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Computer freeze 15+ clients

Moderator: MiRai

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Arti

Posts: 2

Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 5:50 am

Post Mon May 04, 2015 6:18 am

Computer freeze 15+ clients

When I run 15 clients at more then 20 fps (lowest settings but 1920*1080), my computer becomes really slow (I can barely open an internet browser even though I can still move characters in the game). I know 15 clients at 20 fps is fairly intense but I expected my computer (posted below) to be able to handle this (have seen posts from 2011 from people running 20+ clients, so I figure if they could do that then it should definitely be no prob now: [link removed].
When I run the game, my processors are below 50 C and are dont really go above 50% (used Open Hardware Monitor to check). My GPU's highest temperature was 61 C and had a max load of 61%. (gpu memory max load: 55%, GPU memory controller max: 36%). Used memory max = 18GB.

Since nothing seems to be capping at its maximum I figure there is another issue but I can't work out what. Is it possible the motherboard can't communicate fast enough between these components? (Bus speed = 100mhz according to Open Hardware Monitor). Any advice or suggestions would be very appreciated.

Computer:
I recently bought a new computer and it has a fresh windows 7 professional install:
Intel Core i7-5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket 2011 Processor (+Enermax ETS-T40-TB 86.7 CFM CPU Cooler)
MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 Gaming Twin Frozr HDMI DVI-I DP Graphics Card (4GB, PCI Express, DDR5, 256 Bit)

ASRock Extreme6 X99 Motherboard Intel S2011-3 AsRock ATX Motherboard
HyperX FURY 32 GB 2133 MHz DDR4 DIMM Memory Kit
Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Corsair CC-9011049-WW Obsidian Series 450D Windowed Mid-Tower ATX High Airflow Performance Computer Case
Corsair CP-9020077-UK Builder Series 650W CS650M ATX/EPS Semi-Modular 80 Plus Gold Power Supply Unit

Thank you for any advice.
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MiRai

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Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:30 pm

Post Mon May 04, 2015 7:13 am

Re: Computer freeze 15+ clients

First, please don't link to websites which run private servers. We don't support them, so we don't want to give them free advertising.

Second, when most others post about their systems and what they can run, they neglect to include what resolution every game client is running at. Most (all?) other software multiboxing solutions run the slave clients at a reduced resolution, which means that if the game client looks like it's taking up 320x240 on their monitor, then it's actually running at 320x240—This greatly reduces overall load on the system, but destroys the ability to use any sort of mouse broadcasting (Repeater) and increases the time it takes to swap between clients.

By default, ISBoxer runs every single game client at the same size as Region 1 in your Window Layout, which allows for the 1:1 mouse broadcasting to function correctly, but requires much more horsepower from the computer hardware. You can disable this option if you'd like by de-selecting "Use instant window swapping" in said layout, but you will lose the perfect mouse broadcasting, as well as have increased swap times between game clients (a larger difference between main/slave resolutions will require longer swap times).

To combat the de-sync caused by using mismatching resolutions you can change the "cursor positioning mode" of your Repeater Profile to scale from the center, and this will mostly fix the issue assuming your windows are running the same aspect ratios, but there is no guarantee that your UIs will match up between each window when running different resolutions. So, attempting to click on the same thing when using mouse broadcasting may still not work all that well.

All in all, when running so many clients at that resolution you can expect to experience something referred to as "thread lag," where the threads (both physical and logical cores) are mostly being used up by the game clients, so trying to do anything outside of them is more difficult (e.g. opening other programs, browsing the internet, etc). This is pretty normal, and the only way to "fix" that is to reduce the overall load being put on the system.

You can also try:
  • Using DX9 rather than DX11, or vice versa, to see which performs better.
  • Reducing your overall resolution to something like 1600x900 or even 1280x720 which will likely boost performance by a good amount. You can set the "Main Window Size" to those resolutions in the Window Layout Wizard to make it easier to choose a pre-defined layout using that resolution.
  • Adjusting your CPU affinity using the CPU Strategy Wizard in ISBoxer—For 15 clients I'd most likely recommend just setting all the clients to use all the cores, but your mileage may vary depending on the preset. You can also manually adjust your CPU affinity in the Performance tab of each Slot of your Character Set.
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Arti

Posts: 2

Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 5:50 am

Post Mon May 04, 2015 6:56 pm

Re: Computer freeze 15+ clients

I managed to solve the issue (posted below) before I read your response, but thank you for your quick response and clear explanation nonetheless. I apologize for the link, I meant no harm.

I had been digging for a few days to figure out what could cause this issue, but failed to find a solution.
When I posted this I thought I would give a futile attempt at disabling any power saving options. This solved all problems.
The following 2 solutions in particular were a massive increase in the performance (I can now run 15 clients at 30 fps simultaneously (1920*1080, low settings) without any stuttering and still I am using only 50% of my GPU/CPU)

1. disabling CPU parking:
In regedit search: 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583
- Change the value from 64 to 0 so the " ValueMin " and " ValueMax " are both zero
- You will have to find the key a few times and repeat the process for each time it is found - the number of instances will depend on the number of power profiles in your system [ in my DAW it was only found twice ]
2.I set CPU C states to: Disabled (in the BIOS, not every bios has this option)

I tried running 60 fps on all clients just to test how far I could push it. It runs smooth on 15 hunters (WoW) with pets out, but if I pop 15 stampedes (ability in WoW that creates 5 extra units on the screen (x15)) it drops to about 30 fps and starts stuttering a bit.
My processors are using about 120 watts max altogether, so I am not to concerned about my power consumption. Based on these results I can recommend any gamer to give disabling these options a try (I use windows 7) (although I do not know the long term effects, but I doubt they will be devastating)

*I disabled the CPU parking on my other computer as well (a laptop) which increased the number of frames I could run my 15 clients in by about 3 fold (from 5 to 15 background). There is no option in that bios to disable CPU c states (which I think are on by default), so I will try and flash it when I got some time in hopes the updated version includes this option.

I hope this is of help to anyone else experiencing similar issues.

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