P3D V5.4 High CPU Usage & Temps

[black_zed 2]

Hi there,

I`m using an i7-12700K with 8 p-cores and 4 e-cores, HT enabled. What settings would be recommended for the job scheduler?

 

All the best,

Alex

[shermank 173]

I have an identical setup to yours, including cpu.

Here is my setting and it works well

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=43694

 

hope this helps

Sherm

[michael1508 2]

Hi SteveW, all,

my system is a 13-900k / RTX4080. I have connected 3 Full HD projectors  for my home cockpit. So even though my hardware is quite performant, I still have to be conservative with my settings. 

I have followed the advise for affinity masking from page 4 of this thread. The only change I made, was to set the schedulers to 1/3/5 instead 0/1/2

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=268391765
P3DCoreAffinityMask=268391765
MainThreadScheduler=1
RenderThreadScheduler=3
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=5

This gave me an improvement of +5-10 FPS. So I am absolutely thankful for this.

However, I was monitoring my CPU performance with HWInfo and I was surprised to see kind of low avg CPU usage of less than 20%! GPU a bit more than 20%. Please see attached pictures on CPU and GPU performance from my last test flight going around EDDL in bad weather conditions.

CPU/GPU Utilization

CPU Cores

Do these metrics look right to you, considering my hardware? I am especially concerned about the following:

• overall CPU usage less than 20% at average
• while on core 1 (main thread scheduler) thread 0 performs at 100%, thread 1 (Hyperthread?) is not really leveraged
• while cores 1, 3, 5 perform rather stable, cores 0, 2,4,6,7 are going up and down

Maybe usefull additional info: I have reduced the short and long duration power limit of my CPU to 125w. That helped a lot with temperature (now avg of ~60 celsius). Not sure, if there might be a relation.

Thanks again for your advise!

Edited December 31, 2023 by michael1508

[Lenovouser 11]

Hi,

I have elevated temperatures again.

I haven't dealt with it for a while... After I fixed the problem back then.

But yesterday I flew from EFRO to EDDF and it was constantly 87-88-89 degrees in the air.

My AffinityMask currently looks like this:

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

CPU AMD 5800x3D.

Is there anything you can do here to lower the temps?

Thanks

[Luis Hernandez 575]

Yes, you have several options:

1) spread the load better. As of now, you're forcing both the main and render threads to run in Core 0 (Threads 0 and 1). You may set either 0 or 6 for Main thread, 2 for Render and 4 for Frame. That way, you'll be running each of P3D's threads in a physical core (instead of sharing physical and logical). That might be the easiest one to apply.

EDIT: I misread your AM settings. After a second read, I see you did correctly (Main/Render/Frame threads each in a dedicated physical core).

2) turn SMT off (in BIOS) and recalculate your affinity mask.

3) Improve your cooling: the 5800X3D runs rather hot, compared to other AM4 CPUs. That's the most expensive option here...

Ah, and lock your frame rate externally (either in Nvidia Control Panel or RTSS). Unlike MSFS (and it's pesky camera transitions), 30 FPS is good and smooth enough for P3D. If you lock within P3D, or don't lock FPS at all, your CPU would be forced to run at 100% at all times.

Edited February 24 by Luis Hernandez

[Lenovouser 11]

Hi,
ok to:
1. So I'll adjust Affinity Mask?

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=65493
P3DCoreAffinityMask=65493
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

Should I change it like this?`

2. I have read very often that you should leave SMT activated. But if nothing else helps, that would be an option.

3. I almost had to switch to custom water cooling.

My PC has a very powerful AIO, plus 10 x 140mm fans, some of which run at 1500 RPM.

As I said, I never have any problems with CPU temp... It only gets extremely high in P3D

[Luis Hernandez 575]

43 minutes ago, Lenovouser said:

[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=65493
P3DCoreAffinityMask=65493

Sorry Lenovouser, I misread you. I thought I read 65535. With 65493, your current AM settings are right. My apologies 🙇‍♂️

SMT on may help with other apps, but not with flight sims, as far as I've seen. If your temperatures are OK, there's no reason to turn it off if ou have a good AM... but that's not your case. But, before messing with BIOS, do you lock your framerate? If so, how?

Your cooling looks good; at least a lot better than mine (aircooled, 220W TDP CPU cooler, 4 x 120 mm fans (2 in, 2 out) and I reach barely 80°C (peak) in MSFS. I started keeping SMT on because I run several utilities along my sim. Unless there's something going wrong with your AIO pump or your thermal paste, I wouldn't worry about that.

Edited February 24 by Luis Hernandez

[okupton 310]

Hi Everyone,

I am having a rough time on my system with p3d V5.4 all of a sudden. I have a i7 9700K, RTX3060, and 16GB RAM.  I know, not the strongest system and it is probably time for an upgrade, but I haven't had these issues until now really with 5.4.

CPU is running at 100% while airborne all the time.  CPU temps get into the 80s but GPU is not running 100% and temps seem normal.  When calling the GSX menu or trying to switch windows to something like Active Sky or really anything while p3d is running, my PC freezes for up to a minute.  My guess is it is the CPU trying to catch up and put cycles towards whatever I am trying to do outside of P3d.  This is happening with the fslabs a320, pmdg 737/777/747 and ifly 737 max.

Since I have a 9700K, I haven't messed with the Affinity Mask since there is no hyperthreading on this particular CPU, so I am just sticking with the stock Job Scheduler that is in my .cfg file.

Any thoughts on what I can do here?  The sim runs smoothly for the most part and looks great, except when I have to access anything that runs outside of the sim (like GSX), and then the computer goes haywire.  Early phases of flight don't have issues, it's only when I've been running the sim for a while and and getting ready for the approach or after landing. 

