Fixed Vista ICONS in System Tray

[Digital Parasite]

DP
Dont worry too much about the affinity.
Vista does have an option to set it on the command line, but it isn't necessary in most cases.

Just fire up 4 clients and they will get a core each.
The OS will move the clients from core to core as it sees fit, this has a very minor negative effect on the output.

Windows is pretty stupid in assigning CPUs I have found. If you fire up 1 client, you will see that none of the CPUs is using 100% that is because Vista is bouncing it around from CPU to CPU even though there is no load on the others. In Windows if you are running any DC stuff, it is a good idea if you can set the affinity so things stay put.

I was just asking IronBits about his affinity numbers because they seemed strange to me so I was thinking maybe he used that to avoid setting them to a hyper-threaded "core".

Jeff.

[PCZ]

If you start up 4 clients on a quad then all the cores get used.
Setting the affinity is not required.

It is one of those myths that seem to perpetuate around DC forums.

[Digital Parasite]

If you start up 4 clients on a quad then all the cores get used. Setting the affinity is not required.

It is one of those myths that seem to perpetuate around DC forums.

I don't think you get what I'm saying. Windows is not smart about allocating processes to processors. Of course if you start 4 clients all 4 cores will get used, but they may get swapped around by Windows needlessly. So it is more efficient to set the affinity if you can. The scheduler is designed to handle processes that come and go, grow and fall in load, not really optimized for processes that stay loaded 24/7.

The only thing I'm curious about is why IronBits uses 1,2,4,8 for his affinity selection on a quad-core instead of 1,2,3,4. I'm just trying to find out if I'm missing something obvious.

[PCZ]

I'm curious to know what the performance is like with and without hyperthreading.
Wonder if his odd affinity settings have something to do with this. ?

[IronBits]

Not using HT is about the same as using HT, with HT being somewhat faster.
Buy one and let us know how you make out

DP - for example with 4 cores
1 uses CPU0
2 uses CPU1
3 uses CPU0 and CPU1
4 uses CPU2
5 uses CPU0 and CPU2
6 uses CPU1 and CPU2
7 uses CPU0, CPU1, and CPU2
8 uses CPU3
9 uses CPU0 and CPU3
10 uses CPU0, CPU1, CPU2, CPU3


Convert the number to hex and reverse it to see which CPUs are to be used.

[Digital Parasite]

DP - for example with 4 cores
1 uses CPU0
2 uses CPU1
3 uses CPU0 and CPU1
4 uses CPU2
5 uses CPU0 and CPU2
6 uses CPU1 and CPU2
7 uses CPU0, CPU1, and CPU2
8 uses CPU3
9 uses CPU0 and CPU3
10 uses CPU0, CPU1, CPU2, CPU3

Convert the number to hex and reverse it to see which CPUs are to be used.

Ah ok now I understand, that info is exactly what I was looking for. Wow, Vista/XP64 is more advanced than I thought. I didn't realize you could set the affinity for groups of processors as well as just 1 or all. Interesting.

Thanks for the info.
Jeff.

[PCZ]

Affinity works that way in Windows 7 as well.

The taskbar icon is all messed up in W7.
It has no text when you click on it.
GUI monitor seems to work if you can get it up.

[pfb]

The only thing I'm curious about is why IronBits uses 1,2,4,8 for his affinity selection on a quad-core instead of 1,2,3,4. I'm just trying to find out if I'm missing something obvious.

The affinity flag is a hex mask which is why it doesn't go 1,2,3,4 - the info about start IB posted did have this but didn't go into what each flag mask corresponded to...

Handy bit of info imo - didn't realise start had this under Vista (but then don't really do much that needs affinitys changing but still handy to know )

[IronBits]

BitMask     CPU's 
 =========  ========= 
 00000001     1st CPU 
 00000010     2nd CPU 
 00000100     3rd CPU 
 00001000     4th CPU 
 00010000     5th CPU 
 00100000     6th CPU 
 01000000     7th CPU 
 10000000     8th CPU 

By combining these BIT values one can determine the CPU count/mask.
The BitMask is 32 bits in size, so theoretically the BitMask supports up to 32 CPU's.

Example: BitMask=00000011 would mean 2 CPU's, number 1 and 2.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc778499.aspx

[IronBits]

Another way of putting it...
1 = CPU 0
2 = CPU 1
4 = CPU 2
8 = CPU 3
10 = CPU 4
20 = CPU 5
40 = CPU 6
80 = CPU 7
hexadecimal = CPU # (it's zero based) starts with core 0, which is your 1st CPU. (Think SCSI )

Does that help ?
Works in Windows XP 64bit and Vista 64bit OS.
Now you don't need 3rd party utilities to manage your affinity

[PCZ]

Large bell ringing. i used those mask numbers with the F@H GPU client.

IB
I just priced one up.
Bare bones

Sub Total: £471.27
Shipping: £16.25
Total Vat: £73.13
Total inc Vat: £560.65


edit:
Look what you made me do
I did hit the buy button.

Postman better turn up tommorow