New Build - New some settings recommendations

[SteveW 1,792]

That one is for 8 core HT on - for HT off you need the other I posted which was:

8 core HT Disabled

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=255
P3DCoreAffinityMask=213
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

 

[airservices 133]

Thank you very much for your time Steve

[SteveW 1,792]

You can experiment with these by only changing the P3DCoreAffinityMask value:

P3DCoreAffinityMask=85 - coolest (slowest loading files)
P3DCoreAffinityMask=213 - cool (what I posted)
P3DCoreAffinityMask=221 - warm
P3DCoreAffinityMask=253 - warmer
P3DCoreAffinityMask=255 - warmest (quickest loading files)

The difference to the way the sim works is that the higher values only help to gather scenery files more quickly. As you fly along the sim reads in the files, when you are parked it doesn't do so much work.

So in this example using coolest value the files load slowest:

8 core HT Disabled coolest and slowest loading files (P3D v5.3):

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=255
P3DCoreAffinityMask=85
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

[ducaud 9]

Hello Steve,

Can you calculate the Affinity Mask for my CPU. I have an I9-10850K which is overclocked to 5 Ghz on all cores.

What is the advantage of having the HT on or off?

Thanks.

Juan

[SteveW 1,792]

3 hours ago, ducaud said:

I have an I9-10850K which is overclocked to 5 Ghz on all cores.

Hi Juan,

That's 10 cores, and with HT enabled gives 20 Logical Processors, it runs up to 5GHz with max turbo boost to 5.2GHz.

Since HT on doubles the Logical Processor count this enables us to assign more background tasks which gives quicker loading of files and increases networking throughput and for that we do get more heat.

With maximum file loading speed we get smoother frame to frame times because new files loaded as we fly along will be loaded more efficiently.

The maximum file loading speed will be with HT on and all cores assigned in the Affinity setup like this:

11,11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01=AffinityMask = 1048533
11,11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 1048533
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01=MainThreadScheduler = 0
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00=RenderThreadScheduler = 1
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 2

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1048533
P3DCoreAffinityMask=1048533
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

That's generally what we want.

We can go cooler with HT enabled by using less background tasks:

11,11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01=AffinityMask = 1048533
00,11,00,11,00,11,00,01,01,01=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 209685
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01=MainThreadScheduler = 0
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00=RenderThreadScheduler = 1
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 2

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1048533
P3DCoreAffinityMask=209685
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

That example gives three cores for background and three main tasks. Still should give good results.

 

With HT disabled we can leave P3D to make up the Affinity settings for us and it will use all the cores:

1111111111=AffinityMask = 1023
1111111111=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 1023
0000000001=MainThreadScheduler = 0
0000000100=RenderThreadScheduler = 2
0000010000=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 4

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1023
P3DCoreAffinityMask=1023
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

That gives seven cores for the background tasks and three for the main tasks.

We can go cooler with less background cores:

1111111111=AffinityMask = 1023
0101010101=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 341
0000000001=MainThreadScheduler = 0
0000000100=RenderThreadScheduler = 1
0000010000=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 2

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1023
P3DCoreAffinityMask=341
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

That gives two cores to the background tasks which will take longer to load files and remains with three for the main tasks.

So you can try HT on and all cores and see if things get too hot. If too hot you can try HT on with less cores assigned or go to HT off.

Remember that another factor is what frame rate you are limiting to by Vsync or fps limit which will reduce demand on the CPU and GPU. With the P3D Display setting fps on the slider this is similar to unlimited in that it continues to make frames to fill up the look-ahead buffer and you generally see the first core reach 100% with that.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by SteveW

[airservices 133]

11 hours ago, SteveW said:

 

11 hours ago, SteveW said:

You can experiment with these by only changing the P3DCoreAffinityMask value:

Hi Steve now I see things a bit clearer I shall give your settings a go

 

[SteveW 1,792]

With the correct Affinity settings you don't lose fps, but with the wrong Affinity settings we can lose fps, performance of the foreground tasks.

But rather than thinking in terms of fps it can be said more correctly that it will limit the detail you can show in the desired frame to frame time.

Affinity settings I post are selected to avoid losing fps, maintaining the maximum possible performance of the foreground tasks. However, the differences between them are that they alter the performance of the background tasks, and heat generated overall.

[dufus01 18]

Hello I have an  i9-11900KF processor.  Can someone come up with a affinity mask for me.  I’m still running on 5.2 with hot fixes.  Thanks much!!!!

[avi8tir 25]

OP here.... so, I updated settings etc per the recommendations in the first several responses. Everything is butter smooth and looks amazing. 

The funny thing is that FPS has dropped from 30 to 15. Most of my settings were at ultra already. Even funnier is, if I didnt have the FPS overlay, I would have ZERO idea that its running at 15. Its so smooth. 

I did the affinity mask settings, nividia control panel settings. I also turned FXAA off. (was on).

Ive seen mixed responses as far as FXAA, AA and Texture Filtering -- what should these be set at for my setup?

i9-12900k / asus rog strix rtx 3080ti

Edited April 4, 2022 by avi8tir

[SteveW 1,792]

10 hours ago, avi8tir said:

The funny thing is that FPS has dropped from 30 to 15. Most of my settings were at ultra already. Even funnier is, if I didnt have the FPS overlay, I would have ZERO idea that its running at 15. Its so smooth. 

