Quad Core Anyone??

[Ratpack1]

I was wondering how AH currently handles quad core processors  if at all. I have a AMD Phenom 9600 X4. There is not much overclocking you can do to it and really for most stuff you don't need too. All the multimedia apps I use generally run on all or most of the cores. Some games use more than one from what I can tell but most don't. Each core runs at a bout 2.3-2.4 I am assuming from what I can read on my task manager it is only using one of the cores. I have a decent card, ATI 4870 and 4G's of RAM so I'm not lacking per se. Granted AH runs just fine on my PC but it never hurts to squeeze more and more out of the app. The beta as well performs near as good as the main version now. Granted AH runs just fine on my PC but it never hurts to squeeze more and more out of the app. The beta as well performs near as good as the main version now.

I'm not the most technical of fellas either, I know just enough computer stuff to be dangerous I guess. I was wondering if AH will ever be tuned to utilize all the cores.

Anyone else out there with a quad that has some tips, tricks, horror stories, etc......?

[Skuzzy]

The thing you have to understand is how Windows, or how any operating system, uses multi-core CPU's.  The game, or any application, has no control over how threads are partitioned out between the various cores.  That is strictly handled by the operating system.

In a game there are many things that are already threaded by the operating system.  The sounds and/or graphic pipeline is typically threaded.  Aces High is natively multi-threaded as well.

However, Aces High is also ripe with complex equations for flight modeling which you cannot thread.  So for us, a faster dual core CPU would be more beneficial than a slower clocked quad core.

[WWhiskey]

i run the 9550 quad with no problems, i dont remember how i set it up, but i use all cores all the time, i have a quad monitor that shows them running about 50 to 75% during aces, some thing to do with quad core utility i think, some one will be along shortly tho i bet to tell us, or i found most of my info on this sight, thanks to skuzzy and some others, it is here somewere!
 i ran a dual core before, it was faster, till i got this one humming right along, if i dont see a post for you in a bit i will do some digging

[Ratpack1]

I figured it was mostly OS related, I think mine does just fine. (shhh don't tell Skuzzy I have Vista and like it)

AMD doesn't have much utility wise for the quad core phenoms. It's like most stuff they make a good thing and instead of improving on it they go make some entirely new thing lol. I did use the AMD power monitor to take a peek while AH is running and it looks like it uses two cores not one, the other two stay at 0% usage the whole time. I only ran a quick take off in the training arena so it may do more while I'm hashing it out in the mains. So that's not all bad!

Like I said I have no problems with AH it runs better than most peoples from what I read around here and certainly just fine enough for me. However any info you all provide is greatly appreciated.

[Ratpack1]

The thing you have to understand is how Windows, or how any operating system, uses multi-core CPU's.  The game, or any application, has no control over how threads are partitioned out between the various cores.  That is strictly handled by the operating system.

Incidentally is there anyway to rewrite it to tell the OS to use X # of cores for any given app?

[Skuzzy]

No.  There is nothing in any operating system that allows an application to specify how many cores to use.

[Ratpack1]

Well than someone needs to invent that!

[Skuzzy]

No, it should be controlled by the operating system.  Allowing an application to do it would be a disaster.

[Ratpack1]

lol i can't win.

[Hamltnblue]

Actually you can set a program to run on a specific core.  Say you want to have a program like teamspeak or trackir run on the 4th core to free the others for the game.  Open task manager and right click on the process. Then click on set affinity and click on the cores that will be available for that program.  I have a core i7 which shows 8 cores. (4 are real and 4 are logical).  For a straight quad core you'll see core 0 thru 3.
In most cases the OS will handle things on it's own but if you find that everything is running on a single core you can use this to re-direct specific programs.

[Skuzzy]

That is the operating system controlling it.  The application has no control over it.

[Hamltnblue]

True, but it can be done.
The only software I'm aware of that scales according to the number of cores is BOINC in the World Community Grid and Folding at Home.
If the software sees 2 cores it runs 2 instances of the program. In mine it runs 8, each on a different core.

[Ratpack1]

I checked out the affinity you mentioned and it seems t hat every process is defaulted to run on all four. even though it may not use them all

[zack1234]

What should i do with my apple cores?

[Skuzzy]

True, but it can be done.
The only software I'm aware of that scales according to the number of cores is BOINC in the World Community Grid and Folding at Home.
If the software sees 2 cores it runs 2 instances of the program. In mine it runs 8, each on a different core.

Yes, an application can check to see how many cores there are, and can fire off any number of threads, but the actual core those threads run on is up to the operating system.