P3Dv4.5 Micro Stuttering

[CaptBmckay 22]

I have the same issue and it appeared after a string of GSX updates. If I don’t activate any function of GSX, the micro stuttering does not appear. If I use the GSX pushback, etc, ill have micro stutters during pushback, taxi. The stuttering disappears during cruise. The stutter is unique as it’s a rythmic milisecond tick every 3 seconds. 

 

I have I7 9700k, RTX 2080, 32GB ram 8TB drive. 

[CaptBmckay 22]

After more research, I have to recant my statement regarding GSX. In my case the culprit was a process running in the background called, Killer Control Center. I have the killer NIC card. There's an issue with Windows 10 and the Killer control panel. It was causing the sim to micro stutter. I removed the process and it works flawlessly. 

[SteveW 1,792]

I see the KillerNic control panel introduce 17% spikes on core zero so that's 17% troughs in throughput when P3D is running without an AM.

Ordinarily the control panel app is disabled in startup and need only be run from the menu when settings are studied or changes made.

Generally we disable anything we don't need when using the PC for simming.

What this shows is that any small process will introduce stutter when it is allowed to interfere with the P3D main task or rendering frames.

On the 6+ core example using HT Disabled AM=30=011110 or HT enabled AM=340=00,01,01,01,01,00 moves the main task onto the second core avoiding activity on the first.

Also for the HT OFF/NO AM crowd to consider, try no AM on an 18 core for a good laugh at stutter, AM=340 +HT works well on those too, even though the sim is only using four cores with 340.

Edited November 5, 2019 by SteveW

[Dirk98 354]

On 10/27/2019 at 9:15 PM, Mace said:

Like rogen, I used to think that, too.  But now, it's super smooth.  I run similarly to what he reports.

In P3D Frame Rate setting on Locked @30 or Unlimited?

Thanks

[Mace 1,902]

6 hours ago, Dirk98 said:

In P3D Frame Rate setting on Locked @30 or Unlimited?

Thanks

I run P3D frame rate unlimited, with vsync checked.  Monitor refresh is set to 30hz

As you know that will not work for everyone.  For example, if you have a 4 core cpu, it may not be the best way to achieve smoothness.  I know it works well for my 6-core 8700K with Hyperthreading ON.   If I decided to run with Hyperthreading OFF, then I may need to revisit my "unlimited" vsync on scenario.

[Rogen 1,087]

2 hours ago, Mace said:

I run P3D frame rate unlimited, with vsync checked.  Monitor refresh is set to 30hz

If you don't have a monitor that can refresh @ 30 hz, Riva Tuner Statistics Server will enable a half refresh rate vsync, meaning you can have that 30 fps locked via vsync on a 60 hz screen mode. Alterantively the NVidia control panel offers options for different vsync rates (if you can get it to work that is).

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/553608-frustrated-with-setting-monitor-to-30hz-an-alternative

I also made a video demonstrating RTSS use without and with vsync, check out the frate rate counter in the bottom right hand corner and how with vsync/2 it locks @ 30 fps.

https://youtu.be/VyNVJjhfLeE

At least CaptBmckay resolved their microstutter probs and along the way found out the issue was nothing to do with anything flight sim related...

Cheers

[HUSSAR 262]

Using Process Lasso on an i7 4790K with HT on AM binary 11110100 selected for Prepar3D.  Where should I place add on's like TrackIr5, FFTF etc. on?

Is it better to have Prepar3D selected this way - 01010100 and add on's placed on the same cores?

Thanks.

[AnkH 2,233]

Robert, if I am not entirely wrong, it does not really matter where you put your addons on as long as it is not the first core Prepar3d uses. At least in my case, I put all my external addons running on the last two cores of my six core plus HT CPU and this is sufficient and perfectly fine. Those addons do not need a lot of processor power, it is just that you keep them away from the main core used for P3D. I use an AM for the simulator that simply mimicks HT, means: 01 01 01 01 01 01 or "1365". But, as with many things regarding tweaking P3D, ymmv and you need to find the setup that suits your hardware combo best.

[SteveW 1,792]

Hi Rob, If you can move active addon exes put them at the left, on the right, the first 'one' is the main task. Core zero is also OK. Basically keep stuff away from that first task.

 

If the first task is not able to max out (unlimited), that could mean the settings put too much load on the GPU. When checking out throughput on the CPU be sure that settings don't make the system GPU bound or no results are conclusive.

 

Re: HT vs disabled: In P3D testing yesterday on 10core + systems and with HT enabled and four LPs AM340=01,01,01,01,00 vs HT disabled four LPs AM30=11110 the HT mode is around 5% better throughput for the same setting even though the P3D tasks are only one LP per core AM340. That overhead counts toward less troughs in performance to make stutter

But since some games are difficult to administer, if we can't see better performance in a game with HT, go HT disabled.

