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Can I "turn off" a core?

P

parablooper

Member
I have a 6-core processor. For some reason, core 1 does not agree with games. To get the best performance I always have to go to Task Manager, Set Affinity, and disable CPU #0. Otherwise I get this really weird stutter.

Is there some way I can turn off the core permanently? I don't really mind running 5/6 cores.
 
You might be able to do something about it in the bios. But if you're really getting problems from one of the cores, I would look into RMAing it.
 
This might help
msconfig.exe > boot > advanced options ># of cpus and restart.
Use a shortcut or a batch file at startup
 
john3850 said:
This might help
msconfig.exe > boot > advanced options ># of cpus and restart.
Use a shortcut or a batch file at startup
Click to expand...
I doubt than that will help at all. You may set it to see less Cores, but if you need to remove a specific Core, that is the sort of job that BIOS should do. It would work if the one with issues was Core #6 that Windows sees and excludes.

You have in your signature that your FX-6300 is @ 4.5 GHz. It means that possibily that Core isn't able to cope with such Frequency.
 
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while that sounds odd and you may get it checked out (make sure the CPU is not defective) , you could use a program like Process-lasso Which allows you to set affinity per process among other things. It will remember what you change to .
 
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Just make sure that your problem doesnt migrate to Core 2 once core 1 is turned off. It could be that your kernel and system processes dont like to share with your game... Maybe the constant context switching and cache thrashing might be causing your issue?
 
Drop the overclock and see how it goes. If its still bugged you might need to buy a new CPU since it would be fraud to RMA it. Or you could live with your workaround.
 
parablooper said:
I have a 6-core processor. For some reason, core 1 does not agree with games. To get the best performance I always have to go to Task Manager, Set Affinity, and disable CPU #0. Otherwise I get this really weird stutter.

Is there some way I can turn off the core permanently? I don't really mind running 5/6 cores.
Click to expand...

That's almost certainly not a hardware problem with that core, but a software problem. Something (probably a driver) is frequently interrupting the Core #0, and holding onto it for too long. I'd expect that if you actually disabled the core, the problem would just migrate to another one.

For what's doing it, try temporarily disabling different pieces of hardware or background programs, and see which one makes the problem go away. I'd expect it to be something with relatively low spread. Think printer drivers or camera utility software.

If the OC is what's doing it, it could be diagnosed by using an utility that charts frequency with time. If the CPU is braking to spare heat, it would cause the frequency to fall often.
 
Tuna-Fish said:
That's almost certainly not a hardware problem with that core, but a software problem. Something (probably a driver) is frequently interrupting the Core #0, and holding onto it for too long. I'd expect that if you actually disabled the core, the problem would just migrate to another one.

For what's doing it, try temporarily disabling different pieces of hardware or background programs, and see which one makes the problem go away. I'd expect it to be something with relatively low spread. Think printer drivers or camera utility software.

If the OC is what's doing it, it could be diagnosed by using an utility that charts frequency with time. If the CPU is braking to spare heat, it would cause the frequency to fall often.
Click to expand...
None of what you mentioned is related to the problem, if he experiences difficulties in the games with one core when his CPU is this heavily overclocked, there is nothing else to do just revert to stock or at least lower the OC and leave it on last stable setting.

In the case of disabling cores I know that BIOS allows to disable cores, but the option is rather selection of how many cores you want to have active, rather than turning off specific cores. So if you have 6 core CPU, you can select that you only want to use 1-5 cores but none of it mentions which core will get disabled or leave you with ability to disable exactly core #0 or #2 etc, if the setting works with fixed core positions, you will likely even won't be able to disable the core #0 as it shares 1. position in bios, which is last option you can have when all other cores are already disabled.
 
More cores = more O/C issues.

I doubt seriously you need all 6 cores. You might be better off with your O/C as is but setting affinity every time you play.
 
Windows 7.

Process lasso helped, thank you.

I can't turn up Vcore anymore without housefire. Currently 1.5125v on air.

I can't turn down overclock because all of my cool computer friends will laugh at me.

This is my life :\
 
Does the stuttering occur with all games, old and new? I've heard of a few flight simmers disabling core 0, for DCS and FSX. The idea being, Windows and various services run off core 0, so moving the game over to a different core gives it dedicated CPU time.

You could try opening Task Manager and then systematically go through the processes and see which one might be conflicting with your games.
 
parablooper said:
Windows 7.

Process lasso helped, thank you.

I can't turn up Vcore anymore without housefire. Currently 1.5125v on air.

I can't turn down overclock because all of my cool computer friends will laugh at me.

This is my life :\
Click to expand...
Zim said:
Your problem is simple to diagnose: you are using an AMD CPU. Go buy an Intel one.
Click to expand...
Both of you have serious issues you should work on in the first place.
 
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