STALKER - SMP boost

[imported_miahallen]

Though you all might like to know how much a dual core system helps with STALKER - Shadow Of Chernobyl

Test system:
Asus A8N-SLI Delux
AMD Opteron 165 @ 2.4GHz
2GB Patriot RAM DDR438 @ 2.5-3-3-5 T2
WD 160GB SATA 8MB
8800GTX (575/900)
Vista Home Premium 32bit

In game option maxed...2048x1536
float32 mod + darker nights mod
average of three 60sec runs using fraps
fps min/avg/max

1 core - 18/40/69
2 cores - 28/49/89

that's a pretty healthy increase if you ask me, many people I talk to are still saying that we don't have enough apps taking advantage of multiple cores, but they're arriving now, and I was curious to what degree it was helping.

 

[Aikouka]

PS2 emulation was also given a huge boost by multi-core processors with the revamped graphic plug-in KOMOS (I think that's the name...). Multiple cores can also help if you have things going on in the background and your game is running. Instead of having to share processing time, they can be coordinated accordingly. Although, I don't think Windows usually acts this way .

 

[MichaelD]

I have a dual-core box (C2D @ 3.2GHz) and I barely see any usage of the second core when playing. I leave Task Manager open, play for an hour or so, then immediately maximize Task Manager. Core 0 is pegged at 100% straight across the board and Core 1 never breaks the 5% mark.

Stalker is supposed to be multi-threaded/SMP aware; I don't believe that it is, contrary to what the manufacturer says. And if indeed it IS SMP aware, they did a 100% crappy job implementing it.

Still, it's an awesome game and I'm happily chugging along in the game.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

Although stalker only shows 1 CPU being used, tests have shown that there is quite an advantage to play it w/ a multi-core CPU over a single core CPU.

 

[imported_miahallen]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
I have a dual-core box (C2D @ 3.2GHz) and I barely see any usage of the second core when playing. I leave Task Manager open, play for an hour or so, then immediately maximize Task Manager. Core 0 is pegged at 100% straight across the board and Core 1 never breaks the 5% mark.

Stalker is supposed to be multi-threaded/SMP aware; I don't believe that it is, contrary to what the manufacturer says. And if indeed it IS SMP aware, they did a 100% crappy job implementing it.

Still, it's an awesome game and I'm happily chugging along in the game.

Durning gaming sessions, it looks like I have one thread using 100% (of 1 core) and another using about 30-40% (of the 2nd core), because my overall load in the task manager is steady at about 65-70% for the whole process. The graph of each core looks more like 80% for one and 50% for the other.
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t228/miahallen/stalker-smp.jpg
I used a scripted flyby in the railroad yard as the major part of my benchmark so it would be easy to duplicate, see the video here:
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t228/miahallen/?action=view&current=S4.flv

 

[imported_miahallen]

I was asked on another forum to try the same benches at lower resolutions, here are the results. There is some improvement dropping the resolution down, but overall the difference isn't worth the loss in IQ IMHO. I'm very happy with the performance of STALKER with my CPU OCed, I was running for a while at only 2GHz and my min FPS were down in the teens, but with the OC to 2.4GHz, it runs much smoother, keeping the min FPS in the upper 20s.
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t228/miahallen/Stalkerbenched.jpg

 

[Zenoth]

What ... strikes me, about that, is that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s X-Ray engine's ability, capability to "take advantage of" and "use" Dual-Core processors is -at a minimum- 4 years-old, if not almost 5. Were "Dual-Core" processors even a concern at all in 2002 to 2003 ? Were they even discussed as being a "coming reality" for PC-gaming back then ? Were they even of any *interests*, in any shape way or form ?

If S.T.A.L.K.E.R. would have been released when originally planned, back in 2003, it would then have been way in advance of its time, just like the original Half-Life did back in 1998, just in a different way. The original Half-Life was in advance in terms of game-play, of what a First-Person-Shooter game "could be", it achieved in such terms, mostly, and also technologically (Marines A.I anyone ?) something that no other FPS ever made prior to it could even hope to reach. And S.T.A.L.K.E.R., would have done it very similarly, if not identically. Sadly it was troubled during its development process.

That game is just an example of efforts by developers who didn't even had any very well known implications on the PC-gaming market, at least not in the Americas, and it was probably even quite restrained in Europe. So the point of all this, is that ... imagine if companies that got more resources and experience could do ...