 

I have sliders toned back a bit (mid range) on pretty much everything, so I don't think it is something within p3d that is causing the issue, but maybe something outside the sim (BIOS setting, drivers?) that I need to be looking at.

 

Thanks 

Edited March 10 by okupton

[Rogen 1,094]

2 hours ago, okupton said:

Hi Everyone,

I am having a rough time on my system with p3d V5.4 all of a sudden. I have a i7 9700K, RTX3060, and 16GB RAM.  I know, not the strongest system and it is probably time for an upgrade, but I haven't had these issues until now really with 5.4.

CPU is running at 100% while airborne all the time.  CPU temps get into the 80s but GPU is not running 100% and temps seem normal.  When calling the GSX menu or trying to switch windows to something like Active Sky or really anything while p3d is running, my PC freezes for up to a minute.  My guess is it is the CPU trying to catch up and put cycles towards whatever I am trying to do outside of P3d.  This is happening with the fslabs a320, pmdg 737/777/747 and ifly 737 max.

Since I have a 9700K, I haven't messed with the Affinity Mask since there is no hyperthreading on this particular CPU, so I am just sticking with the stock Job Scheduler that is in my .cfg file.

Any thoughts on what I can do here?  The sim runs smoothly for the most part and looks great, except when I have to access anything that runs outside of the sim (like GSX), and then the computer goes haywire.  Early phases of flight don't have issues, it's only when I've been running the sim for a while and and getting ready for the approach or after landing. 

I have sliders toned back a bit (mid range) on pretty much everything, so I don't think it is something within p3d that is causing the issue, but maybe something outside the sim (BIOS setting, drivers?) that I need to be looking at.

Thanks 

The term "all of a sudden", usually implies an unexpected change resulting in (some problem).

First thing I would check for is dust clogging and CPU fan function, in fact I just cleaned 3 machines in the last 2 weeks for dust related problems.

Compressed air will do the job, you can get it in a can or via a compressor, take the machine outside though and mask up as there can be a lot of fine dust blown out. Perhaps also reseating the CPU with new paste too.

Otherwise, are you limiting the fps ?

I ask because the higher the fps, the more resources will be used,P3d functions best when fps are set to unlimited, however the fps must then be limited externally either via vsyncing or via something like riva tuner or NCP vsync or max frame rate settings (30 is a good fps to set assuming you would normally get 30 fps).

Additionally perhaps some software is chewing cpu cycles, a process of elimination might be the best approach here, e.g. disable AS & GSX and other apps one by one until you hit the app chewing the CPU cycles, then reenable the other apps one by one to confirm the problem app.

Hope the above helps.

Cheers

[okupton 310]

Thanks for your response.  I reseated the cpu about 6 months ago because my previous liquid cooler died.  Will get some compressed air and clean the fans to see if that helps.  Even switching from P3d to google chrome is a chore now…

I have 30 fps set in NCP as well as Vertical Sync 1/2 monitor refresh rate. 
 

i had done some investigating previously on if a particular addon (AIG, AS, Fslabs,etc) was causing the issue and have found nothing specifically, as it seems to be all of them cause problems if they are run outside of the simulator.  I will go back to vanilla and start again. I’m also going to try some other demanding applications/games and see if my issue is specific to P3d or if it is with other programs as well.

 

 

 

 

[Bob Scott 7,724]

You say "the CPU" is running at 100% all the time--keeping in mind that you have a multi-core CPU with 8 CPU cores, what are the individual CPU core loads?  It's normal for P3D to keep the core running the main thread heavily loaded, but if they're all firewalled at 100%, then I strongly suspect you have some process external to the sim behind that.  Some investigation with the task manager or a utility like ProcMon or Process Lasso may be needed.  Dust in the box will not cause a CPU to run at 100%...that's a software issue.

[okupton 310]

4 hours ago, Bob Scott said:

You say "the CPU" is running at 100% all the time--keeping in mind that you have a multi-core CPU with 8 CPU cores, what are the individual CPU core loads?  It's normal for P3D to keep the core running the main thread heavily loaded, but if they're all firewalled at 100%, then I strongly suspect you have some process external to the sim behind that.  Some investigation with the task manager or a utility like ProcMon or Process Lasso may be needed.  Dust in the box will not cause a CPU to run at 100%...that's a software issue.

Bob, every cpu core (8) is running at 100%.

I’m investigating processes running in the background but do not see anything out of the ordinary.  I’ve got defender exclusions set up on my P3d m2 drive also.  I may try running the sim with windows defender protection off to see if that helps.

 

[okupton 310]

OK to provide an update, I've done the below with positive results.

1) AIG Traffic Controller was eating CPU cycles, sometimes more than P3d.  I disabled AIGTC from starting with p3d and am using FSHud to inject traffic instead.

2) reinstalled Simconnect from within the Redist folder located in the main p3d folder.

3) reduced autogen draw distance to medium.

These three things have gotten p3d back to running smoothly and without any issues... for now.

 

[mattius123 3]

Saw this video yesterday about the increasing temps on load, I need to test it out on my MSI board but it looks to be extremely useful since I've tried the affinity mask and it doesn't make much that much difference to my temps: 

 

[G-RFRY 1,712]

Grab CPUID HWMonitor JTC and others use it. It will tell you all you need to know about your system and it`s free. IT could be something in your system getting hot and spreading in the case making your system get to hot. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154944674@N05/51765522590/in/dateposted-public

Even storage drives temps will show. I use it all the time have done for years. 

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

Sorry posted the wrong version this one is free.

This was dec 2019 testing on my old four core i7.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154944674@N05/49166722076/in/dateposted-public

 

Edited April 22 by G-RFRY