Setting the Priority for OFF Manager, Graphic Card Monitoring & TrackIR

[Olham 164]

In the Task Manager, one can change the priotrity for each running program.

I have sometimes set my "Catalyst Monitoring" to "higher than normal", "OFF Manager"

to "high", and "TrackIR" to "higher than normal" - hoping this would use more system

power for those tasks.

I know that there are free game booster programs, but my "computer advisor friend"

does not think much of them, and I have a problem installing a free software which

was made in China (call me timid).

 

Some of you guys here have more knowledge of computers - what do you think about

increasing the priority values for all parts you need for flying OFF ?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Yes indeed Olham. I gave this same tip quite some time ago in one of the threads here. I set TrackIR at "high", and OFF at "higher than normal", and I shut down everything else I don't need. Also, if you have multiple hard drives and you want to run FRAPS, install it on a different HD from your OFF install; makes a giant difference in performance when running video capture.

 

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[Parky 8]

In the Task Manager, one can change the priotrity for each running program.

I have sometimes set my "Catalyst Monitoring" to "higher than normal", "OFF Manager"

to "high", and "TrackIR" to "higher than normal" - hoping this would use more system

power for those tasks.

I know that there are free game booster programs, but my "computer advisor friend"

does not think much of them, and I have a problem installing a free software which

was made in China (call me timid).

 

Some of you guys here have more knowledge of computers - what do you think about

increasing the priority values for all parts you need for flying OFF ?

 

Hi Olham,

 

The short answer is, I think it's a complete and utter waste of valuable flying time. I would also be inclined to agree with your "computer advisor friend" when it comes to programs that claim to increase gaming performance by shutting down "unnecessary" background taks and/or services. Proggies like End-it-all may be useful for someone who's running significantly older hardware than what most of us here are using, and needs to squeeze every last drop of performance out of an aging CPU and RAM. With any of the modern multi-core processors, you'd be far better OFF experimenting with core affinity settings as opposed to the "smoke and mirrors" approach of adjusting priority values. As an example, if you had a quad-core CPU, you could try assigning OFF to run exclusively on core 2 and a proggie like FRAPS to run on core 3. Cores 0 and 1 should by default be assigned to handle most OS activity if I'm not mistaken.

 

Speaking of FRAPS, Lou's advice for configuring it so it records to it's own designated drive is spot on. An SSD would be absolutley ideal. What you're looking for is the fastest sustained writes you can possibly achieve, and a solid state drive would certainly be your best bet.

 

Basically, I think the prioritization feature in Windows is the equivilent of naturopathic medicine, which in most cases involves eating some kind of sugar pills. If you try hard enough to convince yourself that you can shrink that grapefruit-sized malignant growth on your face by sucking on a candy, chances are you'll also convince yourself it's not as big today as it was yesterday.

 

Cheers,

 

Parky

Edited January 14, 2011 by Parky

[Olham 164]

A good additional tip, Lou, about FRAPS.

So I was the Echo now - I must have either missed your thread, or didn't care about it then.

 

What would be really great, would be to know, which of the many little programs one could terminate during games.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Parky, I played around with the core affinity setting on my system and found no real improvement but rather had some glitches and freezes occur while running OFF in that configuration. As to the priority settings debate, I will say that on my system the improvements were quite minor, but still noticeable, (mainly in the smoothness of TrackIR during very rapid head movements in a dogfight). BTW, here are my system specs:

 

CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0ghz Wolfdale 6mb 1333fsb 45nm, (OC'd to 3.8), with Arctic Cooler

Memory: 8gb DDR2 PC2-6400 800mhz, (OC'd to 840)

Mobo: ASUS P5QL Pro

Hard Drive: two Western Digital 640 GB Caviar Black SATA

Opti Drive: LG 22X DVD+/RW Dual Layer SATA Rewrite

Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512mb

PS: Diablotek RPM 900w ATX

Tower: large Cooler Master, with two additional 130mm case fans, (total of four)

Windows XP Pro 64-bit OS

 

 

Olham, which programs you can shut down vary quite a bit depending on your OS and the additional programs installed.

