I would like everyone to add something to their testing...

After going through the HT checks as requested, DISABLE HT in the BIOS but leave the AffinityMask=N edit in the FSX.cfg file and use the value 15 for it and retest for smoother flight.

NickN wrote on Jan 28^th, 2009 at 5:19pm:


Did it .... works great, alot smoother for me! What does the 15 do, apply all 4 cores?


Also running OCCT Beta it only shows a 50% CPU usage as does CPUID as well (This is when HT is on)

Good.. then AffinityMask=15 with HT DISABLED in the BIOS also worked for you

Thanks!

Nick,

Thank you for the explanation.

One last observation which probably verifies, on my system, your theory:

I monitored the task manager while flying and the core usage is much more stable.
Instead of an EKG, cores 2,3,4 are more stable with the peaks lasting longer and the valleys not as sharp.

I think this is translates into the smooth flight I now experience.

Jack

OPPS!

QUARK!QUARK! (I did get that, thanks for the rude entry to the OC club!)

Jack

So what's the result of this test? If I have an i7, do I enable HT or not? What's the best way to run?

Where are we now.

I overclocked the i7 940 to 3.45ghz with a BClock of 157 staying below 80c.

But performance was still unacceptable in terms of tugs and stutters.

So I enabled HT in the BIOS.  Stutters worse, and as Nick predicted temps went through the roof.

Therefore I quickly disabled HT, but then completely deleted the fsx.cfg file and allowed it to regenerate.   All I added back was the Disable Preload.

And the flying is the smoothest it has been with very high settings.

Live and learn.  All that messing with Affinity Mask, Bufferpools and TBM seemed to make things worse, and for once the default config is better.

I accept that, Nick, and I am eternally grateful.  Without you - as I have said once before - I would have abandoned FSX about a month after it went commercial.

I am commuting at the moment for work reasons, so it won't be until next weekend that I can try the TBM 70 tweak.

(I suspect I am chronologically older than you, but not to work seems a curious situation in which to be.  But with my advanced years and the present financial situation, contracts are not necessarily close to home.)

Therefore, I have decided to stay with the i7 940 until Intel's next 'tock', or should I simply wait and buy a cheaper 965 when the market price inevitably falls?   It is a serious question, but not one that needs any answer in the short-term.

And seeing I have wandered off topic, my view is, that CPU technology will in two to three years will be sufficiently powerful, that all of the clumsiness of FSX will be overcome by the next two generations of processors.  

Which in turn means that whatever MS decides to do with the franchise will be increasingly less important as the hardware, and the commercial and free-ware worlds will simply adapt to whatever the development situation happens to be, and make the simulation better and better.

On the other hand I do believe that this is a design challenge that will never be completed.  Why?  Because we can never hold any one - in fact none - of the variables constant, so growth and change will and must occur.  Poor old Moore is likely to be with us for a long time yet!  Logically there must be an end, but pragmatically it seems still far away.