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File Name: PBPrior File Submitter: kajto3 File Submitted: 01 Feb 2018 File Category: Software PBPrior is a tiny application used for setting processes' priority and CPU affinity (binding a process to specific CPU). I'm not the creator of this but I thought it would be good to share this useful tool since I can't imagine playing without it. Why use a separate application instead of manually set priority/affinity? Well, it always remembers your settings for all processes you set (there are 3 set by default: et.exe, pnkbstra.exe and pnkbstrb.exe) so you don't have to mess with the settings every time you start ET. It runs in the background and uses tiny resources. It's easy to use, friendly interface. The app doesn't require installation and should work on all Windows systems (tested on Windows 7 and 10). How to use it? If you have a CPU with more than 1 core then you can mess with affinity. Otherwise you can just tweak priority. It's usually said that ET works best on a single core. 1. Run PBPrior as administrator. Start from tweaking PB processes. Doubleclick on pnkbstra.exe, in Priority tab tick "Priority" then "Low". In CPU Affinity choose and tick one of the CPUs (and remember it). Do the same with pnkbstrb,exe, but choose a different CPU. Now do the same with et.exe, but set priority to "Hight" and again choose a different CPU. If you're using ETLegacy or some different ET client (with different process name) you can always add a new process. Go back to main window, click on white page button and open dropdown menu. Now choose the desired process (run ETLegacy and minimize). 2. Run ET. Sometimes you can notice that CPU Affinity tab is all messed up, all CPU active ticked unticked etc. Just remember to have it set correctly on the beginning, when there are the first CPUs active (the number that you actually have). I know setting up sounds quite tricky, but believe me, if you set this right, you'll be happy of your stable high fps more than ever. Click here to download this file
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Version 1.3
531 downloads
PBPrior is a tiny application used for setting processes' priority and CPU affinity (binding a process to specific CPU). I'm not the creator of this but I thought it would be good to share this useful tool since I can't imagine playing without it. Why use a separate application instead of manually set priority/affinity? Well, it always remembers your settings for all processes you set (there are 3 set by default: et.exe, pnkbstra.exe and pnkbstrb.exe) so you don't have to mess with the settings every time you start ET. It runs in the background and uses tiny resources. It's easy to use, friendly interface. The app doesn't require installation and should work on all Windows systems (tested on Windows 7 and 10). How to use it? If you have a CPU with more than 1 core then you can mess with affinity. Otherwise you can just tweak priority. It's usually said that ET works best on a single core. 1. Run PBPrior as administrator. Start from tweaking PB processes. Doubleclick on pnkbstra.exe, in Priority tab tick "Priority" then "Low". In CPU Affinity choose and tick one of the CPUs (and remember it). Do the same with pnkbstrb,exe, but choose a different CPU. Now do the same with et.exe, but set priority to "Hight" and again choose a different CPU. If you're using ETLegacy or some different ET client (with different process name) you can always add a new process. Go back to main window, click on white page button and open dropdown menu. Now choose the desired process (run ETLegacy and minimize). 2. Run ET. Sometimes you can notice that CPU Affinity tab is all messed up, all CPU active ticked unticked etc. Just remember to have it set correctly on the beginning, when there are the first CPUs active (the number that you actually have). I know setting up sounds quite tricky, but believe me, if you set this right, you'll be happy of your stable high fps more than ever. -