 

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[Olham 164]

Thank you, Parky - that's what I wanted to know.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Olham

[Olham 164]

I am saving to build up a new rig again.

Now, the only one program I need power and speed for is "Over Flanders Fields".

Which as I read, cannot benefit from Quad Core, but only Dual Core.

 

Is it then still better to buy a Quad Core CPU?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Parky wrote:

Basically, I think the prioritization feature in Windows is the equivilent of naturopathic medicine, which in most cases involves eating some kind of sugar pills. If you try hard enough to convince yourself that you can shrink that grapefruit-sized malignant growth on your face by sucking on a candy, chances are you'll also convince yourself it's not as big today as it was yesterday.

 

Now hold on there Parky! The handsome pills my doctor prescribed have definitely been working for me and I see improvements every day when I shave. And I know they are not placebos because the same doctor gave me some memory improvement elixir last year that really did the trick. It did taste a lot like cherry soda, but he said that was just to make it easier to take...at least I think that's what he said, I really can't remember at the moment.

 

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[Olham 164]

You can't even seem to remember, that you had posted that, Lou?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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My computer stuttered Olham...yeah, that's it, that's the ticket.

 

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[Parky 8]

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Parky, I played around with the core affinity setting on my system and found no real improvement but rather had some glitches and freezes occur while running OFF in that configuration. As to the priority settings debate, I will say that on my system the improvements were quite minor, but still noticeable, (mainly in the smoothness of TrackIR during very rapid head movements in a dogfight).

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I've messed about with both core affinity and priority settings, and quite honestly, I didn't see any significant improvement with either set of tweaks, although I never ran into the stability issues you've described. This doesn't mean those tweaks won't work for some people though. Every hardware configuration is different, but as a rule I just don't place much stock in the effectiveness of optimizing OFF performance via either of those methods. I think I'll try that trick of your's with the TrackIR priority settings regardless, as that's the only real area I still have any issues with. I'll let you know how I make out.

 

 

Is it then still better to buy a Quad Core CPU?

 

 

It's pretty much the industry standard now, and won't cost you all that much more than a dual core. Might as well shoot the works and future-proof yourself. You never know when somebody will release some software you'll want that absolutely requires a multi-core CPU in order to run efficiently.

 

 

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Now hold on there Parky! The handsome pills my doctor prescribed have definitely been working for me and I see improvements every day when I shave. And I know they are not placebos because the same doctor gave me some memory improvement elixir last year that really did the trick. It did taste a lot like cherry soda, but he said that was just to make it easier to take...at least I think that's what he said, I really can't remember at the moment.

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Lou,

 

If the size of your facial tumor is diminishing every time you shave, you're quite simply applying far too much pressure to your razor......it has nothing to do with the pills.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Parky

Edited January 14, 2011 by Parky

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Hmmmm...that might explain the inordinate amount of tissue bits I have to stick on to me 'ol kisser after planing off the stubble every morning.

 

 

 

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[Olham 164]

When I look into the mirror at morning, I often have thoughts of removing the whole upper 12 inches.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Olham

[BirdDogICT 3]

I am saving to build up a new rig again.

Now, the only one program I need power and speed for is "Over Flanders Fields".

Which as I read, cannot benefit from Quad Core, but only Dual Core.

 

Is it then still better to buy a Quad Core CPU?

Olham,

 

I have to agree with Parky and Lou about setting affinities and killing unwanted background programs...this approach was helpful when running on older hardware, but like many here, I upgraded my PC solely to increase my BHaH enjoyment. Just for grins, I tried several of my old softwares to adjust settings with my newer machine, running Windows 7 64 bit, and actually found BHaH performance was worse.

 

I found the "sweet spot" for running BHaH to be about 3.6 MHz...I was able to easily overclock a dual core AMD processor 20% without generating much additional heat, something that would be more difficult with 4 cores. Since BHaH only needs one core, I decided on a budget dual core processor, with the option of upgrading later if need be.

 

While we're on the subject of new builds, the newer ATI cards are getting better all the time, and driver support is much better than a few years ago. I'm blown away by the performance of my relatively slow 5770 with the Catalyst 10.12 drivers. I'm waiting to hear how well the 6970 works with BHaH.... Anyone?