That can happen on some systems, we see half the desired set frequency and is to do with vsync. Go back to NCP and restore the global setting and the Prepar3D setting and in P3D settings set unlocked on the fps slider and vsync=off and observe the fps in the sim. Come back with result...

[SteveW 1,792]

On 4/2/2022 at 8:16 PM, dufus01 said:

Hello I have an  i9-11900KF processor.  Can someone come up with a affinity mask for me.  I’m still running on 5.2 with hot fixes.  Thanks much!!!!

That's an 8 core and 16 thread with HT enabled which has been discussed earlier in the discussion:

HT Enabled 8 core 16 LP

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=65493
P3DCoreAffinityMask=65493
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

 

8 core HT Disabled

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=255
P3DCoreAffinityMask=255
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

 

[SteveW 1,792]

17 hours ago, avi8tir said:

The funny thing is that FPS has dropped from 30 to 15. Most of my settings were at ultra already. Even funnier is, if I didnt have the FPS overlay, I would have ZERO idea that its running at 15. Its so smooth. 

...just wondering if you are referring to the P3D SHIFT+Z fps display? It is possible some other fps monitor might show half actual fps. Another possibility is that on some systems a visible undocked panel might cause to half the fps. Let us know what you find.

[avi8tir 25]

18 minutes ago, SteveW said:

...just wondering if you are referring to the P3D SHIFT+Z fps display? It is possible some other fps monitor might show half actual fps. Another possibility is that on some systems a visible undocked panel might cause to half the fps. Let us know what you find.

I used shift+z as well as the nvidia overlay. they were identical. I did have an undocked panel, but I usually fly like that. I'll make the changes you suggested and report back. 

[ducaud 9]

On 4/2/2022 at 12:25 AM, SteveW said:

Thanks for the information Steve. I am currently running three 2k monitors, that I am able to set to 30hz using Nvidea, and I leave the frame limiter to unlimited.

I am now in the process of deciding if I should replace my 1080TI with either an RTX3090 or an RTX3080 Ti

Thanks again.

Regards

Juan

 

Quote

Hi Juan,

That's 10 cores, and with HT enabled gives 20 Logical Processors, it runs up to 5GHz with max turbo boost to 5.2GHz.

Since HT on doubles the Logical Processor count this enables us to assign more background tasks which gives quicker loading of files and increases networking throughput and for that we do get more heat.

With maximum file loading speed we get smoother frame to frame times because new files loaded as we fly along will be loaded more efficiently.

The maximum file loading speed will be with HT on and all cores assigned in the Affinity setup like this:

11,11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01=AffinityMask = 1048533
11,11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 1048533
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01=MainThreadScheduler = 0
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00=RenderThreadScheduler = 1
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 2

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1048533
P3DCoreAffinityMask=1048533
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

That's generally what we want.

We can go cooler with HT enabled by using less background tasks:

11,11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01=AffinityMask = 1048533
00,11,00,11,00,11,00,01,01,01=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 209685
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01=MainThreadScheduler = 0
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00=RenderThreadScheduler = 1
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 2

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1048533
P3DCoreAffinityMask=209685
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

That example gives three cores for background and three main tasks. Still should give good results.

 

With HT disabled we can leave P3D to make up the Affinity settings for us and it will use all the cores:

1111111111=AffinityMask = 1023
1111111111=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 1023
0000000001=MainThreadScheduler = 0
0000000100=RenderThreadScheduler = 2
0000010000=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 4

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1023
P3DCoreAffinityMask=1023
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

That gives seven cores for the background tasks and three for the main tasks.

We can go cooler with less background cores:

1111111111=AffinityMask = 1023
0101010101=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 341
0000000001=MainThreadScheduler = 0
0000000100=RenderThreadScheduler = 1
0000010000=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 2

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1023
P3DCoreAffinityMask=341
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

That gives two cores to the background tasks which will take longer to load files and remains with three for the main tasks.

So you can try HT on and all cores and see if things get too hot. If too hot you can try HT on with less cores assigned or go to HT off.

Remember that another factor is what frame rate you are limiting to by Vsync or fps limit which will reduce demand on the CPU and GPU. With the P3D Display setting fps on the slider this is similar to unlimited in that it continues to make frames to fill up the look-ahead buffer and you generally see the first core reach 100% with that.

 

[avi8tir 25]

9 hours ago, SteveW said:

That can happen on some systems, we see half the desired set frequency and is to do with vsync. Go back to NCP and restore the global setting and the Prepar3D setting and in P3D settings set unlocked on the fps slider and vsync=off and observe the fps in the sim. Come back with result...

so, I restored the defaults in NCP. tweaked my settings a bit to: FXAA: OFF, AA: 4xSSAA (was 8xSSAA), Ansiotropic 16x, Texture Res on Ultra. 

I kept target frame rate to unlocked in both P3D and NCP just to see what it would do. Now I am getting 28-30 fps at FlyTampa KLAS in the PMDG 772ER. I applied the NCP settings again and gained a frame or too. This was with broken clouds (active sky). Departed out to the west to get over the desert and saw 30-35fps. closed active sky and set weather to clear skies and got 80-100fps. Then put AA back to 8xSSAA and saw about a 20 frame drop. 

What is the benefit of 8xSSAA vs 4xSSAA? I could not easily tell the difference. 

Last question.... what is the benefit of capping frame rate to 30fps as I see many people do?