Hey Steve,

 

Thank you - AM 255 works like magic on my i7-5820K (no blurries).

You're welcome!

For addon exe apps, with the sim starting on core zero rules are; give addons two LPs and avoid core zero (LPs 0 & 1).

 

And for addons I should assign CPU 8 and 10 (form the affinity settings in task manager as 9 and 11 will thread for 5 and 6th core).

You're welcome!

 

For addon exe apps, with the sim starting on core zero rules are; give addons two LPs and avoid core zero (LPs 0 & 1).

 

 

Steve, so that means set Affinity Mask = 253 for me right?

 

I have an i7-3770k overclocked to 4.5GHz with HT enabled. I want to try your settings tonight and see if there's any difference.

Steve, I tried the AM=253 setting and it seems to be working pretty good, or it good be just my imagination. Could you tell me between a setting of 253 vs 254, which one would be more optimal for my setup? I think the scenery loads faster too with this setting and everything looked sharp while flying.

 

Now you mentioned something about making sure that my apps that I run alongside P3D only get loaded on core 0, the question is how can I make certain apps use a certain core? Where is that setting?

 

I run PFPX, Aivlasoft EFB, Pro-ATC, FSLabs Spotlights, Active Sky Next, Remote CDU, FSwidgets network plugin while using P3D. I really want to get the most out of my system. Is there an app that can show me exactly what my affinity masks settings do? That way I can see if the settings improve or deteriorate my performance. I'm not very technical when it comes to these things, so would love some help on how to monitor settings and see the changes.

 

Also what does LP stand for?

Steve, I tried the AM=253 setting and it seems to be working pretty good, or it good be just my imagination. Could you tell me between a setting of 253 vs 254, which one would be more optimal for my setup? I think the scenery loads faster too with this setting and everything looked sharp while flying.

 

 

Butting in I know but...

LP stands for Logical Processor.

Your 3770K has four real processing cores.

When you enable HT each real core is "divided" in two by software.

Each software division is then known as a logical processor.

 

253 and 254 are essentially the same.

Both will just exclude P3D from using one logical processor (LP) of core 0.

 

(Decimal= Binary)

        253=11 11 11 01

        254=11 11 11 10

     

Do you know how to read these binary numbers for core/LP usage?

You read them backwards, right to left.

A "1" is a used core (if HT is off) or a used LP (if HT is on).

A "0" is an unused core (if HT is off) or an unused LP (if HT is on).

The numbering of cores and LPs start from zero, starting from the right.

 

Example:

 

(HT on) 254 =        1     1          1      1          1     1        1     0        ("1" = LP used, "0" = LP not used)

                            LP7 LP6      LP5 LP4      LP3 LP2    LP1 LP0

                             Core 3         Core 2         Core 1       Core 0

 

So you see here with 254, LP0 is not used because it has been switched off with a binary value of "0".

With 253 (above), LP1 is not used since LP1 has been switched off with it's "0" value.

Since LP0 and LP1 are "virtually' identical it does not matter to P3D which one you turn off.

 

gb.

gboz, wow, that was such an awesome and detailed explanation that a non-techy like me totally is able to understand now!

 

That makes a lot of sense to me now and now I finally understand the logic behind this.

 

I really appreciate it!  

That makes a lot of sense to me now and now I finally understand the logic behind this.

I really appreciate it!

 

Great, glad to help.

Just a note that it is very easy to use the Win10 calculator to do the decimal to binary conversion.

Open the calculator and choose Programmer from it's drop down list.

Make sure DEC is highlighted in the top left list.

Clicked-in decimals will then appear as binary, two lines down.

Works backwards too of course when BIN is highlighted.

 

gb.

Steve, I tried the AM=253 setting and it seems to be working pretty good, or it good be just my imagination. Could you tell me between a setting of 253 vs 254, which one would be more optimal for my setup? I think the scenery loads faster too with this setting and everything looked sharp while flying.

 

Now you mentioned something about making sure that my apps that I run alongside P3D only get loaded on core 0, the question is how can I make certain apps use a certain core? Where is that setting?

