Simviation Forum - Affinity Setting

Oct 17^th, 2011 at 6:08pm

Groovin_DC-10 Offline
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Sorry guys. Hope I'm not asking too many questions. I'm still an FSX newb.

Anyway, I came across a thread in another forum yesterday that suggested, opening TASK MANAGER and manually set the Affinity setting to let FSX use the last 3 cores. I didn't notice any difference so I set it back to using all 4 cores.

Now, I always use the TASK MANAGER after opening up FSX and set PRIORITY to HIGH and I feel this improved my performance a bit.

The only thing I'm worried about is when I tried the Affinity setting. Since this was done through TASK MANAGER, I'm a little worried that it may have changed some of my default FSX setting. I have FSX Gold installed, so the patch that makes use of multiple cores are installed. So when I experimented by using 3 cores, I'm worried that it may have changed something in FSX's default setting.

What do you guys think? Does playing around with the affinity setting through task manager change any of the default FSX settings, like the fsx.cfg for example?

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Reply #1 - Oct 18^th, 2011 at 3:41pm

patchz Offline
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I don't think so, as you have to set the affinity every time you fire up FSX. So it apparently does not change anything permanently.

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

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Reply #2 - Oct 18^th, 2011 at 6:24pm

Capt.Propwash Offline
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In your FSX.CFG that is burried deep in your computer in hidden files.. add the following anywhere that you want BEFORE you start flight sim.

[JOBSCHEDULER]
affinitymask=14

Start FSX, and then set your FSX AFFINITY via Task Manager to all 4 cores... and the Priority to Normal.

Every sequential start of FSX should stay at the 4 cores in the TM Affinity.

You should see about a 10-15% increase in FPS. (3-7 FPS increase)

The thoughts and expressions contained in the post above are solely my own, and not necessarily those of Simviation.com, its Moderators, its Staff, its Members, or other guests. They can not, are not, and will not be held liable for any thoughts, or expressions, or posts that I have made, or will make in the future.

Computer Specs:: Acer Aspire Laptop..Win7 Home Premium 64-bit (sp1), AMD Athlon II X2 P340 (Dual Core) [2.2 Ghz], ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 (256mb), 4GB DDR3......FS9.1(sp3) / FSX (sp2)..... Ultimate Terrain X, Ground Environment X, REX, FTX ORBX PNW-PFJ-NRM-CRM, OZx, Tongass Fjords, Misty Moorings

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Reply #3 - Oct 18^th, 2011 at 10:33pm

Groovin_DC-10 Offline
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Thanks guys. I think Pat is correct because everytime I exit FSX, the affinity setting goes back to all 4 cores.

Capt,
I changed it back to all cores and I think it's still working on all 4 cores. I opened up CoreTemp while FSX was running and it's telling me that Core 0 is being used 100% most of the time, while cores 1, 2, and 3 stay fairly low, maybe 10-30% average, but once in a while all 4 cores will hit 100%. Does this seem right for FSX?
I still haven't added the Affinity line to my cfg file incase it's already working fine.

Is there a reason why you recommend setting affinity to Normal? I've been setting mine to high. I feel it has given me a small increase in performance. I tried realtime, but my Saitek autopilot panel starts to freeze on realtime. So far High has been 100% stable.

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Reply #4 - Oct 19^th, 2011 at 4:53am

Overkill Beyond Overkill Ex Member

In fsx.cfg try these tweaks:

[JOBSCHEDULER]
affinitymask=14

try it

and then try

[JOBSCHEDULER]
affinitymask=13

See which works better for you.

Don't bother messing with affinity and priority through task manager. The settings do not save either (so don't worry about that).

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Reply #5 - Oct 19^th, 2011 at 3:40pm

EVVFCX Offline
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during my usual daily visit to SV I saw this thread, as we are always looking at smoothness and speed I thought I'd google.
The list i found about it doesn't mention the 13 or 14 mentioned above and others replying it doesn't make any difference, it did say use 15 for quad core.

