CPU Spikes

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CPU Spikes

Postby Markeebo » Wed Feb 10, 2016 9:33 pm

Hey all. General question for the FSX folks here:

Any clues as to why I would be getting regular MASSIVE CPU usage spikes and the subsequent drops in FPS in FSX:SE? Crazy thing is that it just started last night. There have been no system changes and up until last night, my setup was solid. Steam did an update yesterday to me. That's the only thing that changed.

I thought it was FlyInside so I uninstalled the latest and deleted all relevant files and installed a prior version. No joy. Have even tugged about on the Affinity Mask setting to try to balance the load. It happens with or without FlyInside running, so FI isn't the culprit. Choice of aircraft doesn't matter either. Nor does location. I'm frame locked at 30 and about every 30 seconds, I go from 29-30 solid frames to 7 and sit there for 30-45 seconds. Returns to normal....30 seconds of relief and another spike. Core 3 runs up to 100% right away and stay there. That appears to be fairly normal for me. But Cores 5 and 7 are the spikey ones and I'm out of magic pixie dust to sprinkle on my rig. I guess the above core numbers aren't actually Cores 3,5,7 since core 1 is actually core 0. So cores 2,4,6 would technically be the correct ones.

Is there anything I can run to see WHAT is loading up the CPU like that? I'm assuming its FSX since it doesn't happen unless it running, but perhaps I am missing something. Really strange since it ran perfectly until last night.

I'm afraid the whole setup is porked and I'm going to have to completely reinstall/reconfig FSX again. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Any help would be awesome.

Rig is a i7-4770k OC 4.6
16GB RAM
980ti 6GB Card. (361.75)
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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Robert » Wed Feb 10, 2016 11:02 pm

Hey Mark, I'm not sure what might be going on but one thing you might try is turning off hyperthreading. The 4770k is a quad core but you mention cores 5 and 7 so it sounds like you have it turned on to get 8 shared cores. In that configuration, FSX which is pretty core bound gets to share that core with other stuff.

Just a thought.
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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Sharkku » Thu Feb 11, 2016 5:57 am

I have the problem with CPU spikes as well. Although, for me it isn't so serious. I get a spike to 100% every ~30 seconds, but it doesn't last for more than 3-5 seconds, and most of the time goes to 20-30 fps in sim and 70-73 fps timewarped. I notice it as a slight stutter every now and again.
I think it began last fall or something. It occurred at the same time as the one-core-to-100%-bug with oculus runtime and NVIDIA drivers. I waited for a fix to that one, but when the fix came, it didn't change the behaviour of FSX. I googled some, but found no solution. I would be forever grateful to the one who solves this mystery!

It's a good idea to turn off hyperthreading, Robert. Going to try that now.
Edit: Turning off hyperthreading doesn't help. Good idea though. Other ideas? I have tried a lot of different affinity masks as well...
Edit 2: This is very strange. I turned hyperthreading and affinity mask back on, and the problem seems to be gone! A little too early to say for sure, but a tentative optimism! I really didn't change anything, just switched hyperthreading and affinity mask off, and then back on again. I use AffinityMask=84 with hyperthreading on. Could you try the same and see what happens, Mark?
CPU: i7-7700K @4.6 GHz, GPU: GTX1080Ti, RAM: 16 GB, OS: Win10 64-bit, HMD: Rift CV1
Software: FSX:SE, FFS, Nvidia driver: 391.35, Oculus runtime: public test channel, FlyInside 1.8013 beta

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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Markeebo » Thu Feb 11, 2016 10:35 am

I'm probably due a full OS reload soon. So if I am going to reload FSX and P3D, I might as well reload Windows. Going to be a bit before I get back on this.

Weird this was its been solid stable since in was installed. Just started spiking. Never saw the behavior before
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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Sharkku » Thu Feb 11, 2016 7:16 pm

Yeah, my tentative optimism was severely punished. The CPU spike problem has come back IN FORCE. Now it drops the framrate to 5-8 fps during the spikes, which lasts for 10-12 seconds every minute or so. It's absolutely horrible. I reverted my settings, and the problem persists. It wasn't this bad before I started to tinker. :(
CPU: i7-7700K @4.6 GHz, GPU: GTX1080Ti, RAM: 16 GB, OS: Win10 64-bit, HMD: Rift CV1
Software: FSX:SE, FFS, Nvidia driver: 391.35, Oculus runtime: public test channel, FlyInside 1.8013 beta

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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Robert » Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:44 pm

Hey guys, I had another thought. Any chances you have a USB drive or similar plugged in? I'm wondering if Windows occasionally reaches out to such devices just to see what is what.

Longshot but thought I'd ask.
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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Markeebo » Sat Feb 13, 2016 1:24 pm

Robert wrote:Hey guys, I had another thought. Any chances you have a USB drive or similar plugged in? I'm wondering if Windows occasionally reaches out to such devices just to see what is what.

Longshot but thought I'd ask.


For me....no. My rig has been solid. I went to do some carrier traps one evening last week and started a MP session. It got all juddery every few secs and the. FSX informed me that it lost the network connection and ask if I wanted to continue SP. I answered OK since my buddy elected not to join me. The FPS dropped on a consistent basis of 30-45 secs of great FPS and normal CPU usage and then would spike 3 of my CPUs to 100% for 30 secs or so.

I had added nothing, nor had I changed anything. Just a few days before, I had been launching Harpoons at ships in the Black Sea.

Having zero luck with getting P3D to play nice in MP too so I'm frustrated enough that I'm doing a full OS rebuild this week. If anyone IS getting P3D to play nice in MP, can you tell me what drivers and FI versions you are using. Out of ideas here. Hoping a fresh OS will help.

Edit: I will reiterate here that this happens with or without the dk2 turned on.
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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Sharkku » Sat Feb 13, 2016 2:18 pm

Yeah, disconnecting usb disks didn't help for me either. Good idea though, Robert! Seems to be something within the workings of the fsx.exe. Please let us know if that OS reinstall helps, Mark! I'm on the verge of upgrading to win10 as well.
CPU: i7-7700K @4.6 GHz, GPU: GTX1080Ti, RAM: 16 GB, OS: Win10 64-bit, HMD: Rift CV1
Software: FSX:SE, FFS, Nvidia driver: 391.35, Oculus runtime: public test channel, FlyInside 1.8013 beta

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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Markeebo » Sat Feb 13, 2016 2:44 pm

I will! I'll report back in a few days. I had intended on updating my rig this summer so I went ahead and ordered a new CPU/mobo/ram a few months early. Good thing The Warden works during the week so I can intercept the goods before she gets wise. lol
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Re: CPU Spikes

Postby Robert » Sat Feb 13, 2016 4:32 pm

Sorry guys. On the data point side, I am not seeing these spikes or pauses.

Fingers crossed that I don't too!
HTC Vive Pro/P3D/DCS/X-Plane
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