[DCS] Possible fix for stutters and bad performance

[@adambransbury]

Oh my god! Eagle dynamics have been useless helping me with this issue! And voila you have found it! Thanks from the UK!

[@Pricklyhedgehog72]

I did the same thing this year, upgraded the system and had major stuttering with the sound looping. Despite all the wonderful imagery before me, the game was unplayable. For some reason, I have heard, and can now confirm, DCS does not take advantage of multi-core processing. I went into the system, and despite having 8 cores, the application was only taking advantage of one. A quick click to activate all cores, night and day performance difference, this works! Thanks for uploading, it was making my DCS experience less than pleasant.

[@Trax117]

You fixed all my problems on DCS in 2019 with a GTX 1080, THX !

[@martinlagrange8821]

Thank you for this - its made a HUGE difference on all my mathematically intensive applications, not just DCS - magical, and big thanks for this !

[@spark250ms4]

Thank you so much I could not find out why my game was stuttering a lot to the point where it was unplayable. After this video it’s running so smoothly. Thank you!

[@jedijc5411]

It's Nov. 9, 2019: I now have a I9 CPU, 2080 Nvidia Card but could only get 50 to 110 FPS. Thanks to Your Wisdom I'm almost Maxing out my Predator X35 Monitor. Thank You!!!!

[@xxJohnxx77]

Nice to hear that the fix still works! Have fun with your new system!

[@joncross6449]

I had the Stutter problem playing DCS with my RTX3080.....I finally fixed the problem by connecting the PC direct to a 13A socket! Previously I had connected it, via a 4 gang anti-surge extension lead! It now performs Great!

[@cabsy05]

Thank you so much for sharing this fix! I had the exact same problem with DCS 2.2 (Intel 6850K, Win10 Pro, only CPU0 selected as default). After applying this fix the game now runs perfectly -> a lot more fps, no more stuttering, choppy sounds or jerky TrackIR movement. I am now using Process Lasso to set DCS affinity automatically to cores 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. Cpu priority is set to high. I don't know whether DCS "needs" that many cores to run smoothly, but after seeing this configuration works perfectly (literally a day-night difference), I couldn't care less anymore.

[@xxJohnxx77]

Thank you for your feedback! I am glad that the fix is helping at least some of you guys! :)

[@astrixau8928]

This is a great bit of info, someone told me about this but I couldn't find it in the task manager and I thought I might not have been available for Win10, thanks heaps :)

[@Rhinozherous]

For setting the affinity mask permanent I use "Process Lasso". Pretty intuitive and stable. I use the free version (nag on windows startup - but just to click to away)

[@xxJohnxx77]

Thank you for the tip. I found a way to set DCS affinity using DCS itselfe as well: forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=118535&highlight=CPU+AFFINITY

[@theopinionatedgamer9847]

I ended up paying for process lasso to use Xplane in VR but it works for other games too. great application

[@xxJohnxx77]

Here is a guid on how to set DCS affinity automatically using nothing but DCS itselfe: forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=118535&highlight=CPU+AFFINITY

[@Laserxray]

thanks you so much , this is what i was looking for, I just built a new machine with a, I7 7820x and a 1080ti, x299 mobo and was getting a constant stuttering , like a mini pause including sound cutting off, this fixed it, im so happy , its super smooth now. is there a way to make the task manager settings stick to always stay with all cores selected?thanks again

[@kefir8257]

I have mine set to 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, by default. Is that good?

[@JediMasterMok]

Mine is also set to use all CPUs cores and hyperthread cores (everything check boxed). Is that the best configuration currently?

[@CalvinMagnusMusic]

I started playing DCS last week and was having this really nasty stuttering every 4 or 5 secs, to the point it was simply unplayable. I know I have a mid-tier PC, but anyways I searched all over the web for fixes and realized it's a pretty common issue even on very high-end machines. Tried all suggestions and fixes and nothing worked until I just bought an NVMe SSD disk and installed the game there. I was running the game from an HDD. No more stutters, even with all graphics cranked to the max I get solid 50/60 fps with zero stutters. The game now runs perfect. It's mindblowing how easy it was to fix the problem (not cheap though lol). My specs are: - Ryzen 5 2600X - GTX 1660 Ti (6GB) - 32Gb DDR4 Ram - NVMe SSD WD_Black SN770 1TB

[@mattpro11]

Just found this in 2020 after upgrading to Ryzen 5 3600 w/16 GB DDR4 (3200MHZ). Originally all 11 boxes were ticked, I think just doing the same as you has helped! I run it on a separate HDD while I save for a new M.2 SSD :)

[@lukewiseman3829]

Thank you so much for making this video!!

