Solution to stuttering game performance

[Bortas]

Since a lot of threads about this topic keep popping up, I decided to make a seperate thread for this:

I experienced stuttering game performance, after I upgraded from a Core 2 Duo to an i7, which seemed odd, since the i7 is considerably more powerful.

After a lot of research I found out, there's a feature called Core Parking in Windows, which causes the Hyperthreading-Cores to enter a sleep-mode, when idle.
Although ED does make use of them, it doesn't do so constantly, resulting in the HT-Cores to keep switching on and off (This can also be observed in the Windows Ressource Monitor).
Since I disabled Core Parking everything runs smooth.

So, if you experience stuttering on a CPU with HT, try disabling it. Tutorials on how to do this can be found throughout the web.

 

[DidierDrbois]

Cheers for this, will check it out tonight!

 

[Thalios Abraxas]

+1 rep' good sir, thx for the tip!

 

[msyblade]

Great find, Commander! That may help some people experiencing the issue. Have some rep!

 

[Ken maddux]

Have to try this when I get home. Funny how the cry babies are still on the complain threads and not a good word here .

 

[Tepescovir]

Cpu parking, cpu and cpu throttling can all cause stutter in many games. which is why i always disable them, but i still get stutter and freezes approaching planets etc.

Setting power options in windows to high performace helps as it disables cpu parking and some people have had some sucess with lowering draw distance in game. Dosent work for all though

 

[DidierDrbois]

Nope, this doesn't work. No change to planetside stutter.

 

[Reaver 2.0]

Thank you. I will definitely give this a try.

 

[atomic7431]

I thought everyone knew about core parking, my bad.

 

[OriginalBadBoy]

Setting power options in windows to high performace helps

Not obvious to the average user, but this^ is kind of a given really if you are playing games.

It does annoy me that Microsoft deem fit to have the default set to balanced. Energy saving and all that ... Sod the Polar Bears, I want ED at 60fps!

 

[Stkx]

Had my cores unparked the entire time. The stutter still exist

 

[mossfoot]

What about the BIOS for a i5 processor? Any tweaks that might help?

 

[Cody]

Sod the Polar Bears, I want ED at 60fps!

What's this? We got polar bears now?

 

[rhooker78]

Here is a good link for this... http://ultimatecomputers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3644

 

[jabokai]

Have to try this when I get home. Funny how the cry babies are still on the complain threads and not a good word here .

Because a lot of us have done that as a matter of course, just optimising their rigs. I understand that some people don't really understand their computers (it's the thing that makes the pretty colours on the screen in front of you in case you yourself are a little confused.) So no need for a good word, as it doesn't work for us "cry babies" that have done it months and years ago.

 

[Bortas]

Not obvious to the average user, but this^ is kind of a given really if you are playing games.

It does annoy me that Microsoft deem fit to have the default set to balanced. Energy saving and all that ... Sod the Polar Bears, I want ED at 60fps!

Even setting a high performance power plan does not disable core parking. Microsoft did a pretty good job, hiding it from the user. AFAIK it can only be disabled by using 3rd party tools or modifying the registry directly.

Many things can cause stutter in games, but core parking definetely is one of the less obvious ones. Most users probably don't know it even exists.

What about the BIOS for a i5 processor? Any tweaks that might help?

None that I know about. Since the i5 doesnt have HT, the abovementioned tip will probably have no effect on it. Windows Server also parks physical cores btw, but you are probably not using that

 

[CmdrJacks]

A quick how to without messing with the registry (manually):

Shorten the Boot Time in XP, Vista & Windows 7 & 8 & 8.1

Go to the start button, choose run, then type msconfig and press Ok.
On the system configuration window, choose the "Boot.INI" tab.

Check “No Gui Boot”, then lower the timeout to a more manageable time.
I choose 3 seconds in stead of 30. (windows won’t accept a lower number than 3)

Next choose advanced options.
This is where you can choose how many processors you have.
Most modern PC's are duo core (2 processors) with some quad core (4 processors) or more,
then choose OK. The Windows default is only 1 core. *

* In windows there are many SAFE Defaults, that usually do no more than slow Windows down.

Now choose apply and OK, reboot and you should see a marked decrease in boot time,
And an Increase in Run-Time efficiency.

From here