CPU affinity - two different approaches

[Vond]

So, there are two different approaches to improving performance by changing CPU affinity from what I've seen. One is using Skyrim Extended Launcher to 'lock' Skyrim into using 2 specific cores (this is obviously only interesting for people with 4+ core CPUs), as the game only makes use of two anyway but what happens normally is that Windows spreads the load between all cores which means that CPU frequencies go up and down like crazy. Using SEL changes this as it will use those 2 cores fully improving stability and performance.

The other approach is to add some settings to your Skyrim.ini, assigning specific jobs to the different CPU cores. Following this guide assigns 2 cores to rendering, and 2 cores to AI and such.

 

The .ini additions (for 4 cores):

 

Skyrim.ini:

 

[General]

iNumHWThreads=4

iHWThread6=3

iHWThread5=3

iHWThread4=3

iHWThread3=2

iHWThread2=2

iHWThread1=2

iAIThread2HWThread=3

iAIThread1HWThread=2

iRenderingThread2HWThread=1

iRenderingThread1HWThread=0

 

bMultiThreadMovement=1

bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1

bUseThreadedBlood=1

bUseThreadedMorpher=1

bUseThreadedTempEffects=1

bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1

bUseThreadedTextures=1

bUseThreadedMeshes=1

bUseThreadedLOD=1

bUseThreadedAI=1

bUseHardDriveCache=0

 

[HAVOK]

iNumThreads=2

 

 

Now, you can't use both of these together, as doing one of these changes nullifies the other. Has anyone played around with these and can supply some insight on which approach seems to be working best for you? I will try out the .ini changes for starters myself, but actually comparing the two probably takes quite a lot of testing and thus if someone has already done so, sharing it would be great!

[z929669]

 

 

 

 

I have a i5-760 @2.8GhzAnd glad I'm not the only one that would freak out in that situation! :)

 

 

 

What is your mobo?

 

I also use that exact same processor. It is highly OC-able, and I have gone from 2.8 to 4.0 GHz, completely stable. Pretty significant performance increase too. My temps NEVER get above 75C and that only rarely when I am running Prime or stressing the CPU for stability testing.

 

I can give you specs that work well for the DP55KG mobo (my board), but you will need to pick up some quality RAM capable of running @ 1600. I use a particularly high-spec Corsair variety (with XMP) that I can recommend (7-8-7-20). My ENB results (do the same for a good compare).

 

Similar specs could also work for your board though.

 

 

 

My mobo is a Gigabyte P55-USB3. I do have RAm capable of running at 1600 and higher (8gb Corsair Vengeance that are capable of running @ 1866, and 4gb of Corsair XMS3 that can go up to 1600. I only have stock cooling on the CPU, and have a Fractal Design Refine R3 chassi, again just with the coolers that came with it. Would be very interested anyways in safe OCing. :)

I did run the ENB test, but that was before getting new HDD and the 8gb Corsair Vengeance RAM that I picked up last week, so will have another go. Got 12.61 last time.

 

 

Sorry, but I predict not boost at all from your new purchases :(

 

 

 

I am getting +5 on you due to my OC and my Xfire (assuming you don't do SLI/Xfire)

 

I also use a CoolerMaster v8 air cooler (adjustable), and this is about as good as it gets with air cooling. I also have a Cooler Master HAF 932 full tower with 3 6-inch stock fans in it. Very quiet and LOTS of air flow.

[Vond]

Got a slight boost actually, from 12,61 to 12,99. Might just be random factors though. Only bought the new HDD because my old one was really slow and dying, and I got the RAM almost for free from a friend who upgraded (10€) :) I don't do SLI, have a single GTX 560 Ti-448 card with 1280mb. It is OCd @840Mhz Core, 2200Mhz Memory.

 

Anyway Im still interested in those settings you used, 4Ghz is not something I'll attempt on stock cooling but I've been considering something like 3.2-3.4Ghz which should most likely work unless I'm mistaken

[Vond]

Just checked some basics about my mobo when it comes to memory as can be seen below. Says support for 2200/1333/1066/800 modules, so that means 1600 won't work or? I'm an utter noob at these things as I've never bothered with OCing the CPU or memory, only the GPU. They are currently running at 1333

 

• 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory (Note 1)
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Support for DDR3 2200/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules
• Support for non-ECC memory modules
• Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

[z929669]

you never can say for sure without finding out explicitly, but I suspect your mobo can run 1600 as it is a standard config (strange, but usually that 2200 you have is replaced by a 1600... wondering if that is a typo??).

 

Dig into the online tech spec for your board and see if you can't find a cross ref. Alternatively, go to the Corsair site and plug in your mobo to check for compatibility. You may be able to determine indirectly that way.

 

You also want to get a better fan before you overclock at all. Also a roomy case is very helpful.

[Vond]

Using the memory configurator to find what's compatible with my board on the Corsair website it finds the board but only shows specifics for P55-series, not the mobo itself. It recommends 1600Mhz memories for the "enthusiast" and "highest density" setups and 1866mhz for the "overclocker" setup etc. But yeah, the fact that I have stock fan is the main reason I've never delved into this before as I figure it might not be worth it, but also read somewhere that people have gotten it stable at ~3.4Ghz with stock fan on this cpu

[z929669]

I think you are fine for 1600, and do purchase a decent fan for $30-$50 before attempting to OC at all, even a little. .... unless you are planning to upgrade your mobo soon, as that mobo will not accept any chip better than the i5-760, so may as well preserve that!