This site says that MS will install Emergency Updates today, at 5pm EST and 2pm PST...I just received mine at 1pm PST. It included updates for ARM and Windows Server 2016. https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/3/16846784/microsoft-processor-bug-windows-10-fix NOTE: "The update will also be available for older and supported versions of Windows today, but systems running operating systems like Windows 7 or Windows 8 won’t automatically be updated through Windows Update until next Tuesday. Windows 10 will be automatically updated today." Nest Tuesday is the traditional "Patch Tuesday". Here is the Update Catalog that I received for Win10 ver. KB4056892 https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056892 only about half apply to my win10 pro 64-bit ver.1709 Here is a PC Gamer article which says that the Intel CPU design problem won't affect gaming : http://www.pcgamer.com/serious-intel-cpu-design-flaw-may-require-a-windows-patch-but-probably-wont-affect-gaming-performance/?utm_content=buffer5f93b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer-maxpcfb The biggest danger is to large companies with large sites and systems. "... the fixes will also rely on firmware updates from Intel, AMD, or other vendors that are rolling out...." -
The Intel Management Engine (IME) is a component of virtually every Intel CPU released after 2008. Think of it as a CPU on top of a CPU; it does tasks separate from the main operating system while the computer is in use. Intel argues that it can be used to do remote administration tasks, although the likes of the EFF have long argued that having a “black box” that can control networking and hardware, even when the computer is switched off, represents a major security and privacy risk. https://thenextweb.com/security/2017/11/09/researchers-find-almost-every-computer-intel-skylake-cpu-can-owned-via-usb/
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If you've seen my F|A Application, you'll see in my description that I said i'd build myself a RIG. That was about 3 years ago, and now I have finally gotten around to it! It was a pain in the ass, but nonetheless I feel like I just had a child. SPECS~ OS: Windows 10 64bit CPU: Intel i5-6600K 3.5GHZ-4.6GHZ RAM: 8gbs Crucial 2400MHZ MOBO: Asus Z170A Overclocked GPU: Asus GTX 970 4gb (or 3.5) STRIXX default overclocked HDD: 1TB 7200RPM Seagate FANS: Corsair LEDs- 2 120mm in front, 1 120mm in back, 1 140mm on top CPU Cooler: Corsair Hyper EVO (Might get the CPU water cooled soon) PSu: EVGA Supernova G2 750w Case: Corsair Carbide 300R Monitor: AOC 1080P 23 IPS Keyboard/Mouse - CMSTORM Backlit Keyboard and Mouse (This keyboard looks SICK) Like every parent, I took pictures of my newborn
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Some Intel Skylake CPUs are literally bending under the weight of heavy aftermarket CPU coolers. Or, more specifically, the pressure exerted by some coolers seems to be causing damage to Skylake chips. The likely culprit: Intel used a thinner wafer on Skylake CPUs than past chips. According to Intel, the thinner substrate is still rated for the same 50 pound static load, but this issue is definitely real: we've experienced it ourselves. SKYLAKE THICKNESS Skylake CPU comparison Left: Haswell CPU. Right: Skylake CPU. Note the thinner wafer on Skylake. Recently, while moving a Skylake i7-6700K between two systems, our colleagues at Maximum PC experienced this exact bending issue. The damage was caused by installing either an EK-XLC Predator 240, Deep Cool _ or Corsair H90 liquid cooler. We thought too much force had been applied to the chip by installing one of those coolers with an electric screwdriver. It's still possible that the screwdriver applied a damaging amount of force and the damage was user error, but we've never experienced a similar issue on older Intel CPUs with thicker wafers. PC Games Hardware in Germany first reported on the problem on November 30, and several aftermarket cooler makers have commented on the issue. Arctic recommends removal of the CPU cooler for transport (if the system is dropped, a heavy cooler could apply a damaging amount of force to the chip). The pins, motherboard contacts and even the CPU itself can be bent, especially if your PC experiences any bumps. EK and NZXT told Tom's Hardware that their coolers are fully compliant with Intel's force regulations, but both recommended against using older generation coolers that may apply too much pressure. Scythe has said on its support website that it is reducing the mounting pressure of its coolers for Skylake by adjusting the screw set. It will be sending a new set of screws to its customers free of charge. Intel told Tom's Hardware it's investigating the issue. We've reached out to Corsair with a request for comment and will update when we hear back. If you're installing a Skylake CPU anytime soon, be gentle. Source http://www.pcgamer.com/intel-skylake-cpus-are-bending-under-the-pressure-of-some-coolers/ -
