Little experiment just for fun :)

Greetings everyone, here's a nifty little test I did for my own casual amusement. My PC specs are below.

Newer CPUs have separate multipliers for Core and Cache, with the cache multiplier controlling the L3 cache (I believe). I'm pretty sure the Core multiplier controls the speed of the L1 and L2 caches, and of course, the CPU cores themselves.

So, I downclocked my cache to the minimum allowed, which is 8x, for a cache speed of 800 MHz--dreadfully slow by any standards, not just today's.

I also downclocked my DDR4 memory to 400 MHz per channel, running my memory at 800 MHz instead of the normal 3000. I monitored them while the machine was running to make sure they were both running at the very low speed I had set them to.

It made almost no perceptible difference in the PC's boot time, the loading time for DCS, the mission loading time, or the game's performance. Framerates were slightly lower above Normandy, but raising the RAM speed took care of that, even with the cache multiplier at 8x.

The whole point of CPU cache is to be very, very fast, but it seems to make no difference in gaming :) Same with uber-fast system memory.

DCS World's performance seems to be entirely dependent on CPU core speed, and the type of video card you have. So, when buying RAM, you can just get the cheapest stuff, and get more :)

Also, very low cache and RAM speeds had no effect on stuttering, which I always have (and neither does setting very low graphics options.)

AD

It made almost no perceptible difference in the game's performance. Framerates were slightly lower above Normandy, but raising the RAM speed took care of that, even with the cache multiplier at 8x.

 

The whole point of CPU cache is to be very, very fast, but it seems to make no difference in gaming :) Same with uber-fast system memory.

Maybe, because your CPU/RAM are not the bottleneck.

This guy can load his 1080 at 70-98% with a 2500K at 4.3Ghz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjx8YF3gpJA&lc=z22qhhpoema2gdlwu04t1aokgfn0et0pjpeouwwe1vhvrk0h00410.1518863027029169

Maybe, because your CPU/RAM are not the bottleneck.

This guy can load his 1080 at 70-98% with a 2500K at 4.3Ghz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjx8YF3gpJA&lc=z22qhhpoema2gdlwu04t1aokgfn0et0pjpeouwwe1vhvrk0h00410.1518863027029169

That's interesting, but I'm still rather intrigued that ultra-slow cache and memory have little to no impact on load times and game performance... Sort of makes me wonder what the point of all that stuff is for everyday PC use, since it certainly isn't going to affect internet use or playing videos :)

Most of all, I'm surprised at how slow the memory can be without affecting the sim much.

I'm still surprised at how much stuttering there is, consider that DCS 2.5 seems to be very easy on CPUs now, and framerates are still good when the vid card is loaded at 100%. I wonder how long it'll take to sort all that out--if it ever happens at all.

AD

Seems like Vulcan technology will be the game changer here (hopefully) ;)

That's interesting, but I'm still rather intrigued that ultra-slow cache and memory have little to no impact on load times and game performance... Sort of makes me wonder what the point of all that stuff is for everyday PC use, since it certainly isn't going to affect internet use or playing videos :)

 

Most of all, I'm surprised at how slow the memory can be without affecting the sim much.

 

I'm still surprised at how much stuttering there is, consider that DCS 2.5 seems to be very easy on CPUs now, and framerates are still good when the vid card is loaded at 100%. I wonder how long it'll take to sort all that out--if it ever happens at all.

 

AD

I don't get this stuttering thing some have, never seen it? not even on my real old PC. Even when recording in VR, as seen here, I don't get any of these stuttering, it must be a little DCS gremlin some only get?

You have a very similar system, you shouldn't be having problems.

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I don't get this stuttering thing some have, never seen it? not even on my real old PC. Even when recording in VR, as seen here, I don't get any of these stuttering, it must be a little DCS gremlin some only get?

 

You have a very similar system, you shouldn't be having problems.

 

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same with me, only had stutter in VR once lately but it went away by itself.

My guess (re stuttering) is loading of stuff from hard-drive >>>RAM>>>GPU-RAM.

And/or background processes interrupting things (of which there are a very great variety).

Interesting, turns out you can play DCS on Apple Watch all along, we just didn't try!

..........DCS World's performance seems to be entirely dependent on CPU core speed, and the type of video card you have...........AD

Hi, I partly agree with you. In sticky thread "2016 hardware benchmark" I can see fps increasing with RAM speed... Maybe it's no more Truth with actual 2.5 ?

About CPU core speed I made some experiment to, because, by chance, I made some CPU clock monitoring (I recently upgraded afterburner to 4.4.2 and CPU core clock was suddenly monitored - I've never monitored it before).

I was surprized that in DCS VR, probably because of low usage, CPU cores speed was "low" : my CPU is OC to 4.8Ghz and mostly during the gameplay it was running 4.4 Ghz (only 1 or 2 peaks to 4.8 ).

So I tried with my screen and maxed out settings (except terrain shadow to flat because default seems bugged) and Vsync Off to max out the ressources usage : even with the 4 cores (Hyp.Threading off) at 100% usage during 40 seconds, the CPU cores speed was doing sawtooth between 4.4 and 4.8 Ghz ... Strange ? With another sim with near max usage on 2 cores, the cores speed is at 4.8 Ghz stable. (you can see pictures CpuOC-DCS and CpuOC-AFFS2 for DCS and Aerofly cores speed graphs) (for info : max cpu temp when 4 cores are at 100% is 75°c)

Another Strange thing : during a gameplay gpu was always at max except when I made 4 loopings at the point where I was up toward sky (mirrors off), there gpu usage went to 35% but it was at these moments that I had the lowest fps ! 60 and some ... (except for a rocket pass at about 50fps) - (you can see the picture Gpu-DCS1) With vsync off I expected that when pointing to sky the fps would be crazy high with gpu/cpu usage still max or near.