FSX does NOT correctly use Dual cores.

[ATI_7500]

Yeah, must be the switching and splitting tasks.

[justpassingthrough]

Yeah, must be the switching and splitting tasks.

That is very possible.

As I said in another thread the Core2 processor may be responding differently and setting the affinity manually is working better. AMD with the right fixes and drivers will do the 'splitting' correctly in 3D applications which is what their dual core optimizer driver was designed for.

I would still look at the processes being booted and run. Manually setting affinity may be having a positive outcome for some because they do not have their systems correctly optimized for performance and running processes/services that are not needed during FSX use. Switching the affinity may very well be allowing excessive processes to have the primary core and the game the other, eliminating the problem.

Bottom line is, if it works, thats all that matters. Setting affinity is easier than going through the system and cleaning out start keys and services that are not needed but still, the more resources free at start, the better any game or intense software will run no matter how affinity timing is managed.


It would be interesting to confirm Core2 is definitely running better with manual affinity management.

[skibum]

I was dual processing last night - doing some downloading while playing MSX - and my frame rate was really jerky.  So I went to Task Manager and assigned my downloader to CPU 1 and MSX to CPU 0.  What a change!  Solid frame rates right at 20FPS.

Just a data point.

Dual processors rock.  I have an X2 4400+.

[justpassingthrough]

For those with a 7000 series or higher Nivida video adapter and a dual core Intel.. (and AMD but it had no affect on mine) you may want to check out the THREADED OPTIMIZATION feature of the Nvidia driver control panel. Some report in other forums setting this to ON has a positive impact. Others have posted setting it to OFF works better. I do not know if setting affinity manually and altering FSX.exe as it was suggested in this thread with THREADED OPTIMIZATION may hinder any advantages it offers. Although not a multithread software, FSX does take advantage of a dual core somewhat simply because it was written for VISTA which uses SMP technology differently than WindowsXP. By default THREADED OPTIMIZATION is typically set to AUTO. it will only be available for 7000 series and higher video cards.