Affinity Mask -> NEVER leave out Core 0!

[Mischung 48]

I think there are system-configurations where using an AM makes sense and can be useful. One has to find out what works best.
It's all about available core, HT or not, other processes (Addons and windows processes), etc.

It makes absolutely sense to assign 8 cores of 14 to P3D like Gerard - it will not improve performance to assign all cores to P3D in that case. 
Would guess 8 cores should be a good number of cores for P3D but 4 cores are the minimum.

Had a 4790K before with HT=On and also used an AM (85=01010101) with very good results (assigning almost all other processes to cores 3,5,7).

Also I'm totally aware of that I do not have to totally separate addons and other processes from the P3D cores, but I thougth it would be a nice try to avoid any interference.

I will delete my AM for P3D and assign the least used cores to all my addons and also all other processes in the background using Process Lasso.
The Windows scheduler can do the rest of the work then 😉

The Maxim is to get everything away from core 0, which is the main rendering task. Simple as that 

But just to highlight the main problem in my case:
Do not disable the first core of your processor in your P3D-AM!
I was not aware that I can use AM=01111111 without problems, but an AM=11111110 will lead to very slow texture loading.

[mpw8679 428]

10 minutes ago, Mischung said:

It makes absolutely sense to assign 8 cores of 14 to P3D like Gerard - it will not improve performance to assign all cores to P3D in that case. 
Would guess 8 cores should be a good number of cores for P3D but 4 cores are the minimum.

That is simply not true.  In extremely complex scenery u will see scenery loading improvement with more then 8 cores.  8 core is the sweet spot IMO.  U can easily overload the rendering cores with 6 or less cores.

[shamrockflyer 647]

I use the manual AM method which goes by unselecting core 0 in task manager when P3D is open, closing the Set Affinity tab and then reopening and reselecting core 0. That method has always worked well for me on V4 and I do notice a big difference between with and without.

[Nuno Pinto 1,394]

Don't use masks with CPUs without HT. It's just a bad idea.

[Mischung 48]

Ok Matt, we can agree on 8 cores being the sweet spot 😄

But I think there is a max number of cores which is a kind of an optimum to work with.
The first rendering thread has to synchronize all of them and at a given point there is too much overhead and the sim will not benefit anymore.

Maybe that's 12 or 14 cores, I don't really know, but it would be interesting. Don't have the HW to test this out (unfortunately) 😉

[Mischung 48]

7 minutes ago, shamrockflyer said:

I use the manual AM method which goes by unselecting core 0 in task manager when P3D is open, closing the Set Affinity tab and then reopening and reselecting core 0. That method has always worked well for me on V4 and I do notice a big difference between with and without.

That's some kind of Voodoo to me and I can not understand that this is working good 😆

I once used Process Lasso to assign cores to P3D and it ended in stutters without end, because the primary rendering task had no 100% load anymore (with frame rate limited). Workload seemed to spread across all cores better, but it was not fluid anymore.

Setting the exact same AM in my P3D.cfg that I used with Process Lasso before resulted in a very fluid sim with core 0 at 100% load all the time (that's the way it is with a TFR) 

[mpw8679 428]

31 minutes ago, Mischung said:

That's some kind of Voodoo to me and I can not understand that this is working good 😆

I once used Process Lasso to assign cores to P3D and it ended in stutters without end, because the primary rendering task had no 100% load anymore (with frame rate limited). Workload seemed to spread across all cores better, but it was not fluid anymore.

Setting the exact same AM in my P3D.cfg that I used with Process Lasso before resulted in a very fluid sim with core 0 at 100% load all the time (that's the way it is with a TFR) 

I tried PL one time. It was a stuttering nightmare.  Not saying it was not self induced but never again

[mpw8679 428]

46 minutes ago, Mischung said:

Ok Matt, we can agree on 8 cores being the sweet spot 😄

But I think there is a max number of cores which is a kind of an optimum to work with.
The first rendering thread has to synchronize all of them and at a given point there is too much overhead and the sim will not benefit anymore.

Maybe that's 12 or 14 cores, I don't really know, but it would be interesting. Don't have the HW to test this out (unfortunately) 😉

P3D will use all u can give it but yes at some point u would see no improvement.  Right now cruising in ORBX land in the A2A 172 cores 0-1 are running about 50% and the remaining 6 cores are averaging bout 90-95%.  

Edited January 11, 2019 by mpw8679

[lownslo 592]

2 hours ago, mpw8679 said:

In your case u should not use a affinity mask within p3d and let your addons share cores with the rendering cores.

Too funny!  Good luck with that...

[mpw8679 428]

12 minutes ago, lownslo said:

Too funny!  Good luck with that...

Umm ok.  What would u do then? Put them on 0-1????

[Luke 782]

I have P3D running on an i7-9700K, locked at 45fps with the PMDG 737-700. Disabled cores 0 and 1. Was something supposed to happen?

(Disabled 2 and 3 as well... still nothing). 

Cheers!

[RichieFly 726]

Just to re-enforce the OP's point--

With Version 4.4 of P3D, having core 0 masked caused the same issue for me. Viz, terrain textures not loading during flight. I have HT on and 8 cores. This used to be non-problematic. Something changed with 4.4, in this regard.

I was using process lasso. Now, I'm not using process lasso. Problem solved. I've think I've noticed a lower CPU load with 4.4 also. I can't give anything beyond a 'I think' because I don't have any data. I used to see near maxed CPU load and now, not so much.

[KBUR 178]

19 hours ago, Mischung said:

Solution:

 

To make it short => Never leave out Core 0 in your AM (maybe different with HT).

 

Yes, you are absolutely correct !!!!!  👍

At least your observations are congruent with my own experiences.

But I observed this "phenomena"  of " Never leave out Core O in your AM"  since the release of Prepar3D v3, and it caused me a lot of headache, research, try and error.

Because in these days (v.3) you could often read on forums posts like this "...don't assign your P3D to Core 0, because of...etc...etc...etc..."

Leaving out Core 0 makes texture loading slower and has literally no benefit for a better sim performance. ---> that was and still is my final conclusion.

Your mileage may vary.

 

Cheers, Konrad.

Edited January 12, 2019 by KBUR
English and me don't love each other.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,927]

12 hours ago, mpw8679 said:

That is simply not true.  In extremely complex scenery u will see scenery loading improvement with more then 8 cores.  8 core is the sweet spot IMO.  U can easily overload the rendering cores with 6 or less cores.

Matt,

I fail to understand why you would type out long words like improvement but always use "u" for you. You're saving 2 letters and possibly causing confusion to those whose first language is not English. I know you mean no harm by doing it but seeing it repeatedly is irritating.

[Afterburner 374]

My suggestion from my experience is plain and simple: Don't tweak the AF setting at all, and you will be fine!  Those who tweak the AF setting may be surprised about blurry textures or late autogen loading.