I'm on dual core so 13 or 14 doesn't effect me but where have these figures come from?

May the Mynd be with you.
So far my number of landings either passenger or pilot equal my number of takeoffs, but that is due to change

13/07/11 Passed BMFA Fixed Wing 'A' test.
FSX Gold

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Reply #6 - Oct 20^th, 2011 at 5:12pm

Capt.Propwash Offline
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Think of the cores in your system as a series of Pots stacked up. The top being the smallest (core 0) the bottom being the largest (core 4) **** ALTHOUGH THEY ARE THE SAME SIZE... Hummor me on this.

Core 0 fills up first with information, then spills over to Core 1 which then fills up and spills to Core 2. etc etc etc till Core 4 fills up, and you need a new motherboard with 4 quad-cores.

Every process on your system runs good at NORMAL Priority including FSX. if you set it to HIGH or REALTIME, you are forcing it to work a little harder to steal resources away from other processes that might need/want those "Kernels" of memory to function. FSX on my machine usually runs somewhere around 1,800,000 K (Kernels of memory or bits) I have 2 - 2Gig DDR3 Chips for the 4Gig Ram that I got.

If you really want an increase in your machine, get GAME BOOSTER install it and run it. it will give you a list of Processes that it has determined that it DID shut down that you do not need running to conserve space for whatever game you want to run. ..... What I did:: I took the list and clicked on START > (search) Services. From the list that Game Booster gave me, I went through and DISABLED all the services that it found so that when I boot up my system, they would not run anyways. Overall Tuneup for your computer.

Leave Gamebooster running, start FSX and try a short flight over KSEA - Seattle/Tacoma, Washington, USA. This is now your Benchmark for FPS. Now go fly somewhere else that you really want to do a flight in... look at your FPS, they should be higher.

Also, read BOTH links and do what NICK N. tells you to to the letter. Do not skip ANYTHING except the parts that do not apply to your machine. Yes the 1st one is for XP, but do it anyways. Win7 still uses a lot of XP Named services, so those still apply.

/yabb?num=1208959973

http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.htm...

The thoughts and expressions contained in the post above are solely my own, and not necessarily those of Simviation.com, its Moderators, its Staff, its Members, or other guests. They can not, are not, and will not be held liable for any thoughts, or expressions, or posts that I have made, or will make in the future.

Computer Specs:: Acer Aspire Laptop..Win7 Home Premium 64-bit (sp1), AMD Athlon II X2 P340 (Dual Core) [2.2 Ghz], ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 (256mb), 4GB DDR3......FS9.1(sp3) / FSX (sp2)..... Ultimate Terrain X, Ground Environment X, REX, FTX ORBX PNW-PFJ-NRM-CRM, OZx, Tongass Fjords, Misty Moorings

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Reply #7 - Oct 21^st, 2011 at 2:29am

Overkill Beyond Overkill Ex Member

EVVFCX wrote on Oct 19^th, 2011 at 3:40pm:

during my usual daily visit to SV I saw this thread, as we are always looking at smoothness and speed I thought I'd google.
The list i found about it doesn't mention the 13 or 14 mentioned above and others replying it doesn't make any difference, it did say use 15 for quad core.

I'm on dual core so 13 or 14 doesn't effect me but where have these figures come from?

FSX with SP2 by default uses all cores with this tweak removed. If added, the affinity mask setting in fsx.cfg basically does the same thing as the one in task manager; it controls how many cores that fsx will use. I've heard of people getting best results by it set to all cores (which is does by default with SP2) but I've also seen people say that it is best to have it on all cores minus the first one. Apparently the tweak doesn't improve performance much or at all with dual core processors.

If you want an online script that automatically does a lot of tweaks for you read this thread:
/yabb?num=1318977019

HOWEVER, if you want to do it manually the fsx.cfg tweak is:

[JOBSCHEDULER]
affinitymask=XXX

It is not there by default but FSX SP2 will automatically try to run FSX on all the cores your processor has anyway. If you want to change it then add it. It's binary coded decimal. Some people have suggested that disabling the first core will improve performance. A bigger and better description of how it works is here:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.htm...

