Optimize Ryzen's single-thread speed by adjusting settings, updating drivers, and ensuring proper cooling.
Optimize Ryzen's single-thread speed by adjusting settings, updating drivers, and ensuring proper cooling.
I've discussed this before in terms of VR flight sims—they're heavy on CPU usage. I just completed a level analysis of IL-2 showing it's limited by two very demanding threads (70-80% CPU), a few low-hit secondary threads (15-30% CPU), and a bunch of quiet threads that still use some CPU during flight. The frame rate I'm seeing on my 4770 at 4.2 GHz is around 27 fps. The GPU is only about 60% loaded. If I doubled my CPU speed, I'd hit roughly 60 fps, which matches what I'm aiming for—ideally at least 45 fps. Looking at future plans, I believe AMD AM4 CPUs will become noticeably faster on a single thread by the end of their life cycle compared to the I9-9900K or the upcoming 10th gen parts that are leaking. While the Ryzen line offers more features overall, my situation is all about maximizing CPU performance under strict limits. That's why I'm considering an AMD build and trying to boost single-thread speed on a Zen 2 chip as much as possible.
With the latest generation you can boost performance on a per-core basis (essentially a group of cores). You can determine which core is the strongest CCX on your CPU and push it to its limits. I’m not sure if modern Windows is capable of utilizing those cores efficiently, but likely there are improvements coming. Another factor is memory. Aim for dual-row, dual-channel RAM around 3800Mhz (probably with very tight timings). Keep in mind: all components must stay synchronized. Ryzen can exceed this, but desynchronizing parts will hurt speed. The limit of the Infinity Fabric is about 1800-1900Mhz, which suggests needing RAM up to roughly 3600-3800Mhz. For more details, see this guide: https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3508-...ock-mclock
Project Lasso for core management: https://vr4dcs.com/2019/08/08/process-la...irst-tune/ On the memory side, the performance gap between models like the G.Skill 3600 Neo at 16-19-19-39 and those at 16-16-16-36 is noticeable, especially with a 64GB RAM setup. DCS and Il-2 perform best with at least 32GB of RAM. During the test run, my system had roughly 24GB available, excluding closed Chrome tabs and background processes. These games are still memory-intensive, and I want to avoid any performance issues down the line.
When the frequency matches, the variation remains relatively minor—around 1% at most, which is similar to the gap between 100 and 101 frames per second. Increasing it to 3800 could potentially highlight a larger change. Likely the noticeable range is 1–2%, though this may not be significant enough to observe.
It's accurate since we understand the timing patterns—16-16-16-36 and 16-19-19-39 are essentially the same here. If we consider 16-16-16-36 with a 26-26-26-52 variation, the differences become negligible. A 1% variation in frame rates won't be perceptible. The example of 100 and 101fps just illustrates how small those changes can be. I'm not sure what exact FPS figures you're referring to, especially since I'm not familiar with VR flight simulators, but generally, a 1% difference is minimal and unlikely to stand out.
@samcool55 They tend to be very CPU dependent. Measured the thread usage a couple days ago and in IL-2 it has two heavy threads ~70% CPU core load, and about 5-6 threads that only took 20% CPU each. There's a lot of graphics involved, but in something like this: you can get an idea of how much the system is doing in the background. All of that is modeled, including accumulated fatigue. That's why you'll see some time see a wing fails after the hit; it's lost enough structural integrity that it can't hold itself stiff so it starts flexing under load until it tears off. A lot of computation is going on.
Is there a trial version of this game? A search didn't reveal anything other than the 2002 release. For the specific Ryzen model you choose, consider disabling SMT if you have ample cores. This can boost performance but only if your CPU has enough capacity to handle the workload. SMT increases overall speed, yet it doesn’t always guarantee faster thread execution. If you’re not limited in core availability, turning off SMT ensures that each core processes tasks without interference from less critical operations.
There isn't a demo available for Il-2. They have main game packs available for $20 each, which seems like a standard price point. I shared my testing experience in this thread: DCS offers DCS World for free, including two aircraft and the Cacuses map, allowing you to run benchmarks. It's developed by another team but features similar CPU performance characteristics. Updated October 20, 2019 by Harry Voyager