Windows 7 Micro stutter Fix - Core Parking

[twilyth]

OP thanked.

Is it possible that I would notice a difference while running boinc on 8 threads in a 2600k? My mouse was stuttering and with this change, the stuttering has decreased substantially.

Note: I am running process lasso in the background, both before and after.

I changed every registry entry for "unparked" that had a value max parameter. I noticed that in some cases this was already set to zero while the min was set to 05hex. I reset the minimum to zero too. After a reboot, it doesn't seem to have caused any problems - yet.

 

[cadaveca]

OP thanked.

Is it possible that I would notice a difference while running boinc on 8 threads in a 2600k? My mouse was stuttering and with this change, the stuttering has decreased substantially.

Note: I am running process lasso in the background, both before and after.

I changed every registry entry for "unparked" that had a value max parameter. I noticed that in some cases this was already set to zero while the min was set to 05hex. I reset the minimum to zero too. After a reboot, it doesn't seem to have caused any problems - yet.

Yes, because disabling Core Parking would have threads dispatched differently, and seemingly, more efficiently, there is something to be noticed in almost every task.

Theoretically speaking of course. I have no idea WTF is really going on.

Is this for the problem where a system will lock up completely and make a stuttering noise and have to be shut off manually?

not really. That'd be a crash, of the game or system or whatever, I dunno.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Funny, I seem to recall way back when people were saying their Phenom rigs seemed "smoother" than their 1366 i7s. Wonder if this is why. Maybe Intel should push MS for their own performance patch. Would have a rather quick turn around time given the simplicity of the change.

 

[brandonwh64]

Just tested out BF3 and it ran quite smoother! I may kick back up the video settings!

 

[BlackZero]

Alternatively, open a text editor and add the following lines

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583]
"Attributes"=dword:00000000

save the file and then change the extension to *.reg. This will simply allow core parking to be made visible in the power state settings in windows 7 x64. From there just change the min. power state/core parking setting to 100% to disable core parking, and back again if you want re-enable it.


ps.

I see johnspack already posted this.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I posted about this in another thread a few days ago. For desktop users the general opinion is that you don't need to throttle or park cores. However, if you don't noticed a difference at all then there is no real need to change it. Which is why I suggested using winrar's benchmark program to see if you noticed any improvements or not.

However, it appears that the greatest benefit in disabling Core Parking comes from running apps in a 2D environment (such as winrar, etc). In 3D mode all cores are suppose to be available or non parked. You can monitor this by using Resource Monitor's CPU tab to check the graphs on the right as well as the Max. Frequency in the upper right.

 

[INSTG8R]

Tried BlackZero's method but no sign of Core Parking in Power Management. Even after a reboot.
Admittedly I had read about this before in similar forums as EastCoast had posted. Guys with DAW's were all over this Core Parking thing.

I just dunno what I did wrong. Copied his text. Made it a Reg File and merged it. Said it was successful just no new option.

Edit: I did it Brandon's way anyway so whatever I didn't do right with the Reg file I did the "long" way.

 

[johnspack]

INSTG8R, if the reg file didn't work, do what I did the first time I tried it, and run regedit using admin privs, and browse to that string, and do it manually. That's how I always test a reg setting to make sure it's applied. If you set the attrib to 0, and it stays, and you can't see core parking in advanced power settings, that's very strange!

 

[yogurt_21]

disabled it for mine, noticible improvement in desktop smoothness when switching between tasks, also got a slight bump in benches (3dmark11 physics before 23.6 after 23.9, combined after 30.34, before 30.13), nice. Intersting to show any improvment in benches since no cores should have been parked in that bench.


Thanks for the tip!

edit: the value max was 100 before but was currently at 64 when I changed it, what were everyone elses at?

 

[ViperXTR]

i wonder how can this affect a dual core i3 >_>

 

[mudkip]

So this is only for cpu's with HT ?

 

[johnspack]

Yes, this is mainly for cpus with HT.

