Recently FSX has been running very slowly. I have discovered that FSX is utilizing my graphics card as usual but it is not using my 4 core cpu. In flight the Cpu remains locked at 0.77 GHz on all 4 cores instead of clocking up to 3.2 GHz on all 4 as it has done in the past. What may be causing such a problem? I have no ideas. I have tried removing the fsx config and letting it rebuild but that did not change anything.
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FSX Core Utilization
- Thread starter Jeff112
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Jeff,
You are a rare person to be able to have all 4 cores using FSX as its a 32bit program. It will only run on one core. There are tricks to shifting it to core 2, mentioned in the tips and tricks PDF file over at AVSIM for making FSX and P3D run faster.
But... It should be using one of the cores at least. It cant be running 'fully' on only the GX card. That would again be a ultra rare impossibility.
You are a rare person to be able to have all 4 cores using FSX as its a 32bit program. It will only run on one core. There are tricks to shifting it to core 2, mentioned in the tips and tricks PDF file over at AVSIM for making FSX and P3D run faster.
But... It should be using one of the cores at least. It cant be running 'fully' on only the GX card. That would again be a ultra rare impossibility.
FSX (SP1 and newer) should utilize multiple cores properly. The 32 bit architecture has nothing to do with threading.
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That is correct. On my dual boot system, both the Xp Pro x32 install of FSX and the Win7 x64 install both show all 4 cores of my I5-2600K active, with core 0 doing most of the 'full time' work while cores 1-3 activity seems to be vary based on the scenery environment.
I saw the same behavior on my Q6600 CPU before upgrading my system.
As to the OP's problem, it sounds like something got changed in the BIOS setup for the CPU. I don't run mine in the 'dynamic' mode where the cpu clock frequency changes based on load. I run mine full bore at 4 Ghz all the time as I am not concerned with the junction temperature. I have a decent cooling arrangement.
So Jeff, you might have a look at your bios settings. I doubt that anything in FSX is causing the issue.
Paul
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Perhaps you were hearing "multi-threaded"....a different beast which FSX does not do, AIR.
Paul
Heretic
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Well, if it's any comfort to you, Bill, every other core than core #0 will only handle scenery rendering. The main stuff like flight dynamics, AI, etc...still will be done by the first core only.
So it might be advantageous to shift every extra program running besides FSX, i.e. ASX or AISmooth or whatdoIknow from core #0 to any other core.
jtanabodee
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Interesting! How we can do that?
Go to the task manager and set processor affinity. The exact instructions would vary slightly depending on the version of Windows, but essentially, go to the list of processes, right click the one you want to change, and choose the set affinity option. A dialog should come up with checkboxes corresponding to each logical processor in the machine.
Heretic
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Put this into the "target" field of a shortcut to a third-party program:
Code:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C START /AFFINITY 8 [name_of_exe_file]It will start the .exe in question on core #3.
Finding a suitable affinity value for each core can be tricky. For me, it works for 1,2,4,8.
Also, some .exe files refuse to run on other cores. AISmooth will not run everywhere but on core #0, while FSRealWX and RC4 merrily run on every core they're assigned to.
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I am limited to dual core at the moment so it wouldnt make a difference if I assign core utilization to applications, as FSX uses both when running after the SP1 update.
Thats not the point of my response, though, but can you set FSX to run on cores other than 0 or is it limited to the first 2 or 4 cores? In short are there limitations on what cores FSX can run on? I saw it mentioned that it has to use 0 for portions, but others will operate on 1,2,3 etc. Can FSX be directed to run only on 2 and 3 vs 0 and 1?
I know most programs are capable of running on any assigned core, with some exceptions as listed.
On a side note, if you are having performance issues with FSX, it could be a multitask lag. What I did on my old dual-core machine was have FSX set to a higher priority and it will get 'preferrential treatment' in the processor. This may cause other programs to have slow operation as you are forcing the processor to devote more power to FSX.
In short this will increase FSX performance but lower performance of other programs operating on the same core.
I am not as much in favor of prioritizing as I am with multi core utilization as it can impact multitasking, but you work with what you have.
On another side note, you can check your core operation in a 3d render environment, although not the only way to do so and usually not the most efficient, but it is effective to show if your cores are utilized. It will not tell you whats wrong if they are not, only show that it does or does not utilize. Most of them will default to CPU render than GPU render and programs like Blender, 3ds Max, Maya, DAZ, MAKEHUMAN( I think MH renders but cant recall), LuxRender, Yarafai, Kerkythea (or however you spell it), Truspace (limited based on setup), Wings3D, ZBrush, Sculptrix all will use multiple cores to render under CPU.
Might I recommend Blender. Get a blend file with a lot of nodes impacting the final render of a object. ensure blender is set to CPU render and render the scene. This will tell you if your cores are all working, as rendering can and will normally take a lot of the processors resources to compile the image/animation. It will sometimes staircase processors (step down the usage amount, using say 100% of 1 core, 95% of the 2nd, 50% 3rd, and a little on the 4th.)
GPU render will do in 10 seconds what takes CPU render 10 minutes. Unfortunately GPU is not available for most intergrated graphics cards (integrated graphics are pure evil in my view, portability and cost come at a price.)
You will need Task manager, Resource monitor or similar program to see the core utilization amount.
Thats not the point of my response, though, but can you set FSX to run on cores other than 0 or is it limited to the first 2 or 4 cores? In short are there limitations on what cores FSX can run on? I saw it mentioned that it has to use 0 for portions, but others will operate on 1,2,3 etc. Can FSX be directed to run only on 2 and 3 vs 0 and 1?
I know most programs are capable of running on any assigned core, with some exceptions as listed.
On a side note, if you are having performance issues with FSX, it could be a multitask lag. What I did on my old dual-core machine was have FSX set to a higher priority and it will get 'preferrential treatment' in the processor. This may cause other programs to have slow operation as you are forcing the processor to devote more power to FSX.
In short this will increase FSX performance but lower performance of other programs operating on the same core.
I am not as much in favor of prioritizing as I am with multi core utilization as it can impact multitasking, but you work with what you have.
On another side note, you can check your core operation in a 3d render environment, although not the only way to do so and usually not the most efficient, but it is effective to show if your cores are utilized. It will not tell you whats wrong if they are not, only show that it does or does not utilize. Most of them will default to CPU render than GPU render and programs like Blender, 3ds Max, Maya, DAZ, MAKEHUMAN( I think MH renders but cant recall), LuxRender, Yarafai, Kerkythea (or however you spell it), Truspace (limited based on setup), Wings3D, ZBrush, Sculptrix all will use multiple cores to render under CPU.
Might I recommend Blender. Get a blend file with a lot of nodes impacting the final render of a object. ensure blender is set to CPU render and render the scene. This will tell you if your cores are all working, as rendering can and will normally take a lot of the processors resources to compile the image/animation. It will sometimes staircase processors (step down the usage amount, using say 100% of 1 core, 95% of the 2nd, 50% 3rd, and a little on the 4th.)
GPU render will do in 10 seconds what takes CPU render 10 minutes. Unfortunately GPU is not available for most intergrated graphics cards (integrated graphics are pure evil in my view, portability and cost come at a price.)
You will need Task manager, Resource monitor or similar program to see the core utilization amount.