 

[apoppin]

i think you guys are dreaming ... the 'C2D placebo effect'

STALKER does not take much advantage - if any - of the 2nd core

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/stalker_cpu_performance/page2.asp

we saw a slight performance boost when going from one processing core to two, 4% at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 on the 7900 GTX SLI setup, The single-core Core 2 CPU just can?t keep the 7900 GTX SLI setup fed with data, although a 4% difference isn?t all that dramatic honestly. When moving from 2 cores to 4, performance was unchanged.

In other words, if you?ve got a single graphics card, chances are you won?t see much of a performance difference going from a single processing core to dual-core or quad-core.

wow ... +4% ... i am SO glad i upgraded to C2D ... just yesterday

:roll:



i

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: apoppin
i think you guys are dreaming ... the 'C2D placebo effect'

STALKER does not take much advantage - if any - of the 2nd core

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/stalker_cpu_performance/page2.asp

we saw a slight performance boost when going from one processing core to two, 4% at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 on the 7900 GTX SLI setup, The single-core Core 2 CPU just can?t keep the 7900 GTX SLI setup fed with data, although a 4% difference isn?t all that dramatic honestly. When moving from 2 cores to 4, performance was unchanged.

In other words, if you?ve got a single graphics card, chances are you won?t see much of a performance difference going from a single processing core to dual-core or quad-core.

wow ... +4% ... i am SO glad i upgraded to C2D ... just yesterday

:roll:



i

I'll admit, turning on and off cores has little to no effect on performance. If GSC claims they put in SMP, they did a very bad job on it.

 

[40sTheme]

My Pentium D 820 gets about 65% on Core 0 and 35% on Core 1. Not shabby.

 

[imported_miahallen]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225

Originally posted by: apoppin
i think you guys are dreaming ... the 'C2D placebo effect'

STALKER does not take much advantage - if any - of the 2nd core

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/stalker_cpu_performance/page2.asp

we saw a slight performance boost when going from one processing core to two, 4% at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 on the 7900 GTX SLI setup, The single-core Core 2 CPU just can?t keep the 7900 GTX SLI setup fed with data, although a 4% difference isn?t all that dramatic honestly. When moving from 2 cores to 4, performance was unchanged.

In other words, if you?ve got a single graphics card, chances are you won?t see much of a performance difference going from a single processing core to dual-core or quad-core.

wow ... +4% ... i am SO glad i upgraded to C2D ... just yesterday

:roll:



i

I'll admit, turning on and off cores has little to no effect on performance. If GSC claims they put in SMP, they did a very bad job on it.

Well, I guess it all depends on how powerful each one of your cores are hugh?

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: xSkyDrAx
Although stalker only shows 1 CPU being used, tests have shown that there is quite an advantage to play it w/ a multi-core CPU over a single core CPU.

Really? The only comparison I've seen I think was on firingsquad and it showed absolutely zero difference. It'd be nice if it was otherwise though...where were the benchmarks from?

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
Stalker is supposed to be multi-threaded/SMP aware; I don't believe that it is, contrary to what the manufacturer says. And if indeed it IS SMP aware, they did a 100% crappy job implementing it.

Looks like a 95% crappy job to me .

 

[0roo0roo]

quake 3 had smp, hidden feature

as for firing squad, it would have been nice if they tested something other than a core extreme

 

[apoppin]

the *point* is that STALKER is not well-optimized .. and currently does not take much advantage of the 2nd core

try turning off all of your 'other' processes and THEN try again with STALKER ...

perhaps you have programs running in the background on the 2nd core

 

[the Chase]

Originally posted by: apoppin
i think you guys are dreaming ... the 'C2D placebo effect'

STALKER does not take much advantage - if any - of the 2nd core

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/stalker_cpu_performance/page2.asp

we saw a slight performance boost when going from one processing core to two, 4% at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 on the 7900 GTX SLI setup, The single-core Core 2 CPU just can?t keep the 7900 GTX SLI setup fed with data, although a 4% difference isn?t all that dramatic honestly. When moving from 2 cores to 4, performance was unchanged.

In other words, if you?ve got a single graphics card, chances are you won?t see much of a performance difference going from a single processing core to dual-core or quad-core.

wow ... +4% ... i am SO glad i upgraded to C2D ... just yesterday

:roll:



i

You did go with the Quad core version, didn't you?