[@mattfleig2621]

i had stutters till i got a solid state drive , it worked wonders .

[@johnwalsh1879]

Think you just might have got me back into DCS world 😁

[@lemo_manda6076]

Oh der Punkt das du Deutsch bist lässt mich doch gleich mal den Abonniert Knopf drücken !:) Super Video !

[@bilgatus]

I have an i5 with 4 cores. And DCS is running on all 4 cores by default... Maybe it is a config thing, that DCS does not recognize processors with 6 cores? Or the hyperthreading is the problem? I think Burnt Toasts idea is not too bad with 6 cores :)

[@paulj1036]

Interesting video. You appear to be running in window mode which isn't optimal for DirectX graphics (the task bar appears above the DCS screen). On my system I notice a massive reduction in tearing (not stuttering) when I switch to full screen mode (LALT+ENTER). I also clamp my FPS to VSYNC using NVidia inspector (NOT using the DCS option!!!). As long as I'm able to render above 60FPS then it's as smooth as silk. Thanks.

[@xxJohnxx77]

Thank you for your input. I tried to switch to fullscreen but it didn't change anything regarding the stutters while using a single screen unfortunatly. Switching to fulllscreen in my usual thripple monitor mode is not possible, as then DCS will colaps down to one monitor.

[@DolanMaster]

thanks really helps :) , my game started doing this since i updated to 2.2. I also have 6800k.

[@BIGNEWY]

Very helpful, thanks for sharing

[@olroxmo4050]

Nice video John. Plz could u show us the weather and the time managment you used for this video?. Thx in advance.

[@barbarossa7359]

This is very helpfull. Thanks man!

[@MrPhantom453]

Thanks John. Will Give that a try.

[@newmark8631]

I have an Permanent and faster solution in general, Hold Windows logo + R > type "msconfig" and hit "enter" >> click "Boot" >> Open "Advanced Options" >> Tick "Number of Processors" >> Choose the highest number which means "all cores" >> Click "ok" >> Apply >> choose "Restart the Computer now" done. Basically thing we're doing in here is the same thing at the video "3:05". Instead of doing one by one for every other task, we're just setting this option as a default.

[@AA43560]

I have an i5 3570k, if i want to do the DCS config fix, what exactly do I add in the config file? Im having trouble figuring it out. Thanks in advance!

[@Wildboy0001]

warum sollte dieses spiel beim spielstart nur einen kern verwenden und die andrn sozusagen abschalten? Wenn man ein spiel,oder irgendetwas startet an programmen und man hat mind. einen dualcore cpu,werden immer beide cores beim start ausgewählt. starte ich z.b. world of warships sind meine 8 cores auch immer im taskmanager ausgewählt,aber der core 1 ist halt immer der kern der am meisten macht,das liegt aber am windows,den treibern und dem gestartetem programm glaube ich.

[@xxJohnxx77]

Ein Spiel kann sich selber aussuchen auf wieviele Kernen es läuft. Dies wird über die AffinityMask geregelt. Aus irgendeinem Grund kommt es anscheinend auf manchen Systemen (wie auch bei mir) vor, dass DCS nur auf einem Kern läuft weil da irgendwas falsch eingestellt wird, wie im Video zu sehen war. Den Grund dafür weiß ich nicht.

[@origionalcatastrophe]

Nice fix I will try this!

[@thebotman_1037]

Thxs man this worked for me

[@Nebby_Webby]

ich wusste doch von anfang an das du deutscher bist 😆 der akzent ist nicht zu überhören 😆 trotzdem gutes video, danke!

[@burnttoast111]

I wonder if you might get slightly better performance if you don't select core 0. Just because other processes tend to run on core 0, and looking at the CPU load, only your core 0 was getting pegged.

[@xxJohnxx77]

I will give it a try later on. I think I have set it in the autoexec.cfg now to use 3 and 4.

[@567davefair]

that sounds like a great idea as Windows, background programs and apps run on the first core as well

[@Pascal_2041]

bei mir steht da ganix von zugehörigkeit festlegen????

[@ReddyDutch]

Hi John, just out of curiousity, because I'm considering upgrading my system: what GPU are you using? Have a happy new years eve & best wishes for 2017!

[@xxJohnxx77]

I got myselfe an ASUS GTX1080. A very good start into the new year as well sir!

