P3D V5.4 High CPU Usage & Temps

[newtie 540]

System specs?

[Kristiannoe 1]

- Win11

- ASUS ROG Strix Z790-H

- i9-13900k

- ASUS ROG Ryujin 360

- 64GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000

- 2x Kingston Fury Renegade 2TB Nvme

- ASUS ROG Strix 4090

I also have 3 extra fans installed in my case (Asus GT501).

[blaunarwal 433]

On 8/26/2023 at 10:36 AM, Kristiannoe said:

I tried the 13900k AM suggestion found in this thread. Made no difference to the CPU temperature. Still 85-100. I have a top line water cooling system installed with my CPU

I have the same CPU. Using the first proposal from @SteveW gave me 100 Deg and thermal throttling. The system stopped responding.

I then tried the second proposal for this CPU:

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=268435413
P3DCoreAffinityMask=268435413
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

An now I'm way below at 60 to 85 Centigrade. I use a vaio cooler with two radiators 140 mm. Not the best one but ok. To adjust the fans I use Fan Control https://getfancontrol.com/, a very handy tool to make the system cool when needed an silent the other time. My Gigabyte software coming with the board wasn't as good as this free software. Try this JobScheduler settings and check your cooling. Maybe your filters are congested already with dust. 

Dan

[Kristiannoe 1]

17 hours ago, blaunarwal said:

I have the same CPU. Using the first proposal from @SteveW gave me 100 Deg and thermal throttling. The system stopped responding.

I then tried the second proposal for this CPU:

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=268435413
P3DCoreAffinityMask=268435413
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

An now I'm way below at 60 to 85 Centigrade. I use a vaio cooler with two radiators 140 mm. Not the best one but ok. To adjust the fans I use Fan Control https://getfancontrol.com/, a very handy tool to make the system cool when needed an silent the other time. My Gigabyte software coming with the board wasn't as good as this free software. Try this JobScheduler settings and check your cooling. Maybe your filters are congested already with dust. 

Dan

Thanks for the suggestion, Dan. I am running a vanilla P3D 5.4, default aircraft, default airport (in the middle of nowhere, not a "heavy area"). Tried those numbers for JobScheduler as well, no luck. Rarely below 80 degrees centigrade. I am running 4k (60hz) though, I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

What I find strange is, that if I lower the "texture resolution" slider from 7cm to i.e 5 meters, my CPU cools down immediately. I find that a bit strange because I thought that would only affect the GPU.

Anyway, I guess the time has come for me to remove P3D. I will miss the FSLabs bus 😢

[blaunarwal 433]

1 hour ago, Kristiannoe said:

Thanks for the suggestion, Dan. I am running a vanilla P3D 5.4, default aircraft, default airport (in the middle of nowhere, not a "heavy area"). Tried those numbers for JobScheduler as well, no luck. Rarely below 80 degrees centigrade. I am running 4k (60hz) though, I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

What I find strange is, that if I lower the "texture resolution" slider from 7cm to i.e 5 meters, my CPU cools down immediately. I find that a bit strange because I thought that would only affect the GPU.

Anyway, I guess the time has come for me to remove P3D. I will miss the FSLabs bus 😢

Do you use the right GPU, i mean the discrete GPU?

[Tweetyrj85 5]

1 hour ago, blaunarwal said:

Do you use the right GPU, i mean the discrete GPU?

I might have a similar problem, because my CPU is continuously running hot while my 4090 GPU hardly seems to do anything. How do I set it to use the discrete GPU? Thanks

[Kristiannoe 1]

2 hours ago, blaunarwal said:

Do you use the right GPU, i mean the discrete GPU?

That’s a good questions. I have absolutely no idea. I’ve been using the same settings for a very long time.

How do I check this?

[blaunarwal 433]

13 minutes ago, Tweetyrj85 said:

I might have a similar problem, because my CPU is continuously running hot while my 4090 GPU hardly seems to do anything. How do I set it to use the discrete GPU? Thanks

It's easy, the cable to the monitor must be plugged in to the discrete gpu. If you get a signal (picture), it is working.

For the gpu which is inside the cpu it is a connector on the board, where you have all other connectors like usb etc. 

In the Nvidia settins, you can set your primary gpu.

In Prepar3D it should be shown somewhere in a menu. At least I know it is written into the prepar3d.cfg file, which one is used. There should be only one gpu. 

But there may be also that the gpu is not challenged, while the cpu is on its limits. The other point is bad cooling.

[Kristiannoe 1]

No dust, cooling works excellent with XP12 and MSFS. I can not get the temperatures down, no matter what I do.

I am out of ideas now.

[Tweetyrj85 5]

9 hours ago, blaunarwal said:

It's easy, the cable to the monitor must be plugged in to the discrete gpu. If you get a signal (picture), it is working.

For the gpu which is inside the cpu it is a connector on the board, where you have all other connectors like usb etc. 

In the Nvidia settins, you can set your primary gpu.

In Prepar3D it should be shown somewhere in a menu. At least I know it is written into the prepar3d.cfg file, which one is used. There should be only one gpu. 

But there may be also that the gpu is not challenged, while the cpu is on its limits. The other point is bad cooling.

Thanks for your reply. My sim PC is running 9 displays;

-three UHD TVs running at FHD each for a viewgroup covering nearly 180 degrees FOV. These are connected via DP to the 4090 GPU

-one FHD monitor for ECAM. Connected via  HDMI.

