Windows Task Manager and "Set Affinity" question

[branskyj]

Hey guys,

 

I have been using the Set Affinity function in Windows task manager quite a lot and a question has been bugging me for a while- how can I distinguish between physical and virtual core there? Currently I have 12 CPUs to choose from but they are not labeled in detail.

My CPU has 6 physical and 6 virtual cores (the hyper threading) and when doing 3D rendering I'd like to leave on physical and one virtual core free from rendering so that I can use them for other applications. I know a virtual core increases 20-30 % the rendering performance and don't want to end up disabling two physical cores as oppose to 1 real and one virtual.

 

Any ideas?

Thanks for any help.

[Dimitris Tolios]

I don't think windows are "aware" of which is which.

What you do sounds complicated. Why don't you just leave the renderer in "low priority" mode?

 

Simple stuff (MS office, browsing) should be responsive enough for you to work on.

Another trick could be setting the rendering program in general in low-priority, or your secondary app in "above normal" priority.

[RyderSK]

Another trick could be setting the rendering program in general in low-priority, or your secondary app in "above normal" priority.

 

From my experience, during rendering, neither low-priority nor priority tuning changes anything much. Setting cores in affinity is the only thing that helps me play some quick game in-between ;- )

I wondered about this too, whether it's paired like A: 1-PS 2-VS 3-PS....etc or B: 1,2,3,4,etc...PS, 7,8,9,10,11,12...VC. So I just dedicate the last two for other tasks and first 10 threads to rendering.

[branskyj]

To be honest I never used or tried using the "set priority" option. It just doesn't sound so ultimate in it's purpose. Whereas with set affinity you know exactly which cores are assigned to what process. When rendering in Max/ VRay with all cores assigned to the rendering the system comes to a craw if I tried doing some other productivity work- Photoshop or even browsing online for that matter. That is why I assign affinities and leave one core unoccupied.

You guys are like everybody's guarding angels by the way - always helpful.

 

Thanks a lot and have a good week.