FSX-MS Affinity Mask=14 does not work on my i7-4790K

[forshaw 47]

Hello Folks;

Interest observation about my Affinity Mask setting. It was always set to 84 (not 14) for as long as I can remember (my rig was built in 2014) don't remember why but I  known now. I have an i7-4790K Processor OC'ed to 4.4. with no Hyper Threading enabled. I decided to play around with Affinity Mask to determine if it really made a  difference for me, was I surprised!!!

•  Deleted the entire entry all together
  • Started FSX and launched ASN 16 and immediately got an error from ASN stating that "Affinity Mask=84 is missing and the app would not work". It than automatically updated my config file with that entry and said i should restart FSX. 
  • I didn't restart FSX for the entry to take (just to see what will happen) and my PC crashed about 1 min later
• Added the Affinity Mask=14
  • Launched FSX and ASN16 and didn't get an error from ASN but my PC crashed about 5 mins after.
  • Launched FSX without ASN16 and my PC also crashed about 5 mins later.
• Added back the Affinity Mask=84
  • FSX worked fine with and without ASN.

Conclusion:

• ASN16 will not run unless Affinity Mask=84 (I guess they need that core for the application to run) 
• MY FSX will not run period if it is set to 14 
  • This is very interesting since the calculations states that it should =14 if no Hyper Threading and I don't have HT enabled in my BIOS.

Now i know why it was set to 84 since ASN needed it and probably did so when it was installed.

Not sure why 14 wouldn't work at all in FSX .I am also using iFLY 747 and PMDG 747 4/8 aircraft and add-on airports. Didn't think that the other add-ons require a setting other than 14.

I have been running 84 for as long as i can remember and everything works fine for me, it's just interesting to know that 14 doesn't work.

Not sure if anyone else experienced the same restrictions as I did.

Thanks.

Kindest Regards.

Forshaw..

[airernie 263]

4 hours ago, forshaw said:

I have been running 84 for as long as i can remember and everything works fine for me, it's just interesting to know that 14 doesn't work. 

What was your previous chip?

Maybe even though hyper threading isn't enabled it's being sensed?

Affinity = 14 works fine on my i5-3750K, but it has no hyper threading.

[forshaw 47]

1 hour ago, airernie said:

What was your previous chip?

Maybe even though hyper threading isn't enabled it's being sensed?

Affinity = 14 works fine on my i5-3750K, but it has no hyper threading.

There wasn't a previous chip it was a brand new rig built from scratch and I never changed anything since. I looked everywhere to see if maybe it was set somewhere else (Including my config file) and, nothing. I also looked in the Add-On manager since I know that they can add values in various places of the app and config file and nothing. I double check my BIOS and nothing.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

Cheers.

Forshaw.

[Bob Scott 7,760]

First, there's no such thing as "ASN16."  There is ActiveSky Next (aka ASN), and ActiveSky 2016 (aka AS16).

If you pull up the task manager and go to the performance tab, and click on "Open Resource Monitor" you'll see either four or eight CPU load bars.  Four means HT is off, eight means HT is on.

Am AM of 84 with HT off is nonsense...since there are only four cores, only 4 bits are in use, meaning only 4-bit nonzero values of 1-15 have meaning.  I don't know for sure what FSX does with an out-of-bounds value...one possibility is it ignores it the same as a zero value and gives you effectively 15 (all cores), or it could truncate it to the lower four bits, which would be 8, with only one core active.

It might also be possible you have multiple affinity mask settings in the fsx.cfg file.  Or, if you're spelling it in the config file the same way as you did above in your original post ("Affinity Mask" with a space between the words) it's being ignored entirely (effectively AM=15 again).  The correct setting is AffinityMask=xx (note the case and no space).

Regards

[Bert Pieke 7,594]

Start Windows Task Manager and set affinity there as a test..

Your 84/14 scenarios do not make sense IMHO..

[lownslo 592]

It's generally not a good idea to allow an addon to control the affinity of the flight sim.  Once you stop Active Sky from setting the sim's affinity you should stop seeing the error messages.  If the shutdowns still happen you've got other issues beyond a goofy affinity setting.  FYI an affinity value of 84 for your 4 core HT/off will result in the sim running on all four cores, nothing more.

Good luck,

Greg

[forshaw 47]

Hello Folks;

My apologies for the delayed response I had an impromptu business trip so I couldn't respond.

So here is what I was able to determine after reading your posts and doing some more digging.

My BIOS HT setting was set to AUTO (not Enabled or Disabled) and those options did exist. I remember setting it as Disabled 4 years ago, that's about the time when I Overclocked my CPU. Not sure why and or when it reset to AUTO, and the manual just states that AUTO lets the BIOS configure it automatically (tell me something I don't already know) Maybe it switches back and forth based on specific conditions.

In the "Resource Monitor" there were 8 CPU load bars so HT was on, that's when I did check the BIOS is was AUTO as I stated earlier.

I changed the BIOS to HT "Disabled". set my AffinityMask=14 (yes I know it's one word with upper and lower case) and everything is running great no issues. I will also run a test with HT "Enabled" and AM=84 and see if there is any difference in FSX performance at all. If there is no difference I would just keep HT off.

Thanks again for your help, I appreciate it.

Best Regards.

Forshaw.