno home i try to see in regedit if valuemax=0

 

tks

[Guest JustanotherPilot]

Greetings,

 

regarding affinity mask I noticed divergences of opinion on the forum (most use 84 or no AF, someone particular values like 243 ie).

 

I'm so wondering what AF should i set for my I7 4790K with ati R9 270x (don't know if GPU matters on this), HT ON

 

I noticed that using AF=84 ruins the perfomance: insufficient CPU load (20-30%) and blurries (with FFTF 0.01-0.05). Also i can't understand why i sholud leave many cores unused...

 

With no AF instead  it goes pretty well using all phisical and logical cores.

 

Tryed also AF=243 with similar results to AF=84

 

Finally i tryed to set an AF that leaves just Core 0 (phisical) unused (for OS): AF=254 (11111110), i think it slight more FPS than no AF but i feel the flight beeing more smooth... don't know if it is just a feeling!

 

So i'm simply asking what AF do you think i should set? And, moreover, WHY?

 

I7 4790K @4.7GHZ

ATI R9 270x

Corsair 8GB

P3d V2.4 Settings more or less like Rob's one and the following cfg. entries:

 

FFTF=0.01

OptimizeParts=1

TBM=160

TextureMaxLoad=9

SWAP_TIMEOUT=3

 

ORBX Sceneries

REX 4

A2A aircrafts. 

 

fine FPS (imho): 30 stable in orbx sceneries pretty everywhere except complex cities where i get 22-27. Just a few (rare) blurries, specially in mountain areas. I have another question here: is it normal to get blurries most with mountain rocks? Don't have many problems in cities but in mountains i have more issues... can't understand why... 

 

tks in advance

regards

 

 

I have the i7 4790K CPU and the R9270X GPU on my system running P3D2.4. I have found better performance by NOT using Affinity Mask settings. and HT ON. I have experimented with all the Affinity Mask settings which all affected P3d in different ways, none of which were satisfactory. A good test is to adjust your Affinity Mask to whatever you want, start P3d, load up a flight with plenty of ORBX  scenery (one that always drops your frame rate). When this is loaded   open up the task manager for windows (numerous googles on howt to) then on the top tag, select Processes, then tick the box with P3D.exe shown, then go to Performances, this open up a window which shows how your cpu is allocating memory/distributing the load for the Affinity Mask settings you have set, If you open(Resources monitor at the bottom right a larger portrayal of this is shown)

 

Okay, now take note of the settings, ext Task manager, exit P3d, change your Affinity settings again, repeat the process and again, take note of the CPU load, which will be different with every change. Keep doing this as many times as you want, changing the Affinity Mask each time. Now

 

FINALLY......Remove the Affinity Mask setting so that NONE are set, run the Task Manager as previously done. When you open the Processes you will notice that ALL of the CPU cores are showing their allocated load, this is because the Affinity Mask setting has been built into  P3d,  to provide the best settings  as required. LM recommend that you DO NOT change the Affinity because it's already built into the coding.

 

As a comparison try this with FSX which needs an Affinity setting to utilize all of the CPU cores.

 

Hope this helps.

 

steve s

[Alessandrov81 2]

I have the i7 4790K CPU and the R9270X GPU on my system running P3D2.4. I have found better performance by NOT using Affinity Mask settings. and HT ON. I have experimented with all the Affinity Mask settings which all affected P3d in different ways, none of which were satisfactory. A good test is to adjust your Affinity Mask to whatever you want, start P3d, load up a flight with plenty of ORBX  scenery (one that always drops your frame rate). When this is loaded   open up the task manager for windows (numerous googles on howt to) then on the top tag, select Processes, then tick the box with P3D.exe shown, then go to Performances, this open up a window which shows how your cpu is allocating memory/distributing the load for the Affinity Mask settings you have set, If you open(Resources monitor at the bottom right a larger portrayal of this is shown)

 

Okay, now take note of the settings, ext Task manager, exit P3d, change your Affinity settings again, repeat the process and again, take note of the CPU load, which will be different with every change. Keep doing this as many times as you want, changing the Affinity Mask each time. Now

 

FINALLY......Remove the Affinity Mask setting so that NONE are set, run the Task Manager as previously done. When you open the Processes you will notice that ALL of the CPU cores are showing their allocated load, this is because the Affinity Mask setting has been built into  P3d,  to provide the best settings  as required. LM recommend that you DO NOT change the Affinity because it's already built into the coding.