[Dirk98 354]

14 hours ago, Mace said:

I run P3D frame rate unlimited, with vsync checked.  Monitor refresh is set to 30hz

As you know that will not work for everyone.  For example, if you have a 4 core cpu, it may not be the best way to achieve smoothness.  I know it works well for my 6-core 8700K with Hyperthreading ON.   If I decided to run with Hyperthreading OFF, then I may need to revisit my "unlimited" vsync on scenario.

And why is that, any specific considerations for that?

For what it matters on my older i7 6700k @4.6GHz system (4 cores) I also had better results with HT On, 30Hz monitor, FPS @Unlimited, VSync On. I never saw or noticed any missing autogen, but all my settings where moderate and I never flew 3+ hour flights in FSL A3xx with a full ORBX sandwich, ASP4, all heavy airports installed and tons of USB hardware.

Now it is on i9 9900k @5.3GHz but needs time to study what works best.

[Mace 1,902]

11 hours ago, Dirk98 said:

And why is that, any specific considerations for that?

I can give my observations and considerations as to my 8700K.   If I disable hyperthreading on my 6-core 8700K, I revert to 6 physical cores.  That is fine, except that I've found that at my preferred settings, 6 cores is not enough to allow me to avoid thread saturation.  When that happens, P3D drops terrain loading...and I get blurries even with a slow aircraft.  I have to reduce cpu-intensive sliders (like Autogen Buildings, AI cars, Special Effects) to compensate.  This is not ideal.

On the other hand, if I run my 6-core cpu with HT=on (12 cores), I'm able to run a notch higher on AG buildings and avoid blurries.  With my 8700K, with HT=on, I'll see the cores getting hit, but generally speaking not hammered, because there are more them (11 cores available) and the terrain loading is spread across those cores.   With HT=off, I'll see those terrain loading cores (Cores 1-5) getting absolutely hammered, since there are only 5 cores available to P3D on my 6 core system for terrain loading.  With HT=on, depending on the AM I use, I'll have many more (as many as 11) cores available for texture loading.

But here is what I mean about this not working for everyone.  Some people with 8700K's have reported best smoothness with HT=off.  They avoid blurries running 6 physical cores, no doubt because they run different settings than I do.  The cpu-intensive sliders make a difference as to the overall load on the cores.

11 hours ago, Dirk98 said:

For what it matters on my older i7 6700k @4.6GHz system (4 cores) I also had better results with HT On, 30Hz monitor, FPS @Unlimited, VSync On. I never saw or noticed any missing autogen, but all my settings where moderate and I never flew 3+ hour flights in FSL A3xx with a full ORBX sandwich, ASP4, all heavy airports installed and tons of USB hardware.

Now it is on i9 9900k @5.3GHz but needs time to study what works best.

It does take time, but you can have fun doing it (doing flights) and the results are smoothness and good visuals.  That's why we have good subforums like this one.  I might be doing something wrong in my analysis, and one of you guys will point it out.

[mikeymike 357]

On 10/22/2019 at 1:48 PM, SteveW said:

CPU: HT Enabled

P3D: AM=340

Hi,

what AM would you recommend for an i9 9900k with HT on?

ATM I have it off and working well, but am curious to see how it will work with the right AM.

if I can use HT it’ll be great

 

thanks

mike

[HUSSAR 262]

18 hours ago, SteveW said:

Hi Rob, If you can move active addon exes put them at the left, on the right, the first 'one' is the main task. Core zero is also OK. Basically keep stuff away from that first task.

Thank you Steve, "stuff" includes Prepar3D as well?  On my i74790K HT on I have set Prepar3D to an AM of:  11010100 with CPU 8 is the most impacted at about 80% usage.

I placed add on's onto 01101000 and here is what the load on the CPU looks like:

Hopefully this will help the issue.

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2019 by HUSSAR

[HUSSAR 262]

That didn't work, sound "skipping" then Prepar3D CTD.  I also have Riva Tuner Statistics Server running at Scanline sync x/2 at 60 which locks frames to 30 FPS, I think it is interfering with Process Lasso.

Edited November 7, 2019 by HUSSAR

[AnkH 2,233]

10 hours ago, mikeymike said:

what AM would you recommend for an i9 9900k with HT on?

I would first start with AM=21845, that basically mimicks HT off by disabling the "hyperthreaded cores". In binary code, this is 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01. Counting starts from the right, means the last "1" on the right tells you that Core0 is active, but the "hyperthreaded core" of Core0 is disabled.

Some people have better results by completely disabling Core0, this would then result in 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 00, or an AM=21844.

Others disable only the Core0 and leave all other cores untouched, e.g. 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 00, this would result in an AM=65532.

You need to test what value suits your setup most, as it really depends on what else you have installed and running along side P3D etc.

BTW: either use the AM calculators you find online or simply the Windows calculater set on "programmer" and then "binary". It will allow you to put the 01 combinations in and shows the decimal value. This decimal value is the AM.