To Core or not to Core (CPU Selection)

[MAD|Chris]

Ok, All the info below is from a post on another topic. But I figured it would be a good idea to start a section or thread, maybe even a sticky post about Core/CPU Selection.

I have owned dedicated servers for over 4 + years and in that time I have asked myself this question many times over when experiencing new issues with lag etc. "Am I setting this up right? Should it be on cores or not?" Etc....

What does everyone else think?
How do you setup your server and why?
Would you agree with the info below?

Information isnt explained the best but you get what I am trying to say I am sure. Any recommend edits to be more professional please.

If this turns out to be a good discussion - love to see this as a sticky for future users that ALWAYS ask this question or others related to it.


Other would be nice to see is - CPU usage for game type specs based on systems rented.

Example
Q6600
1 x 16 slot COD4 = 3 % when full
1 x 32 slot CSS 100 Tick 128 FPS = 5% when full

Quote:B: Per Core Selection (Affinity/CPU/Core)

Ok I asked this question to many hosts over the years. On different server company forums, to different CEOs from companies we resold from etc. From what I get is dont select any cores....

If your running a few different services that are not game servers and you want to make sure they dont interfere with the rest of the gaming performance, then yes you want to select which core you instances of servers go on.

In the case your not worried about other stupid programs that shouldnt be running on a "Dedicated Gaming Servers", then DONT SELECT ANY CORES/AFFINITIES/CPUs. The systems are smart enough these days to balance the CPU itself.

Example...

If you have say 4 x 1000 fps and 1 x 64 100 tick zombie mod server and the zombie mod server is the most active - once it reaches a point where it is using too much of the resources across all CPUs - it will move its service to only one core. If you had a system long enough and watch the CPU Usage in the task manager - you will notice this sometimes. One core has a higher usage then the rest. Find the service - using the most resources and you will find its must be active on the one core.


Let the CPU do its job. When you start selecting cores - you start playing GOD! Your not a CPU GOD! lol

1000 fps are touchy. YOU MUST keep resources 100% low Dont try to install 1 per core on Q6600 and expect to run all 4 with activity.



ALL of the above info is from a very low end server tech. I have no schooling and just taking this from common sense, experience and information from other experience GSP and server techs. If you dont agree with anything above please give us more detail and your opinion :]. Would love to hear more about what people have to say on this topic.

[BehaartesEtwas]

What OS are you talking about? I can only say for Linux, that everyone has to try it out on each different system. It seems to depend on the chipset what is better. CPU usage usually tells you nothing, because the "fine structure" of the cpu usage is very important. Every server uses periodically the CPU for a short time at 100% (only the mean value e.g. about 1 second is then less than 100% of course). The problem is, how often do the servers "collide", i.e. how often more servers need to use a CPU than you have CPUs in your system... This depends a lot on how other things in your system work, especially the timers. Also this means that you always will see first lags way before reaching 100% cpu load...

[MAD|Chris]

I have always ran Windows. Once again I am no tech but this is just from personal experience. I was hoping other more experienced and active posters would step in.

[pengy]

Hahaha, wow... "I was hoping other more experienced and active posters would step in. "

Depends on how many servers you run on a quad core, i would just leave the 64 slot to one core (core 3) and the 4 1000fps affinity'ed to cores 0,1,2 (there is a way to do it.)