[@ApeX2411]

I just tried it and I saw that all my cores were preselected. Also changing the cores didn't seem to affect the performance much here. Any solution for this?

[@xxJohnxx77]

Having all cores selected seems to be the default behaviour as it should be. However on some systems, mine included, for some weird reason, it isn't. Are you experiencing stutters? Many folks seem to get good improvments with installing DCS on a SSD.

[@ApeX2411]

I hardly get any stutter even though I am running DCS on a fairly old rig i74770@3,4 Ghz, MSI 970 Gaming 4G 16 GB DDR3

[@quincy8557]

I have never experienced this stutter on my 5930k (980ti) but I will double check the settings anyway next time I play. Installing the game on an nvme ssd does nothing for game performance over regular sata ssd

[@TheDickieP]

I had exactly the same as you, turned out to be my Kingston ssd and that the firmware was out of date, took over a year to fix it but I’m so glad I did. I’ll also do your suggestion to help, thanks man

[@AZAce1064]

I have a Alienware X-51 I-5 4 cores and 8 gig ram stock box, I am sad it won’t even run DCS. Is there any easy upgrades I can do for about 100usd to run this game? I plan to build a new high end rig next year when my truck is paid off but for now I’m just looking for a bandaid before I pass down this rig to my 10 year old next year.

[@ZoeSummers1701A]

Danke! Thank you very much. Didn't know you could do this. Is there any way to tell DC to use more cores/ threads? Is this fixed in DCS 2.0?

[@xxJohnxx77]

No, unfortunatly there is no way to have DCS use more threads. It has the primary thread for most of the simulation and rendering as well as a second thread for audio. Therefore you would want to assing at least 2 threads through the affinity setting as shown in the video. DCS 2.0 with EDGE still only uses 2 threads as well, as according to the Devs, the benefit of going multithreaded would not be worth it for DCS.

[@PiSiCaN]

Thks man u r a life saver...

[@zaidayman441]

It actually worked!!

[@q---p]

you should be using Intel's Turbo Max 3.0 companion app and add DCS (and other games) to that list, it will auto-balance your apps automatically. If you can't find this app you need to install the correct inf drivers for your motherboard chipset.

[@nazgul_53]

Hello John, I could not do the same you did, well I run Windows 7. so this is what I did - set DCS to REALTIME priority checked the cores and all 4 were marked like before. and it still stutters. do you have any idea what to do?

[@xxJohnxx77]

It appears only some systems have the problem that the cores are not correctly distributed by default. One of the most obvious things would be to install DCS on a SSD if you didn't already do so. It runs terribly on a normal disk. I also run the water settings on low, as well as heat blur and reflections off. All three cause large performance problems on my end in complex missions or when recording.

[@snowman374th]

All of mine are checked. And I have only 5 showing on mine. All Process CPU 0 CPU 1 CPU 2 CPU 3 All checked. still have some stuttering. Or skipping. nVidia GT 710 card..

[@cmdrefstathiusplacidus9003]

my problem is that it will be just fine, then at the worst possible time, screen completely freezes... this sounds like what it is... I hop it fixes. I just messed up a multi wing, multi airframe formation photo op with my group.

[@567davefair]

I'm running DCS on Windows 7x64bit on a i7-4790K and DCS Affinity Mask is automatically set to "" with each core ticked off. Seems you just need to figure out why yours is set to the first core only.

[@macmusica]

3 years later and still stutters ;0

[@retardmoguss]

@Stalker dude even my ryzen 5 3600 and rtx 2060 super stutters inb multiplayer. Now ik about intel good amd shit argument in dcs but sudden 1fps drops for a fucking min till I crash in the ocean is kinda crazy

[@astrixau8928]

I have a 4770K and all applications have all cores selected in set affinity

[@Air-Striegler]

I had the same problem and solved it by locking the frame rate to 60 fps through the graphic card settings. My monitor runs with 60Hz so it is not able to handle higher frame rates, or so I have been told...?

[@lukeswann2859]

Lord Lukian unless you have a special monitor yes

[@xxJohnxx77]

Well, as you could see in the video, as soon as I have set the affinity mask there is no more problem there. So not the monitors on my end.

[@Air-Striegler]

xxJohnxx Roger that!

[@567davefair]

My monitor also runs at 60hz so locking it at 60 or just slightly higher as a cushion will reduce GPU workload and voltage usage prolonging your GPU lifespan.