[Vond]

Think I'll take your advice on that and just stick to the current setup for now, I don't have any real performance issues or anything anyway. :)

[MadWizard25]

Now those results explain a lot. I assume your CPU has hyperthreading which is why you have 8 cores showing up and 4 of them pretty much unused. Those 4 nealry idle cores are bringing the average way down and skewing the results. If you average the values from the 4 most used cores, you get just over 17%.

So if I have an i5-2400, which has 4 physical cores but no hyperthreading, I would also expect to see around 20% cpu utilization for Skyrim? This seems a bit low, but understandable if the load is spread across 4 cores. However, doesnt Skyrim only use 2 cores? Even if it works only 2 cores, the cpu utilization still seems very low for a game...

 

Ill follow sb4n's instructions using PerfMon and post results as well.

[stoppingby4now]

 

Now those results explain a lot. I assume your CPU has hyperthreading which is why you have 8 cores showing up and 4 of them pretty much unused. Those 4 nealry idle cores are bringing the average way down and skewing the results. If you average the values from the 4 most used cores, you get just over 17%.

So if I have an i5-2400, which has 4 physical cores but no hyperthreading, I would also expect to see around 20% cpu utilization for Skyrim? This seems a bit low, but understandable if the load is spread across 4 cores. However, doesnt Skyrim only use 2 cores? Even if it works only 2 cores, the cpu utilization still seems very low for a game...

Ill follow sb4n's instructions using PerfMon and post results as well.

 

I'm not buying the only using 2 cores bit, as all four of my cores are being readily used, and from results that torminater posted, he has 4 active as well (though 2 of them appear to be doing the heavy lifting on both our counts). Keeping in mind, that the 20% number is an average from all the cores, at least two of them will be greater than the overall average. For general playing, I was only able to get down to 16-17% average by disabling a lot of mods. I suspect 16-17% to be the low end and it rising from there if only taking total average into account.

 

My typical average right now is 38%, with two of my cores breaking 50% usage on occasion, while the other two are less utilized, but utilized non-the-less. That feels right to me. After you gather results, you can also select a single core and click the highlight button to make it stand out so that you can see just how much that core is being used and how often.

[Besidilo]

There's no reason why anyone should want to upgrade from an i5 760 for gaming.You can easily overclock it to 3.6 GHz and to 4-4.2 GHz if you've done a bit of overclocking before.

I've been running a 750 here since its launch, still one of the strongest CPUs for gaming, considering that 90% of new games are GPU-limited.

No AMD CPUs come close and the only Intels that do, SB and IB, don't offer enough of performance improvement to warrant an upgrade.

 

Also, overclocking RAM is a gimmick, the only reason why I'd get a memory that runs at higher frequencies than 1600 MHz is when overclocking a CPU held back by its multiplier.

[MontyMM]

The idea of Skyrim only using two cores, I'm fairly certain, is nonsense. Going back to what I said before, the main "bread and butter" of the game engine will most likely be running in a couple of threads (up until quite recently, most game engines would still be running mainly on a single thread, though that is improving as they learn how to separate and synchronise functions like AI and physics into independent threads.) But the engine could be running many more lightweight "occasional" threads, to keep the main threads uninterrupted. Just because the game engine is dominated by (for example) two threads, does not mean it is forced to use only two cores.

 

So (as S4N has mentioned), the two cores running the main threads could be running flat out, but the system could give you a misleading figure; the average including the unused cores. Windows cannot slice up the threads and distribute them efficiently across all cores, as one might hope. In a non-realtime application, like a video encoder, the software could be written to chop up the task into as many chunks as there are available cores, because it doesn't matter in that case if each task completes asynchronously. But with a game engine, it's not so simple. John Carmack wrote a piece about it a few years ago - game designers would much preferred the single core to continue getting faster, rather than wrestling with multiple threads.

[torminater]

Well, I cannot say for sure, what causes it, but I have a stable game now.

SO freaking awesome. Also the vram stuttering has been decreased by an incredible amount.

What I did are the following:

-> OC'ed Graphics cards without raising voltage.

-> deactivated Distant Detail

-> reduced TerrainManager fBlockDistance Values from 1,000,000; 300,000; 100,000 to 500,000; 300,000; 100,000

-> Installed RCRN 3.0

-> Used stereo audio instead of my 7.1 Dolby Sourround Logitech headset.

 

I'll enable Distant Detail again, and use my headset. And I'll increase some reduced settings. I'll turn off Anti-Virus (so far always running in the background). If I am still running my test without problems, I'll post my updated inis, nVidia Inspector config, my perfmon results and skyrim performance monitor results.

[torminater]

So, I actually kept on my AntiVirus (Avira) because I forgot about it, but I haven't encountered a single problem besides negligible vram stuttering, some z-fighting on whiterun walls and on distant mountains and a little lag drawing my weapons whilst sprinting.