-two 1600x900 displaylink monitors for EFIS. Connected via USB3.

-two small 1024x600 LCD displays for MCDU screens. Connected via displaylink HDMI to USB3 adapters.

-one FHD Samsung tablet for FSiPanel. Connected via WIFI using the Spacedesk app.

My Previous PC (CPU Intel i7 6700K 4-Core (8 threads) 4.0Ghz and GPU Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X) was able to run all the above. The framerate was quite low, but I did not suffer the 1 to 2 second pauses. However it was still on P3Dv5.3 and W10.

My new PC (CPU: i9 13900k, GPU:NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB) has the following CPU watercooling: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 with fans above and below the radiator. In total 13 cooling fans. The GPU is vertically mounted. The PC is running P3Dv5.4  and W11.

I think this hardware should be sufficient to have better performance and no pauses.

[Kristiannoe 1]

Okay, I turned texture resolution down from 7cm to 60cm. Temperatures are almost 20 degrees lower now. I don't get it. That one slider is controlling my CPU temperature 🤣

[blaunarwal 433]

8 hours ago, Kristiannoe said:

No dust, cooling works excellent with XP12 and MSFS. I can not get the temperatures down, no matter what I do.

I am out of ideas now.

If the other sims work fine, it is a matter of settings in Prepar3D. At least, with default affinity mask settings, it should work fine. How about deleting your prepar3d.cfg and let the sim build a new one. How is it then?

[SteveW 1,792]

On 8/25/2023 at 11:32 PM, ywg256 said:

Steve,

 

What would you suggest for my i9-10850K with HT on?

 

Thanks in advance,

Sean

Hi Sean,

i9-10850K 10 core CPU with HT enabled 20 LPs

HT Enabled 10 core 20 LP
09,08,07,06,05,04,03,02,01,00=core number
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

 

This gives the three main tasks each a core to themselves and the remaining cores each have pairs for file processing.

 

Additional about high temperatures.

For those with persistent high temperatures they can reduce the number of cores dedicated to file processing and reducing settings in the simulator saves on CPU heat. For example, generating higher resolution textures increases CPU temperature because more file bytes are read in and processed.

Reduce heat by ignoring a couple of cores. So for example using Seans setup above:

i9-10850K 10 core CPU with HT enabled 20 LPs to use 8 cores:

HT Enabled 10 core 20 LP using 8 cores
09,08,07,06,05,04,03,02,01,00=core number
00,00,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01=AffinityMask = 65493
00,00,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 65493
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=65493
P3DCoreAffinityMask=65493
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=1
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=2

 

 

[SteveW 1,792]

More pointers for working with the P3D jobscheduler settings

 

Avoiding using certain cores...

Some systems might prefer to avoid certain cores for the main tasks which require the best core speed and a core to themselves. We can set up the jobscheduler to do that.

Additional example to avoid core zero for main task:

i9-10850K 10 core CPU with HT enabled 20 LPs to avoid core zero for main task "MainThreadScheduler". The LP map is as follows:

HT Enabled 10 core 20 LP avoid core zero for main task
09,08,07,06,05,04,03,02,01,00=core number
11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01,11=AffinityMask = 1048407
11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01,11=P3DCoreAffinityMask = 1048407
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00=MainThreadScheduler = 2
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00=RenderThreadScheduler = 3
00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,00=FrameWorkerThreadScheduler = 4

And the jobscheduler setting will be:

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=1048407
P3DCoreAffinityMask=1048407
MainThreadScheduler=2
RenderThreadScheduler=3
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

In this example, as usual the main tasks are located on cores with only one LP enabled (,01), this prevents P3D placing file loading tasks onto cores with the main tasks, which if allowed will bring down the available fps.

 

Do P3DCoreAffinityMask and AffinityMask have to be the same?

Where the three main tasks are located we make the "P3DCoreAffinityMask" equal to the "AffinityMask" because if we enable both core LPs in "AffinityMask" where the main tasks are located then P3D will assume those can be used for additional processes which we don't want to allow or fps will suffer.

 

How many file loading tasks do we need?

The more file loading tasks we can allow increases the speed the simulator processes scenery, traffic and other objects. Reducing the number of file loading tasks reduces heat slightly but those remaining file loading tasks take longer to complete and continue warming for a correspondingly longer time. We can allow file loading tasks to share cores with processes other than the 3 main P3D tasks and so in the example there are two file loading tasks enabled on core zero (,11) even though we want P3D to avoid core zero for main tasks.

 

How de we count LPs for the main task locations?

For the main task LP locations, these are counted from right to left (only those LPs with ones), starting from base zero. In the above example, the right-most LP containing a one is location zero, the third one is location 2, fourth is 3 and fifth is 4.

Writing out the LP map binary strings as I have shown makes it easy to work out the jobscheduler settings. To obtain the decimal value of the binary string, copy and paste into the Windows Calculator BIN field (programmer mode) and read the DEC field. So from the LP map, when pasting 11,11,11,11,11,11,01,01,01,11 into the BIN field, this gives 1048407 in the DEC field.

[ywg256 75]

This is terrific Steve, thank you. I dont have golf tonight so I think I will test this out and report back. I havent had success with ht on in the past so hopefully this works. I usually run ht off for stability and temperature reasons.