Hardware & Technical 4 core only 1 used?.

[skipper8472]

Hi. I saw another topic on here just by searching Elite Dangerous Micro stuttering. It was an old topic so not replied in there. Some one said they reduced on how many cores where running at boot from 8 to 6 and they said it sorted it out. I looked on google on how to do this by going to msconfig and boot option, advanced. Mine is greyed out but says has 1 core. If I un tick it and look in the drop down menu it says I have 8. My CPU is a I7 3770k 4 core 8 threads. So I am guessing it showing the threads also. I have not yet done anything with it as I just pressed cancel so it not saved any changes. but if I put this to 2 say would it make any difference and also would it heat my system up more?. Also when its greyed out how many cores it is actually using?. Thanks.

 

[Surfinjo]

The issue seems to be a bit of a red herring I'm afraid.

The function serves to allow for some cores to be deliberately excluded. So if you have a quad core machine, you can ensure that only 3 are used. Why I am not sure.

But your machine will use all available cores by default.

There are numerous services and functions which most home users can turn off to save resources and boost power. While these should be quite simple to locate for those with even basic technical knowledge, a recent experience on another forum has reminded me that, even otherwise intelligent people, who are not confident with computers, can end up in quite bad situations when attempting to wander into that territory.

There are a few programs out there which claim to do the job for you. A few are not too bad. Most are either, useless or loaded with spyware.

There is a site called MajorGeeks. It is run by a really smart bunch of fellows. They don't create a lot themselves, but they do intensely review software to make sure it does what it claims.

MajorGeeks has recently published a list of freeware which they have tested. The list coveres almost everything you could imagine. It is here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/majorgeeks_top_freeware_picks.html

You can completely trust MajorGeeks. They have an excellent reputation and take great pains not to put it to risk. But remember than most performance boosting software, if it is any good, needs to be used with some care. MajorGeeks will usually give you a few hints about using it. Always read what they say.

Good luck

 

[AndyJ]

Don't go editing those boot settings, they'll apply to the whole OS assuming they do turn off cores ... and says "Processors" in my Win7 install ... just don't do it anyway.

Elite Dangerous is multi-threaded and should run better with more cores.
I'm curious what this ill-defined jitter is TBH ... I see slow downs on my own old rig that I suspect might be network related or the CPU generating textures ...

Anyway, having had a little search around myself, thought that this might be of relevance to you. A number of users suspect that the issue might be related to a power-saving feature in the new i5/i7 processors and "Core Parking" which is supported by windows 7 & 8. Cores are 'parked' (turned off) to save power, rather than left at idle when not being used - it could be this that is affecting you.

There's a thread here on Reddit about it & causing stutter: http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2i8vqj/stutter_fix_for_elite_dangerous_dk2_hint_disable/
Also a concise 'how to' to set cores to be unparked here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-1939190/increase-fps-cpu-intensive-games-windows.html

If you are running on a laptop that's always powered (and even a PC) then you might also want to check Window's power settings. Right click on battery if laptop, otherwise: Control Panel: Hardware and Sound, Power Options .. you may have to unhide it, but make sure it's on High Performance.


Final advice, earned from decades of breaking things in MSDOS and Windows, don't give in to the temptation to run automatic system-optimizers or clean up tools, they are often more trouble than they are worth ... and occasionally downright destructive!!! Same goes for turning off services & the like ... unless you have really good cause to do so, you're more likely to cause problems elsewhere than gain some probably imperceptible performance increase...

Good luck if you try out the Core Parking (or rather Unparking) & let us know if it helps at all!