is there a way to make programs not use thread 0? (windows 10)

[Poofreadimp]

Hello, is there a way to make programs not use thread 0 of my cpu? I want to reserve it for OS, I have 5 cores & 10 threads; I want to do this to keep windows fast when it is cpu intensive

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Proceas lasoo comes to mind

 

[Wirko]

Have you tried the pedestrian method (setting affinity every time you run programs) and observed any good effect?
I'm doubtful. While you can prioritise cores, you can't prioritise access to other resources in the CPU: shared cache, RAM, disk I/O and cooling. By cooling I mean that doing something CPU intensive on 9 threads will overheat the whole chip, including the logic that runs thread 0.

 

[Nike_486DX]

The thing is that the modern cores share things inside the cpu, so if you want to explicitly dedicate 1 (specific) core to the os it wont be that easy and would probably create some bottleneck because each (non system related) operation will have to be sorted so that it will not land on the reserved core. And it will be on the software level so quite a bottleneck. The modern cpus arent designed with such thing in mind (at least for consumer market afaik), the cores just take the tasks at random (well not at random but according to the algorithm), and execute them asap. You can disable cores in bios, and you can also adjust the windows processor scheduling for better performance in "programs" or "background services", but thats about it.

 

[Poofreadimp]

Have you tried the pedestrian method (setting affinity every time you run programs) and observed any good effect?
I'm doubtful. While you can prioritise cores, you can't prioritise access to other resources in the CPU: shared cache, RAM, disk I/O and cooling. By cooling I mean that doing something CPU intensive on 9 threads will overheat the whole chip, including the logic that runs thread 0.

i have done cpu stress tests disabling thread 0 and there is a speed improvement in windows, stressing the cpu with aida64, when thread 0 is activated windows becomes a bit clumsy when stressing the cpu, also it somehow reduces the stutters in some games

The thing is that the modern cores share things inside the cpu, so if you want to explicitly dedicate 1 (specific) core to the os it wont be that easy and would probably create some bottleneck because each (non system related) operation will have to be sorted so that it will not land on the reserved core. And it will be on the software level so quite a bottleneck. The modern cpus arent designed with such thing in mind (at least for consumer market afaik), the cores just take the tasks at random (well not at random but according to the algorithm), and execute them asap. You can disable cores in bios, and you can also adjust the windows processor scheduling for better performance in "programs" or "background services", but thats about it.

And couldn't I just make the programs not use that specific thread? as if I disabled it from the task manager, but permanently, leaving that thread free is what I want

 

[elghinnarisa]

Wait, 5 cores 10 threads? The 5500U is supposed to be a hexa-core. 6 cores, 12 threads.

That being said, Processor Lasso as mentioned previously is a good place to start.

 

[qubit]

I'd just leave Windows to manage it and not worry about it.

 

[Poofreadimp]

Wait, 5 cores 10 threads? The 5500U is supposed to be a hexa-core. 6 cores, 12 threads.

That being said, Processor Lasso as mentioned previously is a good place to start.

so it is 5 cores but that is a topic for another thread. well i guess i'll have to use process lasso. A quick question, I'm about to buy a thermal paste, which one do I buy? kryonaut orconductonaut i have 95c. I will try to leave that thread free, if I can do something I will comment it I will try to use regedit

I'd just leave Windows to manage it and not worry about it.

i would, but when i do extreme cpu usage windows is super clumsy, lots of stutters

 

[Frick]

so it is 5 cores but that is a topic for another thread. well i guess i'll have to use process lasso. A quick question, I'm about to buy a thermal paste, which one do I buy? kryonaut orconductonaut i have 95c. I will try to leave that thread free, if I can do something I will comment it I will try to use regedit



i would, but when i do extreme cpu usage windows is super clumsy, lots of stutters

It has six cores.

As for the rest, how are you using your computer and what make and model is it? Temps are more or less entirely dependent on the cooling system.

 

[Poofreadimp]

It has six cores.

As for the rest, how are you using your computer and what make and model is it? Temps are more or less entirely dependent on the cooling system.

ideapad 3 14alc6
ryzen 5500u 37.5wTdp mod
it is a hexacore but disable a core to have a better consumption-frequency ratio, it is a good laptop, but with some configurations it could take better advantage of its power, that's why this thread is a good cpu, but I want to manage the cores better, I use the laptop for video editing, benchmarks, gaming and sometimes mining (I got 10cent xd) but mostly gaming, and some games are cpu intensive, I got to see halo infinite use about 80% cpu getting stutters in game and on windows , which was resolved by leaving thread 0 free.

 

[Mussels]

process lassoo is the only way to do what you're asking, although you may find the gains are minimal - it cant break anything, so test away!

Wattage limited laptops really can benefit from reducing the core count, i'm unsure about locking threads as you cant really say "just for windows" when windows has a bajillion exe's and services you'd need to alter settings for (easier to get the demanding program/game and remove a core from it)

 

[Poofreadimp]

process lassoo is the only way to do what you're asking, although you may find the gains are minimal - it cant break anything, so test away!

Wattage limited laptops really can benefit from reducing the core count, i'm unsure about locking threads as you cant really say "just for windows" when windows has a bajillion exe's and services you'd need to alter settings for (easier to get the demanding program/game and remove a core from it)

I will do it! I'll come back later when I have the results, I'm interested in knowing how much improvement I can have since the wattage limit doesn't let me do more, and the bios is not an option, I'll be back soon with the results!

 

[Wirko]

easier to get the demanding program/game and remove a core from it

You said core, not thread, and I agree it seems more sensible. A single thread "reserved for windows" would still have to share a lot (most of the core) with another thread, which may be running some heavy load.

 

[Mussels]

You said core, not thread, and I agree it seems more sensible. A single thread "reserved for windows" would still have to share a lot (most of the core) with another thread, which may be running some heavy load.

Because the core includes two threads, with SMT. So you'd want to ignore threads 0 and 1, to not use physical core 0.