Core Parking

[Wipeout]

I never new Windows 7 parked cores by default. For people that are not aware of this default state, here are some tips to unpark cores.

Go under msconfig / Boot / Advanced options / Make sure the number of processors is checked according to your processor.



I have tested this on a clean copy of Windows 7 x64, and it works perfectly - all Cores are available at all times and none are ever parked.

- Go to Regedit

- Find this key:- " 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 "

- Within this key, there is a value called: " ValueMax "

- This value represents the % number of cores the system will park - the default 100% ie: all Cores are potentially park-able

- Change the value from 64 to 0 so the " ValueMin " and " ValueMax " are both zero

- 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. I have 2 profiles set in my bios. I found this key twice. Your system might differ.

- Do a full shutdown and power-off and cold-re-start

 

[dostov]

What's the advantage?

 

[Wipeout]

What's the advantage?

This only applies to Windows 7 X64 and X32, and only in systems using more than 2 physical cores. I still would want all my cores to work together if program permits under some circumstances. On a gaming standpoint, there might be other advantages to actually disabling cores for better single thread performance. (ie) FX6300. There are 2 modules for each core. You could disable every other core in your bios. Then you have 3 cores. Each core using one module a piece. That should give you better single core performance. You could easily save that profile in your bios. On the other side of the coin, you might want to run other tasks while gaming. Turning off cores in that senero would not be a benefit. Windows can assign tasks to the other cores not being used when playing a game. On another note, what if windows was parking your cores in some of these examples. By disabling core parking, your assured that will not happen.


Non-gaming advantage.
http://www.ultimatecomputers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3644


Best Solution : Get a Intel cpu for better single core performance. My opinion. Using a FX cpu and a good video card will still give you good results.If your playing a game that is very cpu intensive, the results will vary. How many games are cpu intensive ? Really ? I would like to know.

 

[EarthDog]

Its been a while, but yep!

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=722288&highlight=Core+Parking

 

[dostov]

It never caused any problems for me. I'm thinking unless core parking is causing issues, there's no need to disable it. I like my system to save power whenever possible and core parking is a good power saving feature.

Still good to know how to disable it if ever it causes performance issues.

Cheers!