Sony is giving developers further access to the PlayStation 4's CPU resources, potentially paving the way for enhanced performance in future games, if the latest documentation from a middleware company is to be believed. Buried within the most recent update details for the audio tool FMOD, which was released mid-November, a note reads: "PS4--Added FMOD_THREAD_CORE6 to allow access to the newly unlocked 7th core." The data, which was unearthed on the Beyond3D developer forum, has become the subject of speculation across numerous online game communities such as NeoGAF. Unless it was written in error, FMOD's note suggests that Sony has made a crucial back-end change to the PS4 system software that, in theory, allows the platform's games to draw from further processor resources. The PS4 is assembled with an eight-core AMD Jaguar, clocked at 1.6GHz. Two of those cores are reserved for system operations, along with about 3.5GB of its memory. In January, Microsoft began to allow developers to use the Xbox One's seventh CPU core, at least partially, which is believed to be one explanation for the enhanced performance of games released in 2015 compared to the year prior. Differences between PS4 and Xbox One resolution and frame-rates have been less pronounced in 2015, with often no meaningful difference between both systems, as some examples below demonstrate: -Battlefield Hardline - PS4 900p, Xbox One 720p -Star Wars Battlefront - PS4 900p, Xbox One 720p -Batman Arkham Knight - PS4 1080p, Xbox One 900p -Metal Gear Solid 5 - PS4 1080p, Xbox One 900p -Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - PS4 1080p, Xbox One 1080p-900p (dynamic) -Project CARS - PS4 1080p, Xbox One 900p -Evolve - PS4 1080p, Xbox One 900p Whether the enhanced CPU access on PS4 could result in a widening of that gap is a matter for debate. Source http://www.gamespot.com/articles/sony-unlocks-ps4s-seventh-cpu-core-data-suggests/1100-6432652/
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When AMD, Intel, or Nvidia launch new hardware, they almost always focus on the high-end of the consumer market. Low-end parts and server/workstation solutions typically follow at later dates. This time around, however, AMD is shaking things up and introducing support for DDR4 in a new embedded SoC, codenamed Merlin Falcon. The new chip leverages the Excavator CPU and the same basic silicon as AMD’s Carrizo, but with additional validation and testing for the embedded market, including support for its L2 cache and RAM. According to the company’s BIOS and Kernel Developer’s Guide for Excavator-class parts (Family 15h Models 60h-6Fh), Carrizo was designed to support either DDR3 or DDR4 in the same unified northbridge. This raises the question of why the company is only rolling out DDR4 support in the embedded market? According to Colin Cureton, senior manager of AMD’s embedded product management team, it comes down to lifecycle support and Carrizo / Carrizo-L’s market position. Embedded hardware is typically expected to operate for at least five years, with 7-9 years being relatively common. Right now, the consumer market is still mostly based on DDR3, but that will change over the next few years as DDR4 productions and clock speeds ramp up. If you’re buying hardware today and want cheap RAM four years from now, DDR4 makes more sense. The other reason AMD stuck with DDR3 for Carrizo was to make it easier for OEMs to design flexible systems. Carrizo and Carrizo-L now share a common form factor, a substantially overlapping power envelope, and use the same kind of memory. Carrizo-L, however, is based on AMD’s Puma+ CPU core, which is basically the Jaguar core from 2013 with a few additional changes and power tweaks. Since that chip doesn’t support DDR4, AMD opted to stick with DDR3 across its mobile and desktop stack. We should note it’s not clear how much additional benefit AMD would have actually gotten from DDR4 in any case. While more bandwidth is broadly better for integrated GPUs, our Kaveri tests when that chip was launched indicated that it’s not an absolute. We saw better performance