fogsworth, on 02 January 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:
I'll try it out.
Seems the difference is:
Default timer:
Windows: Are you done?
Windows: Are you done?
Windows: Are you done?
Timer: Yes
HPET:
Windows: Tell me when you're done.
...
Timer: I'm done.
So, besides the increase in timer resolution, it could have an effect if MWO is actually using windows timer functions instead of reading the clock over and over.
edit: some tests
Windows 7 Pro-64 bit / i5-4760k@4ghz / gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
Measured boot time with BootRacer. HPET seems to be better for me.
no hpet:
32.645s
31.077
34.393 // start menu opened for some reason
31.177
hpet:
28.432
32.129
26.045
29.713
Spun in a circle in tutorial. Doesn't seem like much effect. I'll leave HPET on for the boot time increase for now.
no hpet:
55-78 fps
hpet:
56-79 fps
54-79 fps
It doesn't impact my FPS at all, but *may* make it smoother at the low end, but to be honest it's not noticable enough
for me to be certain it's actually different. Just not sure.
The post above is pretty much accurate though about how it works. The issue with the HPET is in the failure cases.
In the default timer paradigm, Window's asks the timer if it's done. Windows may ask late, but will still get an answer. This can result in a bit of stutter, because it may find out a timer has elapsed late. With the default timer, this is fairly common but short, resulting in microstutter and similar issues.
For the HPET, that's not an issue. What CAN happen, though, is that the event notification is missed by a system that's too tapped out. In that case, it just goes completely missed, and because the HPET is actually just a counter that continuously increments till it wraps back to zero (probably a 32bit integer) is that the program is notified the second time around. This results is a greatly delayed notification ("greatly delayed" in ghz clock speed microprocessor terms). If that never happens for you, AND you have microstutter from the normal timer, then this is an improvement. Also, with Windows not checking the timer constantly, you've got less cpu load. MWO is CPU dependant, so if you're CPU capped, this could also result in FPS gain as a result.
I suspect this is why I see no FPS gain, as with a i5 4690 at 4.2ghz, I'm not CPU bottlenecked. More CPU performance doesn't impact my game.
But, it could also result in more severe stutter issues because of the "long" delay on a missed timer event.
Very system dependent.
IronClaws, on 03 January 2016 - 10:19 AM, said:
If your system can average 60fps in MWO, that is good, if MWO only peaks at 60fps, then that is bad. Also remember that enabling VSYNC will sync your fps with your monitor's maximum refresh rate and I do believe that most monitors are still 60Hz max (could be wrong, haven't bought a monitor in years).
Most regular monitors are. You can get 120hz and 144hz monitors these days too, but if your not sure what your monitors refresh rate is, it's 60hz. Generally you just want a higher refresh rate to run 3D (as you need to display twice as many frames).