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!

[torminater]

I don't know of any game out there which supports hyperthreading.

[aleksanderdev]

Let me refrase.

 

Did you guys find any ini tweake to increas performance? Other than lowering quality ofc.

Like disabling multithread, force skyrim to use 2 cores, etc?

 

I just did a test with some cpu tweaks. You can see my ini her. http://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=2043

Her are the results from HW info and skyrim performance monitor

All the threads actually seem to be used a bit :P 

I dont have any other prossess using any cpu power. So quit safe to say its skyrim. 

Btw the skyrim monitor software needs an update, it says my Titan has 4gb :P

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[Besidilo]

I don't know of any game out there which supports hyperthreading.

Supreme Commander 1&2, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Microsoft Flight, Crysis 3, Civilization 5,

 

Unfortunately, there are a number of games where enabling HyperThreading messes up the performance due to the game not differentiating between virtual and logical cores (or something along these lines). Apparently disabling Core Parking can improve performance in some games.