with lower-latency DDR3-2133 than high-latency DDR3-2400. It’s possible that the power envelopes AMD wanted to sell into and the cost premiums attached to DDR4, it simply didn’t make sense to bring a DDR4 Carrizo to market — at least not yet. With Zen delayed to 2017, it’s possible we could see such a part next year. When AMD built Carrizo, it focused on making the chip smaller and on cutting its overall power consumption The older solution required two separate chips and was 1.92mm tall; the new package can limbo into a minimum height of just 1.62mm. The total chip area for the older two-chip solution was 1528 mm sq, while Merlin Falcon is just 1073mm sq.Like AMD’s full desktop parts, Merlin Falcon will include full support for HSA and can leverage a complete Linux open-source stack. All of the typical features of Carrizo’s integrated GPU, including multiple display-outs, hardware decode support for H.264 and H.265, and HSA 1.0 support are also included. The SKUs themselves are shown below: There aren’t many surprises here. Like AMD’s mobile Carrizo, Merlin Falcon focuses on the 12-25W power envelope, with chips available in dual and quad-core configurations, as well as a CPU-only version of the core with somewhat higher clocks. Overall performance is covered on the next slide — like Carrizo, Merlin Falcon is far more power efficient within the same TDP envelope than Kaveri was. In the graph above, the blue lines are Merlin Falcon products while the single grey line is AMD’s previous Hierofalcon SoC. AMD’s measured performance in CoreMark is fairly competitive with Intel’s 15W Core i3 and Core i5 processors, but whether or not Coremark maps well to embedded workloads isn’t a question we’ve spent much time studying. Overall, AMD wants to position these devices as suitable for pachinko systems, lottery terminals, communications infrastructure, medical imaging devices (where HSA’s capabilities could come in handy) and security and retail signage. Unfortunately, AMD wasn’t able to point to any major customer announcements for these products, but that’s not uncommon in the embedded space. Embedded hardware, by its very nature, tends to be invisible. At the same time, given AMD’s overall financial condition, the company needs every scrap of sales revenue it can find — we’ve asked for details on any upcoming wins or new customers and will update this story if we hear back Source http://www.extremetech.com/
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Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have just taken CPU cooling a step further. They're looking to make big water cooling blocks a thing of the past by moving liquid cooling directly onto the chip. Associate professor Muhannad Bakir along with graduate student Thomas Sarvey removed the heat sink and heat-spreading materials from an Altera field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip. Then, they "etched cooling passages into the silicon, incorporating silicon cylinders approximately 100 microns in diameter to improve heat transmission into the liquid. A silicon layer was then placed over the flow passages, and ports were attached for the connection of water tubes." By feeding 20 degree Celsius water into the tubes at a rate of 147 ml per minute, the chip operated at a temperature of less than 24 degrees Celsius, while a normal air-cooled model would operate at around 60 degrees. Bakir said that the same technology could be applied to CPUs and GPUs. What this means is that we could be seeing denser and more powerful systems in the future, given how much less space this sort of liquid cooling would take up compared with current cooling solutions. “We have eliminated the heat sink atop the silicon die by moving liquid cooling just a few hundred microns away from the transistors,” said Bakir. “We believe that reliably integrating microfluidic cooling directly on the silicon will be a disruptive technology for a new generation of electronics.” Source http://www.pcgamer.com/