 

253 and 254 present the same situation to the sim, they only change the way other processes occupy the CPU. Keep your addons away from core zero with a batch file is easiest: Start an app with Affinity batch file (.bat)

Steve...I have the .bat file running and it launches 'FSWeather', but how can I verify the correct affinity (248) has been applied?  Process Lasso (which I'm trying to get away from using with the .bat) still shows all cores (0-7) being used.  Should I just ignore Process Lasso and assume it is runnning on 248 LPs, or is PL overwriting the affinity set from the .bat file maybe?  Thanks!

Steve...I have the .bat file running and it launches 'FSWeather', but how can I verify the correct affinity (248) has been applied?  Process Lasso (which I'm trying to get away from using with the .bat) still shows all cores (0-7) being used.  Should I just ignore Process Lasso and assume it is runnning on 248 LPs, or is PL overwriting the affinity set from the .bat file maybe?  Thanks!

You should be able to check in Windows 'Task Manager' if the correct AM is set.

bob

Bob...the only affinity related info in Task Manager I can find is in 'Details' then right click to 'Set Affinity' which shows all LPs being in use.  I can't find any place just to see the currently set affinity, or is this the affinity in use also?  In that case the .bat file isn't working.  Here is the command I'm using based on Steve's link:

start /B "" /affinity F8 "C:\Program Files (x86)\HiFi\AS16_P3D\AS16.exe" 

 

Thanks

Greg

Bob...the only affinity related info in Task Manager I can find is in 'Details' then right click to 'Set Affinity' which shows all LPs being in use.  I can't find any place just to see the currently set affinity, or is this the affinity in use also?  In that case the .bat file isn't working.  Here is the command I'm using based on Steve's link:

start /B "" /affinity F8 "C:\Program Files (x86)\HiFi\AS16_P3D\AS16.exe" 

 

Thanks

Greg

Hi Greg, I don't use a batch file, I start AS16 thro' FSuipc4., however I did notice a slight difference in your batch file, should there be a space between the quotes.. /B " " ....

may be something or nothing, worth a try.

 

bob

edit ...

if you have FSuipc4 and you want to try that, the command line is ;-

 

[Programs]

Run1=AM=12,CLOSE,C:\Program Files (x86)\HiFi\AS16_P3D\AS16.exe

 

in goes in the config file

 

bob

Hi Bob...thanks for the command line as this is definitely the way to go for me also (less clicking and opening things).  But I can't get AS16 to launch.  I hear a 'bong' then P3D launches normally.  I copied your lines to the .ini file exactly.  Anyway I'll keep trying as there's not good reason I can see it shouldn't work.  Thought it might be spaces in the path string but yours works.

 

Thanks,

Greg

Bob, I have FSUIPIC, so AM=12 means the .exe file will only use core 0 and leave the rest for P3D? I have PFPX, Aivlasoft EFB, Active Sky Next and a few other apps I would like to keep seperate from P3D, so do they all get the same AM= setting?

 

I am running P3D with AffinityMask=254 currently. So what AM value should I use for my other apps?

The genisis of this thread goes back to the glory days of ******* Bojote (cool MS contractor dude) who argued getting work off core 0 - AKA the UI thread.  You don't want to spin up alot of work on a thread that is already overloaded(bottleneck) especially the UI thread. 

 

For FSX, it was the scheduler thread which always ran on core 0.  Apparently that puppy is doing some major work and most apps started there in those days so he wanted to offload the rest of FSX activity.

 

The reason I mentioned the UI thread is because Bojote was probably very familiar with launching stuff on the UI thread and freezing the display.  Even today this is a constant concern of devs.

 

Cheers

jja

The genisis of this thread goes back to the glory days of ****** Bojote (cool MS contractor dude) who argued getting work off core 0 - AKA the UI thread.  You don't want to spin up alot of work on a thread that is already overloaded(bottleneck) especially the UI thread. 

 

For FSX, it was the scheduler thread which always ran on core 0.  Apparently that puppy is doing some major work and most apps started there in those days so he wanted to offload the rest of FSX activity.

 

The reason I mentioned the UI thread is because Bojote was probably very familiar with launching stuff on the UI thread and freezing the display.  Even today this is a constant concern of devs.

 

Cheers

jja

Bojote was always a good friend to anyone pushing the known limits. It would be great to see what he is up to these days.

 

Thanks for the reminder Jim!