FS9 and Dual Core Functionality

[falcon409]

Flyawaysimulations forum back in 2006 published a fix for Dual Core users to get the optimum performance from their dual core setup using Windows XP. Enter Vista a few years later and FS9 still doesn't utilize both cores. Is there a similar fix for Vista users with dual core setups?

[Tom Clayton]

The only way I could get FS9 to use both cores on my XP rig was to start the app, then go into the task manager and manually set the affinity. Heck of it was though, it actually brought my frames down a couple of notches.

[CG_1976]

Is this typical with Intel by chance?? My dual core AMD has no issues optimized in XP with Fs9. No pickin on Intel just poking some research 1st hand and not 2nd hand info thats typically posted by Commerical Capitol Techs.

[falcon409]

The only way I could get FS9 to use both cores on my XP rig was to start the app, then go into the task manager and manually set the affinity. Heck of it was though, it actually brought my frames down a couple of notches.
Yep, that's the fix I refer to from flyawaysimulations forum. It was aimed at XP since at that time Vista had not been released. I want to see if there is a similar (or different) process for Vista to enable both cores in FS9.

[Cazzie]

Is this typical with Intel by chance?? My dual core AMD has no issues optimized in XP with Fs9. No pickin on Intel just poking some research 1st hand and not 2nd hand info thats typically posted by Commerical Capitol Techs.

Ditto Trans, I have a 3.4 Dual-Core AMD with 64-bit Vista and no problems here. I set mine through nHancer.

Caz

[falcon409]

Ditto Trans, I have a 3.4 Dual-Core AMD with 64-bit Vista and no problems here. I set mine through nHancer.
Caz
I run an AMD 3.0 Dual Core 32 bit Vista Home Basic and only one core functions in FS9.

[CG_1976]

Have you tried what caz says in referece to nhancer? Thats the program I use with little trouble.

[waco]

Nvidia Control Panel lets you set up split frame painting using AMD dual core with SLI.

[falcon409]

Nvidia Control Panel lets you set up split frame painting using AMD dual core with SLI.
Have no idea what "split frame painting" is and I don't utilize SLI and for the folks using nHancer, I'm glad it works for you, but what I found was that unless you know exactly what you're doing, that program can make things worse rather than better. Not everyone knows or understands the inner working of the graphics card. . . .for instance, I have an NVidia 9600GT w/512meg, I plugged it into the correct slot, plugged the video cable from my monitor into the card, turned on the PC and I had a picture. . .that's my knowledge of the video card.

I'm going to take a guess here, even at this early stage and say that if I had XP I'd be fine, but Vista has no current fix to allow FS9 to use both cores. With that I will consider the subject closed. Thanks for the exchange of ideas.:applause:

[rich12545]

I was under the impression that sp3 for xp solved this problem. No?

How can you tell if your computer is using one core or two with fs9?

[alastairmonk]

Hi,

As far as I can tell from browsing the Forums there is no way of getting FS2004 to use more than one core. At best you may be able to use the 2nd to handle other applications whilst core #1 runs at 100% with FS2004.

Rich - open Windows Task Manager and if you have a multi-core system you should have multiple windows showing the CPU usage for each. The Processes tab may show utilization for each core, but as I only have a single-core system I can't tell myself.

Alastair

[chrisf36]

Hi,

As far as I can tell from browsing the Forums there is no way of getting FS2004 to use more than one core. At best you may be able to use the 2nd to handle other applications whilst core #1 runs at 100% with FS2004.

Rich - open Windows Task Manager and if you have a multi-core system you should have multiple windows showing the CPU usage for each. The Processes tab may show utilization for each core, but as I only have a single-core system I can't tell myself.

Alastair

I have a quad-core AMD and XP SP3 and the task manager shows the cpu utilization under the Performance tab. It shows 4 different CPU Usage History displays. I've never looked at it while FS9 was running but I'll have to check this out.

Chris

[rich12545]

This will sound dumb but I cannot figure out how to start task manager. Found taskman.exe in the windows directory and tried that but nothing happens.

Edit: never mind. I found it.

[calypsos]

I have no idea what cores of my Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 my FS9 uses, but she is as smooth as silk with everything maxed out and 36FPS set using XP. I have no reason to think it can be improved on at all.

[falcon409]

See how a thread can move completely out of sync in no time? lol. . . .

I appreciate the exchange of ideas here folks, but I run VISTA, not XP and that's all I was asking for. . . .some idea of whether or not there was a way to force FS9 to run both cores of a dual core machine in VISTA. . . .yet almost every answer or suggestion I got related to XP.

As I mentioned above. . .it is obvious from this thread that there isn't a fix for this in VISTA. I would suggest therefore that we go about our business and be done with this thread.