[@lemo_manda6076]

Hey John bekommen wir ein/mehrere AJs37 Tutorials?

[@xxJohnxx77]

Ja, sobald sie veröffentlicht wurde geht es los ;)

[@lemo_manda6076]

schön :) ich hab sie nämlich auch :D

[@CoyoteOne]

The worst part is I can run the game on max everything and hold over 80 fps but when it stutters my god it drops a lot.... I know he settings aren't too high because before it shudders I've got high fps..... so damn annoying especially in formation or air refueling, it's almost impossible

[@TacticalSandals]

Idk what is up with DCS I have a beast of a PC but whenever I use TrackIR5 I get massive stuttering. Never drops below 180fps yet every few seconds the game hiccups. So annoying, when TrackIr is paused its as smooth as silk

[@xxJohnxx77]

Yeah, I had those occasional hiccups on a previous PC build as well. Still not sure what was causing them.

[@adamliljebrunn9361]

Thank you!

[@GOZR]

Your affinity is set to one CPU from start mine from start all 12

[@christhenademan13]

Hey. Ich hab eine GTX1050Ti und nen i5-????? Prozessor. Hat mir auf v2.5 super geholfen. Danke, Abo is auch dabei.

[@ianboys1000]

Danke John

[@RST9413]

Now im waiting to go home to try this

[@ianboys1000]

Do you need to do this each time you fly?

[@theopinionatedgamer9847]

Thats not how hyper threading works. simply put hyper threading works by sending to bits of information to process into the same core. so each thread is sort of like half the core. you are only giving it half the cpu to use.

[@AboodSpiN]

well, i have 2 problems, 1 - the game load takes a lot of time and slow down my pc 2 - when i fire rocket the game freeze about 1-2 seconds, but 2nd attack doesn't freeze weird game. lol btw i got gtx 1080 and i7 4790k :p P.S nice video john!

[@Kartoffeljoghurt]

How much RAMdo you have installed? For me RAM was the cause for slow loading and stuttering. If you have a good amount of RAM, maybe turn down the preload range :)

[@AboodSpiN]

8GB corsair vengeance 1600 non OC i also have a weird problem , when i take off and attack with first missile or rocket, the game freeze like 2-3 seconds and then it runs normal. no idea whats that. in the 2nd attack no such a problem.

[@Kartoffeljoghurt]

Yep, had that too with 8 gigs of RAM. Especially in multiplayer sessions or even singleplayer missions with much going on, the 8 GB get to its limits. So far so that the sound, animation, for certain weapons for example get's put onto the virtual RAM on your hard drive if not used and when you then want to use it, the resources required for the visualization of firing a rocket, missile (or for for me even the gun) have to be loaded from the hard drive again and gets switched out with another currently unused resource in your RAM, which sometimes takes a few seconds. That also explains why it only happens the first time; when it is then put back into your RAM it's ready for instant use again. A not so fast hard drive usually isn't a problem, unless this happens of course. I recommend upgrading your RAM, or what helped me a lot is changing the terrain textures to low and the general textures to medium (so that the cockpit is still looking nice) and play arround with the preload range until everything the game needs to fit on your RAM and it's running fine :) The lowered textures aren't looking bad at all and not having those stutters is really nice, but turning down the preload range might then sometimes cause freezes when zooming in on something, although I don't know how much that will occure because your GPU is quite high end but try for yourself :)

[@Kartoffeljoghurt]

If your having problems joining busy MP-servers that's also the cause because when the RAM is not big enough, the hard drive is not only loading new resources but being written on at the same time because stuff gets switched arround between RAM and hard drive the whole time and that slows it down a lot.

[@AboodSpiN]

well let me tell you something i didn't mention maybe, i gave my ssd to my older brother, now im using normal hard drive, it loads to 99% while playing dcs. it makes the loading delay alot!

[@Chrinik]

DCS is not running on a single core, it outsources it´s sound calculatios to a seperate core. Giving it atleast two physical cores to run on improves performance drastically. Anything beyond that doesn´t affect it much. I discovered this while testing affinity settings and the common "myth" of DCS only running on a single core. Restricting it to a single core tanked my performance. But windows normally allows programs to run on every core and assigns it automatically. I wouldn´t know how it only restricted yours to a single core by default. That´s not how it is on my system.

[@xxJohnxx77]

Yes, two cores seems to be enough to net get limitted by that. I am not sure why it is like that on my system, but a couple of folks have the exact same issue. Programs are capable of assining their own affinity masks, so there might be something going on there. Not completly sure though.