 

[ViperXTR]

might as well try it on my i3 2100 '__'

 

[johnspack]

I believe it is also a help to cpus with 4t or more, as some applications seem to allow core throttling/parking, when they could actually be used. The winrar benchmark clearly shows that, and going from 4t to 6t makes a big difference. Winrar seems to park on cpus with 6+t, and unparking gives an instant 25%+ boost. So I'm not sure this is any use for under 4 core cpus, and is probably the most useful for i7 4c/8t and above.

 

[Fitseries3]

my lappy definitely boots faster and everything seems smoother so far.

gonna try my desktop next.

i5 2430m and i5 655k

 

[erocker]

Anyone try this with a Bulldozer CPU?

 

[cadaveca]

Anyone try this with a Bulldozer CPU?

I think it'd be worse doing this. The whole M$ patch thing was to add this(core parking) to BD systems.

 

[eidairaman1]

Yes, this is mainly for cpus with HT.

I say test it on AM2/AM3 CPUs aswell...

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Hi Everyone

I just found a great fix to stop win7 parking the cores when Idle.

This is an aggressive power saving approach which makes the system feel sluggish and underpowered..

Who is affected
It only applies to Windows 7 X64 and X32 and only in systems using more than 2 physical CPU's and/or more than 2 "logical" cores - ie: Core i7's.

The Problem
Core Parking is a feature of Windows 7 that is causing rare performance problems. I don't notice it on my home i7 / Win7 system but some people are getting microstutters and odd behavior in certain programs. Without the following " tweak" you may see CPU spiking in your programs and Windows Task Manager - some CPU cores will be "turned off" / "parked" depending on load and they will be dynamically turned on or off and dynamically loaded up or down as the system deems necessary - the scope for glitches / pops / clicks / dropouts etc.... in such an environment is simply enormous. To the best of my knowledge, there is no known "switch" to turn it off - no utility I am aware of to "tweak" it off.

The Fix
- Go to Regedit
- Select Edit > Find... and find this key: "Specify the minimum number of unparked cores/packages allowed (in percentage)."
- Within this key, there is a value called: " ValueMax " This value represents the % number of cores the system will park
- Change the value of " ValueMax" to 0 so that, it matches " ValueMin "
- 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. To do this go back up to Edit > Find Next. (I had 3 instances of this key in my registry.)
- Do a full shutdown and power-off and cold-re-start.

This seems to work better.

SOURCE

Thanks guys in the BF3 clubhouse.

yeah i did that line. and it seached and nothing came up.

 

[t_ski]

Just noticed this. I'm going to have to give this a try later

 

[95Viper]

Found this little utility, Disable CPU Core Parking Utility, at coder bag.

Tried it and it unparked my i7 cores.
It came up clean at VirusTotal

EDIT: I could have done manually, but I wanted to see if this utility worked.

Edit 2:
Here is another one from BitSum: CPU Parking (aka Core Parking, or CPU core parking)

This one I have not tried yet. I have to finish my coffee and have a smoke first.
So, try at your own risk. Back up that reg.

Well, the one from BitSum tests clean and seems to work, albeit, with a little different interface than the one from coder bag.

I have not done any testing of differences in games/etc. as I am not a real big gamer and have not yet encountered the stutter problem, which, seems to affect some users.
Just tried to see if they park and un-park the cores.
So, test them for yourselves to see if parked or un-parked cores help your situation and don't forget to post your results/observations.

An observation, after un-parking:
I will say, since, I un-parked my cores the mouse seems not to have the (sometime) jitters and the menus/taskbar seems more fluid. Could be me or could be a result of the un-parking.

 

[qubit]

Thanks 95, that coderbag utility is very handy.

 

[LifeOnMars]

Using windows 8 release preview, I have it on balanced power with an X4 B50 chip. It shows core parking !! I have had no issues however and gaming actually seems possibly smoother if anything but just thought I would put this out there

 

[Drone]

Never heard of car ... core parking lol. Just tried the tip from the OP and nada happened/changed *sigh*

 

[3Hyuuuga]

What is core parking? sorry i'm newbie here..