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Hey guys, I have a rather important question- A few days ago my friend bought a case, HDD, and processor bundle. He put a new Zotac motherboard *that had been sitting around for a year or two*, installed everything properly- and when he tried to boot it up, the fans spin up for maybe a millisecond, and that's it. No beep code, no POST, nothing. To nail whether it's the CPU or Motherboard that's faulty (I personally believe it's the motherboard), I was thinking of pulling my AM2+ CPU out of my desktop computer and mounting it on his motherboard to see if his computer will boot up then. However, before I do this, I want to make sure that if the motherboard is indeed faulty, that it won't fry my CPU- as my desktop computer is used for critical uses for me, and even a week of downtime would be very, very bad for me. Can anybody confirm whether my CPU will be safe or not? Thanks! -
Noticed today over long time as jay2 had more players than 15 vs 15 that I got FPS lags on my IB, so OC-d it to 4.1Ghz and only then a 10y old game didn´t lag at 76 stable FPS... This game is just more power hungry than Crysis 3
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Earlier this week AMD announced new processors, expanding the line of high-end FX CPUs with quad-core FX-4350 and six-core FX-6350. It's not uncommon for AMD to lower prices when launching new products, and this time it was not an exception. Based on the latest official AMD price list, the company cut prices of ten A-Series and FX-Series chips by as much as 19%. AMD A6-3600, A8-3800 and A8-3820 socket FM1 APUs had their prices slashed by 12% - 19%. All three parts are not available in retail, as a result not many people would probably care about their price reductions. AMD A6-5400K, A8-5500, and A8-5600K socket FM2 processors are now $10 less expensive. In relative terms, it corresponds to 10% - 15% lower cost depending on SKU. The prices of FX-4300, FX-6300, and FX-8320 CPUs also dropped by 10% - 15%. A handful of old Phenom II X4 and X6 microprocessors were removed from the price list, including Phenom II X4 840, 905e, 910e, Phenom II X6 1055T, 1075T, 1090T BE and 1100T BE. The only Phenom II part, that had its price revised, was X4 965 Black Edition. This CPU now costs $81, down from $91. source
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For starters I want to add its my personal trial error experimentation and OC can damage your PC parts. Especially without learning more before. And my writing is more a glimpse on OC not a tutorial to go by with. OC at your own risk! Despite of having picking my parts by myself haven´t yet built the PC as of yet. I have let local buisness built them for extra warranty. So now I built my PC and as I got unlocked multiplier CPU I decided to do simple overclocking on it. In the process I discovered some somewehat annoying things on MSI motherboard. The PC specifications are as follow: CPU: i5 3570k@3.4Ghz(6mb L3, 1mb L2, 128kB L1) HSF: Arctic 7 pro @2000rpm with Arctic mx-4 Mobo: MSI Z77- gd65 RAM: 2x4 GB Corsair Vengenace 1600mHz(OC) 1.5V Case: Corsair Carbide 500R mid-tower PSU: Chieftec 750w 75% cable management some HDs and SSD and HD6950 graphics As I started with OC I read some tutorials and checked voltage limits. Soon I begin with disabling options in BIOS and setting manual values. I discovered most of them had no effect or at least not much of a impact. BIOS ver was factory default 10.6 and as I´ve learnt updating makes things only worse. So I let it be. By some tutorials I disabled: Turbo boost, EIST, speedprotection, C-states(EUP2013 is disabled by default), power management. and Enabled: PLL overvoltage, Vdroop offset control on 100% and set manually CPU ratios and Vcore voltage. In the end it came out that only things you ever need to change are Vcore and CPU ratio. Other things are done by MSI bios automatically: with setting CPU ratio over 3.6Ghz it enables PLL overvoltage, disables C-states, sets Power management new limits etc. With disabling Turbo boost and EIST I didn´t manage to even get the CPU overclocking, trying all kind of combinations of C-states and Vdroop etc. In the other hand I haven´t yet been able to get CPU to downlclock while idle on OC CPU. Though C1Enhanced state cuts power consumption in idle rouglhly 2 times on OC-ed CPU all cores running at max frequency. What I learnt is that with MSI its quite easy and simple to OC with mobo still being cool and it was OC-ed in automatically as promised in reviews. Not worth to try to set manually many things. Only thing to check is that OCP is at default(over current protection.) You can see setting descriptions by clicking on HELP button on BIOS