[@Chrinik]

xxJohnxx Running as admin vs. not?

[@xxJohnxx77]

Chrinik Running as admin.

[@markslandingsandaviationvi3123]

1:56 How did you do that?

[@xxJohnxx77]

Alt+Tab key on Windows 7. On Windows 10 it still works, but it looks a bit diffrent.

[@L3AF]

all my cores are set when i play for some reason

[@xxJohnxx77]

Well, this seems to be default and okay. Only few people have just one core assinged. Trying to figure out why that happens.

[@L3AF]

should i not use all? should i change them

[@xxJohnxx77]

***** No, all is fine as well.

[@gregsdrummer]

Damn nice processor

[@bdaycaker]

How long does this game take to download?

[@xxJohnxx77]

Depends on your internet-speed. The download is between 70-130GB.

[@xanderdejong6449]

haha lol we have the same cpu, what motherboard do you have? i have the x99a godlike gaming :)

[@TheIceGryphon]

Are you aren't running a page file on the SSD? Bad Idea. I run DCS on SSD and normal temp/pagefiles/system files on Mechanical drive. DCS loves to create all sortsa files when loading unloading missions. So different drives might be good.

[@xxJohnxx77]

Both Windows and Games have a seperate SSD on my end here. Pagefile is on the Windows SSD. Works fine. I have plenty of RAM (32GB) though, so while the pagefile is still relevant, it won't hurt performance too much. Last time I tested that there was no diffrence noticable between it being on my SSD or HDD.

[@TheIceGryphon]

You put a page file and OS on the same SSD? Absolutely Haram.

[@xxJohnxx77]

Windows default. You are worring way to much about the pagefile than you should. It is not that important for a game if you have enough RAM.

[@xxJohnxx77]

While I am aware of reduced lifetime due to constant writing onto an SSD, I think the effect is neglible on a consumer level. This article explains it quit well: techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead My main SSD that has been used for Games and Windows as well as the pagefile for the past 4 years until the recent PC upgrade has written 18.5TB total. That is less than 10% of the amount of data written when the first errors started happend (at 200TB while the drive died at 900TB) according to the article above. Not sure why Windows 10 decided to not assing all cores. Could also be that DCS set itselfe to only one core due to some weird reason. Yeah, with the 64bit update DCS has been starting to hog up a lot of RAM...

[@xxJohnxx77]

That could be the case. I tried to turn off all the power saving stuff off, but might I have missed something.

[@mayamichelle2033]

did you fix the restarting problem??

[@xxJohnxx77]

Yes. Still not exactly sure what fixed it, but it got less and less frequent over time.

[@grkobylka]

TLTW: lockind DCS to phisical cores (not using hyperthreading) removes stuttering. Here, I said the same but didn't need 5 minutes for that. Don't thank me.😃

[@MoparAdventure]

Unplayable on a new 2500$ pc

[@RAVENSandDOOMS]

danke!!

[@DarthUrso]

I love you

[@legomeisterlp4375]

Nice Danke

[@theorangeboichannel3339]

I HAVE i3 9100f and i dont have cpu 11

[@markslandingsandaviationvi3123]

What’s your specs?

[@xxJohnxx77]

Intel i7 6800k watercooled | ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 | 32 GB RAM | Asus GTX1080 watercooled

[@2kwattzPhotography]

Me who is managing it in 10-20fps

[@mayamichelle2033]

good job then...

[@nicos1097]

I love Germans they are really smart

[@CoyoteOne]

Omg this is the most annoying thing ever...... I can't figure it out but I have a 6 core too with sli 1080s and I should be running smooth as silk!!!!!

[@mayday303]

Default affinity is "ALL Processors", you must have some shit tool limiting your game to 1 Core, that is not default.

[@xxJohnxx77]

It seems to depend on the Windows version and what it is doing. Some people have all cores selected, I and some others don't.

[@xxJohnxx77]

No tools installed either. I got it twice on a fresh Windwos install. Trying to avoid Bloatware so I usually try my best that only drivers go on.

[@williamcronk3385]

[@thisname1is1sukzable]

video is a bit long, as per usual on youtube. but awesome tip. I'll check out if it works!

[@chullabatschi]

sprech deutsch du gsicht :p

[@xxJohnxx77]

Der RaEuBeR niemals!

[@chullabatschi]

@@xxJohnxx77 verrat ! xd

[@GoatzAreEpic]

game is trash just uninstall