Other than that: PERFECT. I think the TerrainManager Values break your game if you overdo the tweaking like me. I actually had them implemented for testing purposes only and forgot about them.

 

Skyrim.ini

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH
uGridsToLoad=5
uExterior Cell Buffer=144
uInterior Cell Buffer=12
sIntroSequence=

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
bAllowScreenshot=1
fNearDistance=25.0000
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0
fSunUpdateThreshold=2.0
fShadowBiasScale=1.0
fDecalLifeTime=900.0000

[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0

[GeneralWarnings]
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, HighResTexturePack01.bsa, HighResTexturePack02.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0
f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7 
f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

[Papyrus]
fUpdateBudgetMS=1.6
fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=1.6
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=1000.0
bEnableLogging=0
bEnableTrace=0
bLoadDebugInformation=0
iMaxMemoryPageSize=8192
iMinMemoryPageSize=256
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=8388608

[Water]
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1

[MapMenu]
fMapWorldMaxHeight=130000.0000
fMapWorldMinHeight=1500.0000
fMapWorldMaxPitch=400.0000
fMapWorldMinPitch=0.0000
fMapWorldYawRange=3600.0000
fMapWorldCursorMoveArea=0.9000
fMapWorldHeightAdjustmentForce=100.0000
fMapWorldInitialPitch=55.0000
bWorldMapNoSkyDepthBlur=1
fWorldMapDepthBlurScale=0
fWorldMapNearDepthBlurScale=0
fWorldMapMaximumDepthBlur=0
fMapWorldZoomSpeed=0.0300
fMapLookMouseSpeed=3.5000
fMapMoveKeyboardSpeed=0.003
fMapZoomMouseSpeed=15.0000
sMapCloudNIF=0

[Camera]
fOverShoulderAddY=0.0000
fOverShoulderPosZ=10.0000
fOverShoulderPosX=0.0000
fOverShoulderCombatAddY=0.0000
fOverShoulderCombatPosZ=10.0000
fOverShoulderCombatPosX=0.0000
fMouseWheelZoomSpeed=60.0000
f1st3rdSwitchDelay=0.9500
iHorseTransitionMillis=001
fOverShoulderHorseAddY=-72.0000
fOverShoulderHorsePosZ=50.0000
fOverShoulderHorsePosX=35.0000
fActorFadeOutLimit=-100

SkyrimPrefs.ini

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=16
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=4000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=2048
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=1
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=5000.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=4
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1024
iSize W=1280
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=500
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=1.0000
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=3
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=0
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=500000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=4
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=0.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0125
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=0
bMouseAcceleration=0
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=500000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=140000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=75000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=4.0000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=8.6000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=2
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=1024
iWaterReflectWidth=1024
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1

 

Nvidia Inspector Settings

perfmon results

 

 

https://www.pic-upload.de/view-14211332/Skyrim_perfmon.gif.html

in %:

total: Min: 0,0 Avg: 9,364 Max: 26,928

CPU0: Min: 0,0 Avg: 27,430 Max: 71,780

CPU1: Min: 0,0 Avg: 0,419 Max: 31,226

CPU2: Min: 0,0 Avg: 21,867 Max: 67,176CPU3: Min: 0,0 Avg: 0,072 Max: 8,331

CPU4: Min: 0,0 Avg: 11,588 Max: 81,149

CPU5: Min: 0,0 Avg: 0,036 Max: 17,320

CPU6: Min: 0,0 Avg: 13,559 Max: 81,280

CPU7: Min: 0,0 Avg: 0,048 Max: 15,760

TESV: Min: 0,0 Avg: 55,538 Max: 148,044

 

 

Skyrim Performance Monitor results

 

 

 

https://www.pic-upload.de/view-14211338/Screenshot_3.jpg.html

Graphics Cards Gainward Nvidia GTX 570 Phantom SLI OC'ed:

Core Voltage: 1013 mV (1013 standard)

Core Clock: 825 MHz (750 standard)

Shader Clock: 1650 MHz (1500 standard)

Memory Clock: 2200 MHz (1950 standard)

Fan Speed: Custom Fan settings for Max Cooling

 

CPU Intel i-7 2600k @3.4GHz OC'ed:

Turbo boost @ 4.4GHz

 

I didn't get a hold of the FPS, but it played REALLY smooth, and my FPS had been capped at 35 anyways.

---

Oh, and before I forget: Steam was in Offline Mode. I have a very weak internet connection and I figured that keeping steam offline might improve my performance!

---

testing with uGrids=7 caused a freeze at the very end of my testing. Too sad...

[Vond]

Loading that many cells even with ugrids set at 5 slows down the system more than using for example ugrids at 7 and the standard cellbuffer for that btw :) What I'm curious about is why you play on such amazing settings on an amazing computer but with a resolution that I don't think I've used for anything for 10 years, got a really small monitor?

[torminater]

To be honest, I've got my monitor since 6 years and it hasn't failed me once. I don't think the graphical quality can be increased by that much, that I need a new monitor. although I have been thinking about buying a 3d-monitor when the technology is tempting enough and support infrastructure is experienced enough :)