So basically on your dual core try:

[JOBSCHEDULER]
affinitymask=3

This will make it run on both cores.

AND

[JOBSCHEDULER]
affinitymask=2

This will disable the first core.

See which works better. If affinitymask=3 works better then you can just remove the entire thing from fsx.cfg.

There was an error in my last post, the numbers should of been 15 and 14. Where did 15 and 14 come from? On a quad core then all cores in binary is 1111, which in decimal is 15. Disabling the first core (which some people think gives better results) is 1110 which is 14.

I hope this makes sense.

« Last Edit: Oct 21^st, 2011 at 4:13am by N/A »

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Reply #8 - Oct 21^st, 2011 at 6:25am

EVVFCX Offline
Colonel
Been there done it-well
most of it.
Pontefract, West Yorkshire

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Posts: 499

now you've quoted it in binary it makes sense because all I saw was 15 and not the 13 or 14 thats mentioned, I've done the online fsx.cfg tweaks in the past and I'm reloading everything again after an OS reinstall.

May the Mynd be with you.
So far my number of landings either passenger or pilot equal my number of takeoffs, but that is due to change

13/07/11 Passed BMFA Fixed Wing 'A' test.
FSX Gold

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Reply #9 - Oct 23^rd, 2011 at 9:29pm

Groovin_DC-10 Offline
Colonel
DC-10 BABY!

Posts: 38

Hi Capt,
Just wondering if I would benifit from Game Booster.
My PC is strictly for FSX. I have the OS in an SSD and FSX/FS9 on a seperate HDD with their add ons.
I'm currently running a program called "End It All". It shows me what hidden aps are running and gives me the ability to shut them down. When my PC starts, I have two hidden apps running. The USB 3.0 interface and my disc burning program. I shut them down.
Is this what Game Booster basically does? Or could there be more unnecessary stuff running in the background?

I also used the online FSX cfg file tweaker and got a very noticable improvement.

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Reply #10 - Oct 23^rd, 2011 at 11:44pm

Capt.Propwash Offline
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Let's get a little mud
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KCHS, Charleston, SC, USA

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GameBooster is basically the same thing as End It All.

It finds the processes that your computer does not need running, to allow it to stay running ... example: Background Intelligent Transfer Service. This can be fully disabled if you wanted it to be.

The thoughts and expressions contained in the post above are solely my own, and not necessarily those of Simviation.com, its Moderators, its Staff, its Members, or other guests. They can not, are not, and will not be held liable for any thoughts, or expressions, or posts that I have made, or will make in the future.

Computer Specs:: Acer Aspire Laptop..Win7 Home Premium 64-bit (sp1), AMD Athlon II X2 P340 (Dual Core) [2.2 Ghz], ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 (256mb), 4GB DDR3......FS9.1(sp3) / FSX (sp2)..... Ultimate Terrain X, Ground Environment X, REX, FTX ORBX PNW-PFJ-NRM-CRM, OZx, Tongass Fjords, Misty Moorings

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Reply #11 - Oct 24^th, 2011 at 2:26am

Faildozer. Ex Member

Disabling BITS will often break Windows update. On a modern computer the performance benefits of disabling background services are extremely small and doing so can break important features. Only fully disable background services if you're 100% sure they will not break anything.

IMHO, don't bother with programs like Game Booster and End It All. If you have unneeded programs that you know you don't need starting up with the computer then stop them from starting in the first place. This can usually be done in the options for the program you want to disable, the services control panel (start, run, type services.msc, press enter), or through msconfig (start, run, type msconfig, press enter).

If you have a program running in the background running that you sometimes need, you THEN gamebooster might be a help, but even so you could probably get away with letting them run in the background. Less hassle.

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Reply #12 - Oct 26^th, 2011 at 12:13am

Groovin_DC-10 Offline
Colonel
DC-10 BABY!

Posts: 38

Got it. Thanks again for the informative posts, guys.

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