 

As a comparison try this with FSX which needs an Affinity setting to utilize all of the CPU cores.

 

Hope this helps.

 

steve s

 

interesting we have almost the same hardware. I'm very curious to know your settings in sim and on ati CCC and performances.

 

I have set Rob's (high) settings - Building and vegetation shadows, plus i set Trees' autogen Very Dense and Building Dense because i do not see a consistent difference in FPS, AI traffic all at 10%. Water=High and Rob's settings

 

In CCC:

MSAA=4X

AA=8X

Supersampling

Filtering=quality

Vsync off

Tessellation=use app settings ( found this very useful against blurries, with tessellation=ultra in sim)

 

I found that with A2A planes (which work a little bit outside sim) and ASN with AM=254 i can get 2-3 more FPS, i think because CORE 0 otherwise is bottlenecked (90-100% load) while others are used less

 

Also GPU usage is around 50% normally... yours? Do you think GPU is bottlenecking sometimes? I noticed spot 100% GPU load (very rare but still there). I overclocked it +10% power, 1100mhz

 

In ORBX PNW Seattle i get 20-25 FPS, San Francisco (more FPS friendly for me) 25-30 with autogen dense... which is pretty good for my tastes, but maybe i can learn something from your settings

 

Also, i found that with HT=OFF i can get more FPS (3-4-5!) but with insufficient texture loading (more blurries) i think because CPU Load is higher and 1-2 cores are usually bottlenecked (frequently 100% load). So i prefer HT=on

 

tks!

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

If one can turn HT off in the BIOS settings then do so. It does nothing useful for flight simming and the then the whole AM issue in P3d is completely moot.

[Alessandrov81 2]

If one can turn HT off in the BIOS settings then do so. It does nothing useful for flight simming and the then the whole AM issue in P3d is completely moot.

 

I disagree, I could be wrong, my tests are not statistically consistent, but there are also extensive tests regarding the usefulness of HT = ON and setting the proper affinity masking.

 

In my system if i put HT = off i get blurries, with a higher average CPU load due to cores getting bottlenecked. Instead with HT=on and AM=254 i see a more balanced load between cores and a lower CPU load with better texture loading...

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

 

 

jabloomf1230, on 19 Mar 2015 - 09:13 AM, said:

If one can turn HT off in the BIOS settings then do so. It does nothing useful for flight simming and the then the whole AM issue in P3d is completely moot.

 

I have to agree with Alessandrov81, there is no one answer for Hyperthreading and Affinity Mask.  Instead, it depends on three (3) main things.

 

1. Which Flight Sim Software You Are Using (FSX or P3D).

 

2. Which Processor You Are Running. With later processors (such as the Haswell) you might not even require an Affinity Mask setting).

 

3. What other software you are running concurrently with your fight sim. This is especially true for live streamers, but can apply to other concurrently running programs as well.

 

The best thing for anyone to do is learn about processor cores and how they work for your processor and then test their system to see what works best for them.  There are so many posts here on AVSIM about this that I won't bother covering it again.

 

Remember that with FSX, Core 0 is going to be used regardless of what AF settings you use so you might as well assign it.

 

For my processor (4770k), I run without any Affinity Mask setting. This not only increased my frame rates, it also provided me with increased performance for live streaming and all the other flight sim software I run concurrently with FSX.

 

I sincerely hope this has been helpful!

 

See you in the skies of VATSIM!