with right mouse button. I ended setting Vdroop 100%(not sure if it helps any way, but as I it set at the beginning I let it be, also tried at 4.2ghz Digital Compensation with high setting, but I doubt it did anything either), set CPU ratio to: 40 and by trial and error method I figured out that by raising Vcore by 0.0250V for every raise for CPU ratio increment over 3.6GHz( Vcore @ 0.980V) I set Vcore to 1.075V(I figure I lowered it some more but 0.025v is good guess to strart with). Later added Dram to 1600Mhz and with 9-9-9-24 and some more auto settings and DRAM voltage 5.13V(though mobo runs it by BIOS at 5.3V. But with auto voltage it raised it somethere 1.67V range which is insane.) and got it running as cool as with default turbo boost settings and with less voltage on Vcore (3.8ghz turbo boost takes 1.44V). Also tried to turn Enhanced turbo on and set under CPU features turbo settings for all cores to 4.0Ghz and let the Vcore voltage to be set automatically but again it ran in higher voltage (Vcore at 1.16V range) and hotter versus my settings at 4.2Ghz with Vcore at 1.1550V. So for conclusion I want to say let MSI do the OC for you, only maybe you need to disable Speed protection in BIOS and set manually: Vcore and CPU ratio. Also while overclocking RAM, set dram voltage manually at 1.5V range or mobo will fry ur RAM with auto settings with voltage over 1.65V- which is absolute maximum for safe RAM voltage. Also I noticed that AUTO means in MSI BIOS default settings as much as for automatically configuring settings for voltages(RAM 1.67V with DRAM voltage setting on auto!) etc and the interpretation is quite rough. The trickiest part was to change Vcore and CPU ratio values with ENTER key which is defualt way to change BIOS settings. It didn´t work. After some digging I found out somewhere that + and – changed the values. Ended overclocking at 4.2 Ghz which is pretty good result going from 3.4Ghz default as temps started to skyrocket with my not so good cooling solution and in Crysis 3 I didn´t notice any real difference in performance. I let Prime95 run in blend settings for about 15 min and the temps were as follows: 4.0ghz 1.075v 55C, 60C with RAM@1600mhz 4.1ghz 1.1v 60Celsius degrees 4.2 ghz 1.155v 65-70C, 75C with RAM@1600mhz Also what I discovered is that when buying RAM try to choose parts without heat spreaders as they will get in your CPU heatsinks way. My Arctic 7 pro fan frame touches the RAM heatspreaders and with more bigger\powerful CPU coolers I´m pretty sure the RAMs wouldn´t fit in. In the end MSI isn´t that bad for everyday use and for gaming. It boots up to OS with SSD in 20 secs on full readiness and runs pretty cool- about 30 at idle, 40 max at load. And for simple OC its also good when you know the tricks. For overclocking enthusiasts who try to reach 5Ghz I don´t know if its the best. Neither I have tried other brands for OC so I let the reader to decide and search in forums for more. I wonder has anybody else experience with MSI latest mobos and OC-ing with them? And if you happened to have i5 3570k which OC-s did you reach?
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Hi All, I am buying a new PC and decided to have it such that it would do good both for gaming and server roles. I'll be Grateful if you can review this config from gaming point of view and see if I need to do some more enhancements. For gaming I have preferred AMD hardware for long as I feel Intel is twice the price for same features and so is not worth it. Components: Mother Board: ASUS M5A97 AM3+ ATX AMD 970, AMD SB950 32 GB DDR3 1866 MHz Processor: AMD 8 Cores 3.1/4.0 GHz AM3+ FX 8120 32 nm L2 8MB L3 8MB DDR3-1866 RAM: 2 X 4GB Transcend DDR3-1600 (JM1600KLN-4G) 800MHz HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500 GB 3.5" HDD (WD5000AAKX) SATA 6.0 Gbps 7200 RPM Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-600CXV2UK 600 Watts PSU ATX 12V v2.3 I/P 90-264 Volts DVD RW: Sony AD-7280S SATA DVD+RW, CD+RW Graphic Card: Sapphire AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5670 1 GB GDDR5 775 MHz 64 GB/s 400 W Cabinet: Cooler Master Elite 311 Plus Mid Tower Bottom PSU 2 X 120 mm Fan 7 X 3.5" + 3 X 5.2" Bays, 3 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0 Monitor: Dell 23" LED - S2330MX 250 nits 1920 x 1080 pixels 2 ms 1 HDMI Port Regards, Sudhir Kumar Singh (AKA F|A Rajput)