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: apoppin
the *point* is that STALKER is not well-optimized .. and currently does not take much advantage of the 2nd core

try turning off all of your 'other' processes and THEN try again with STALKER ...

perhaps you have programs running in the background on the 2nd core

Optimize is the word this game needs in a lot of areas let alone for dual core,however the game is fun to play,can be frustrating at times,however with patience and as you learn how to play stalker you can make it through even the hard parts.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: apoppin
the *point* is that STALKER is not well-optimized .. and currently does not take much advantage of the 2nd core

try turning off all of your 'other' processes and THEN try again with STALKER ...

perhaps you have programs running in the background on the 2nd core

Optimize is the word this game needs in a lot of areas let alone for dual core,however the game is fun to play,can be frustrating at times,however with patience and as you learn how to play stalker you can make it through even the hard parts.

one of the guys in video 'challenged' me about it being incredibly smooth on my current rig with absolutely *everything MAXED* - ALL sliders to the right [except the useless AA], Full HDR lighting and ALL shadows [including on the maxed density Grass]

not *only that but all* the settings in the CCC are 'maxed' and 'HQ' --incl AF
:Q

i got sucked right back into the game and actually played - on a harder difficulty than originally - for a couple of hours ... found it incredible easy - compared to the first time

ANYway ... weird that some rigs play it so well and others - even the GTS - struggles
i feel like you did with Gothic3 ... when i was bitterly complaining about it

wish there was a G3 expansion to give me an excuse to reinstall it

and the Chase, nope ... super-budget [$25] MB, CPU and 2x1GB RAM ... but the CPU and RAM have excellent OC'ing potential in a better MB.

i just looked ... the *same* Corsair i bought last week at NewEgg has doubled in Price
-- this week!
:shocked:

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: apoppin
the *point* is that STALKER is not well-optimized .. and currently does not take much advantage of the 2nd core

try turning off all of your 'other' processes and THEN try again with STALKER ...

perhaps you have programs running in the background on the 2nd core

Optimize is the word this game needs in a lot of areas let alone for dual core,however the game is fun to play,can be frustrating at times,however with patience and as you learn how to play stalker you can make it through even the hard parts.

one of the guys in video 'challenged' me about it being incredibly smooth on my current rig with absolutely *everything MAXED* - ALL sliders to the right [except the useless AA], Full HDR lighting and ALL shadows [including on the maxed density Grass]

not *only* that *all* the settings in the CCC are maxed and HQ incl AF
:Q

weird that some rigs play it so well and others - even the GTS - struggles
i feel like you did with Gothic3 ... when i was bitterly complaining about it

wish there was a G3 expansion to give me an excuse to reinstall it

and the Chase, nope ... super-budget MB, CPU and RAM ... but the CPU and RAM have excellent potential

There are graphical glitches in Stalker (back of the lab like I said in my other thread),this is the only game I have seen glitches in since I've gone over to Vista,probably the Nvidia drivers or Stalker game itself,I'm not worried about playing at max detail settings etc,I was not really referring to that anyway, I'm quite happy to play it at 1680x1050 res with some settings lowered.

Oh I had my very first BSOD in Vista today thanks to Stalker and I could recreate the BSOD with the same save point I had even after reboot too,at a certain point where I saved(save loads fine btw its after) going to x16 lab,anyway lucky I had another save which I loaded up and that one was ok.

Overall game is very stable on my PC(only 2 crashes since I got the game and that was today) .

 

[apoppin]

ZERO graphical glitches ... and unbelievably, i play with every possible option *completely maxed* - "fluidly" - at 14x9

i got lucky ... and that C2D upgrade might have helped.


what i couldn't believe is that i got sucked right back into the game ... and actually played - on a harder difficulty than originally - for a couple of hours ... found it incredible easy - compared to the first time

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: apoppin
ZERO graphical glitches ... and unbelievably, i play with every possible option *completely maxed* - "fluidly" - at 14x9

i got lucky ... and that C2D upgrade might have helped.


what i couldn't believe is that i got sucked right back into the game ... and actually played - on a harder difficulty than originally - for a couple of hours ... found it incredible easy - compared to the first time

I hope you replayed it with the patch installed,I hear it fixes a few things.

 

[apoppin]

of course

it makes it WAAAY easy in the beginning


:roll:

you should try it without the patch ... for a *challenge*


-- and where is that STALKER suit hidden in the attic in the first camp ?

 

[CrystalBay]

It changed to a Merc suit after the patch. Go up the ladder behind Wolf , shimmy the gutter ,get on the roof , run and jump to the second house. It at the very end of the roof of the second house, through the battered roof , there is a crate.

 

[apoppin]

thanks, CrystalBay

i may play a little of it again... even the 2nd time it is still [much] more fun than FEAR's Extraction Point [the first time]

 

[CrystalBay]

I know you don't like to cheat but this trader mod makes it a lot more fun for exploring, if ya got the rubles...

Trader Mod