Are we 50% down on CPU cores ?

[Nick]

Hi,

I have been setting up my new PC which has a 3930 CPU with 6 cores or 12 when set to use hyper threading. As many people are using multi core CPUs I thought his may be useful.

I have searched Phasure to see if this has come up before and could not find it so apologies in advance if those with lots of cores already know this.

When looking at the CPU load graphs in Performance Monitor I noticed that 6 of the 12 cores available were marked as “Parked” next to the CPU load graphs. This was the case with or without XXHE playing so not something that XXHE was doing, Humm….

Goole turned up an answer to this. It seems that W7 default behaviour is to “park” your expensive CPUs effectively turning them off in the interests of power saving !! I my case with a 12 core system only 6 cores were left running. I have attached a link to a registry edit that solves this and gets all cores running.

http://pcmichiana.com/disable-cpu-core-parking-for-multi-core-processors-faster-7-episode-20/

I am having to listening using USB powered £20 Logitech speakers (main system down for decorating) but I can hear the difference in sound quality with the CPUs un-parked.

It would be interesting to know if anyone listening with their “proper system” has “parked” CPUs and gets an improvement with this tweek.

Best,
Nick.

Ps I have a second possible little tweek regards CPUs configs but I need to get my normal system up to test this first.
 

[juanpmar]

Hi Nick,
Getting more cores helps mostly when you have your files stored as flac. More cores convert those flac files faster to be played by XXHighEnd.
I don´t think that to have more cores has anything to do with SQ.

Best regards,
Juan

[juanpmar]

Nick,

When you run the Performance monitor you see the 50% of the cores parked, as you have only 6 "real" cores. But when you need the other 6 cores as when you have the flac files in XX then you´ll see how all the cores (6+6) are working (if you have more than 12 flac files to be played). If you have an album with just 10 flac tracks you´ll see just 10 cores working.
I never need to make any change in the register to get all the cores working.

Best regards,
Juan

[Nick]

Juan hi,
I think more cores will help SQ, the OS has to place interrupt driven requests to processors whilst music plays and there are block memory copies taking place for XXHE. For the load these create I doubt that the parked cores would be stepped up. This means that there is a greater chance of interference by these processes with the CPU (s ?) looking after audio and USB drivers etc.

Also the process for unparking a CPU will take a little time.

Give it a go there are only three registary key values that have to be changed and see if you can hear it.

Best nick.

[PeterSt]

Windows 7 and Core Parking...

[Nick]

Windows 7 and Core Parking...

Thanks Peter

I had a feeling in the back of my mind that I had seen something 

It's an interesting effect on sound applying the change but I  take you point made in the other post that it may not be for the better.

Nick.

[juanpmar]

Juan hi,
I think more cores will help SQ...

Also the process for unparking a CPU will take a little time.

Give it a go there are only three registary key values that have to be changed and see if you can hear it.

Best nick.

Hi Nick,

I´ve changed the registry key values and listened for a while, it´s hard to hear some differences but I´ll keep it with all the cores working for the next few days to see if I can tell more differences. What I can say is that at least it "also" sounds fantastically well.

I´ve made that change at the same time in my working pc which is an i7 2600 with 4 cores (8 threats) and it seems to go faster and so far with no problems at all. I´ll keep it also with all the cores activated as a reference to see if everything is working ok.

So Nick, maybe you are giving us a new present. Thanks again and sorry for saying too quickly that I don´t think that to have more cores has anything to do with SQ.

Best regards,
Juan

[Nick]

Juan hi,

Thanks for feed back on your experience. I will be able to take a better listen myself when the my main system is up again and noting Peters warning (here http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1989.0) decide if its for the better. At least the change can be reversed easily.

I think Gonzalito must take credit for spotting the registry edit. I as said in the original post here, I had a feeling I had read something similar, as it turned out is it exactly the same Gonzalito's suggestion.

Best,

Nick.