[Tom Clayton]

If you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, does Vista give you anything like the Task Manager? If so, you can see if the affinity controls are there as before. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't have Vista.

[falcon409]

If you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, does Vista give you anything like the Task Manager? If so, you can see if the affinity controls are there as before. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't have Vista.
Yep, strange thing is I tried this once. . .went step by step and sure enough I saw a marked drop in CPU usage on both cores to the point that prior to trying it the CPU usage was 60%, all on one core while the other was basically in snooze mode. . .after the fix it went to both cores and the average CPU usage was less than 30%. Since that time I haven't been able to get it to work at all.

[Paul Anderson]

Had same concern on previous dual core XP computer, (and still is XP, quadcore spreads it out ). Tweak then was to download imagecfg.exe for win2000 that changed the fs9.exe to 2 core affinity. Did the trick. There are some freeware programs that do the same same thing. Do not know if Vista will allow to run though.

[rich12545]

I just downloaded this program but am not sure how to use it. Put it into the system32 folder and run it? Or how? And then what does it do exactly? The web site doesn't explain very well.

[airfighterjohn]

Falcon, to get both cores running you have to go to task manager, processes, then right click fs9, set the affinity. I THINK you can add a line to your .cfg file called SET AFFINITY. If you have a dual core, add SET AFFINITY=1 (for dual core), 2 for triple, 3 for quad. Try that and see if it does not work---cheers

[Tom Clayton]

I'd be interested in trying the fs9.cfg entry as well, but which section gets the entry?

[airfighterjohn]

Just add it into the main section of your fs9 .cfg file--athat should take care of it...

[rich12545]

Hi, I would also like to get this to work. Problem is there is no "main" section of the fs9.cfg file. I tried the startup section and that didn't work. Can you please be more specific? Put it into which section exactly?

[Tom Clayton]

There is a Main section, just hit F3 while you have the file open in Notepad to find it. I tried SET_AFFINITY=1 and SET_AFFINITY=2 and monitored core usage - no change. Since I get good enough performance already, I think I'm going with "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[rich12545]

Thanks for pointing out the main. I tried it and no help for me either. However I figured out a shortcut for this. Since I need to use a
high aa to reduce shimmering I need all the help I can get. Here's what works:

ctrl-alt-del this minimizes fs9 and brings up the task manager
then r-click fs9 in processes and choose set affinity
then uncheck cpu1 and recheck it
close task manager
click fs9 on the taskbar to bring it back up

This works and takes only a few seconds.

[Bradburger]

Haven't actually tried what rich1245 suggests yet, but it seems he's doing what has been suggested for those with a dual core CPU, XP, & FS9, and want better FPS : -

http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt23563.html

http://www.flightsimworld.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=112541

Cheers

Paul

[rich12545]

Yes, that's correct to a point. What was suggested at flyawaysimulation is a much longer method. I shortened what I got from them.
Perhaps I should have given credit but didn't think of it.

[LonelyplanetXO]

hmmm, interesting stuff! I fired up fs9 and checked the affinity settings and found 0,1,2,3 ticked by default. So I assume it's running all four cores of it's own volition.

LPXO

[rich12545]

No it's not. Look at the charts (under performance I believe) and you'll see one core running and the others with a line across the bottom.

[falcon409]

Ok, I'm gonna close this thread as it's going nowhere and has gone completely off topic from MY original intent.

Several things are evident. . .one is that rarely does anyone read the entire thread before commenting, otherwise why would so many people make the same suggestion (all related to XP not VISTA) and Rich you should have given credit because your steps are the basic intent of the original piece posted at flyawaysimulations and nothing new.

The other comment on this thread is that if I asked for suggestions on a "like solution" for VISTA, I'm obviously not interested in hearing about how someone made things work better on their XP system. Please stay on topic.

[Bradburger]

Ok, I'm gonna close this thread as it's going nowhere and has gone completely off topic from MY original intent.

Several things are evident. . .one is that rarely does anyone read the entire thread before commenting, otherwise why would so many people make the same suggestion (all related to XP not VISTA) and Rich you should have given credit because your steps are the basic intent of the original piece posted at flyawaysimulations and nothing new.

The other comment on this thread is that if I asked for suggestions on a "like solution" for VISTA, I'm obviously not interested in hearing about how someone made things work better on their XP system. Please stay on topic.

A very good point falcon.

All these posts and you still don't have the answer you were looking for!

This often happens on the many forums I frequent, and I should really have posted what I had found from a google search on rich's seperate thread that he has started here at SoH about this 'tweak'.

Having said that, from the reading I've done about this, it would seem that the 'tweak' using the Task Manager and the CPU affinity should apply to both Vista & XP, as you can do exactly as described with both of them.

Maybe someone WILL be able to answer your question, if you decide to keep this thread open!

Cheers

Paul

[Tom Clayton]

Closed per request...