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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use?

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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 06/12/2014 at 20:19 #66270
Danny252
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1461 posts
On my laptop, it appears that stickies are causing unreasonable amounts of CPU use when scrolling. The text quoted below causes 25% CPU use (i.e. using all of one CPU core) on Kings Cross when pasted as a sticky and I'm trying to scroll, causing a noticeable slowdown in scrolling.

I can't say I've ever noticed this before, but it's possibly because my desktop is powerful enough to handle big stickies.

Any thoughts on why this might be causing a problem?


" said:
B Hertford
C Cambridge
K Moorgate
P Peterborough
R Royston
T Kings Lynn
V Welwyn GC

Last edited: 06/12/2014 at 20:21 by Danny252
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 06/12/2014 at 20:34 #66272
Sacro
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1171 posts
What's the specification of your laptop, most importantly, what graphics chip is it using?
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 06/12/2014 at 20:35 #66273
LucasLCC
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94 posts
Just to check, this isn't some sort of measure to reduce Maxands sticky note usage?
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 06/12/2014 at 21:26 #66276
Danny252
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1461 posts
" said:
What's the specification of your laptop, most importantly, what graphics chip is it using?
Quad-core Intel i5 at 2.67GHz, with some NVidia integrated graphics (I can't recall off the top of my head and DXDiag isn't being helpful). However, it can certainly handle graphical demands much in excess of Simsig's 2D display - as should any computer since 1995, really, given that the majority of the display is actually text. Additionally, the graphics card shouldn't be much of a factor given it's the CPU usage that is high.

Last edited: 06/12/2014 at 21:27 by Danny252
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 06/12/2014 at 21:40 #66277
Sacro
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1171 posts
" said:
" said:
What's the specification of your laptop, most importantly, what graphics chip is it using?
Quad-core Intel i5 at 2.67GHz, with some NVidia integrated graphics (I can't recall off the top of my head and DXDiag isn't being helpful). However, it can certainly handle graphical demands much in excess of Simsig's 2D display - as should any computer since 1995, really, given that the majority of the display is actually text. Additionally, the graphics card shouldn't be much of a factor given it's the CPU usage that is high.
Without knowing the nVidia model number it's hard to pass comment, however nVidia don't have integrated graphics. Even though the display is "text" it's still rendered bitmaps and will still place load on the system. If DXDiag shows nothing then the nVidia Control Panel or something like CPU-Z or GPU-Z might shed more light.

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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 06/12/2014 at 21:57 #66279
Danny252
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1461 posts
" said:
" said:
" said:
What's the specification of your laptop, most importantly, what graphics chip is it using?
Quad-core Intel i5 at 2.67GHz, with some NVidia integrated graphics (I can't recall off the top of my head and DXDiag isn't being helpful). However, it can certainly handle graphical demands much in excess of Simsig's 2D display - as should any computer since 1995, really, given that the majority of the display is actually text. Additionally, the graphics card shouldn't be much of a factor given it's the CPU usage that is high.
Without knowing the nVidia model number it's hard to pass comment, however nVidia don't have integrated graphics. Even though the display is "text" it's still rendered bitmaps and will still place load on the system. If DXDiag shows nothing then the nVidia Control Panel or something like CPU-Z or GPU-Z might shed more light.
Apologies, mincing my words - shared memory is the term I was after! GeForce 310M to be exact, but again, given that a sticky-free Simsig is struggling to place even 1% CPU load, and with fairly modern FPSes running well on the system, I think you're looking in the wrong place.

Last edited: 06/12/2014 at 21:58 by Danny252
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 08/12/2014 at 11:41 #66337
maxand
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1637 posts
FWIW, my system is a (slightly outdated now) HP Pavilion dv7 with plenty of memory. When I play SimSig, memory is not usually a problem as I don't have much else running concurrently - the game is so attention-intensive. Never had a problem with stickies as you describe, but I use them a lot more sparingly now than in the past.
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 08/12/2014 at 12:25 #66338
delticfan
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For my two pennorth, I don't use stickies too often, other than to remind me of traffic flow direction into and out of yards etc (Cov is a case in point). Much of the time I tend to use pen and paper to keep track of TDs etc. When I do use stickies I've not noticed any probs with screen performance. Quite a capable system, 2.2Ghz processor, 4 gig RAM. I tend not to have anything else running, usually just a music playlist.

Mal.

Last edited: 08/12/2014 at 12:26 by delticfan
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 08/12/2014 at 13:55 #66343
Jan
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889 posts
Not a very scientific experiment, but in my current save of the King's Cross 4-day timetable, I have four sticky notes visible in the King's Cross/Finsbury Park area - three smaller ones (a TD for the Loco Sdgs, a delayed departure time, and a reminder that P1/2 at Finsbury Park is OOU), and a slightly bigger one reminding me about the upcoming possession on the Up Fast:
Quote:
Engineering work is taking place
between Finsbury Park and Belle Isle
on the Up Fast line from 23:45.
If I use the mouse wheel to rapidly scroll back and forth around that area, my CPU usage (four cores, i5-3570) jumps to approximately 15 - 20 %. If I delete the big note, leaving only the three smaller notes, the CPU usages when scrolling back and forth drops to below 10 %.
Also, when editing/moving one of the sticky notes - no matter which one - the big note is taking noticeably longer to redraw, which leads to some amount of flickering.

Two million people attempt to use Birmingham's magnificent rail network every year, with just over a million of them managing to get further than Smethwick.
Last edited: 08/12/2014 at 13:56 by Jan
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 08/12/2014 at 15:48 #66345
Danny252
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1461 posts
" said:
Not a very scientific experiment, but in my current save of the King's Cross 4-day timetable, I have four sticky notes visible in the King's Cross/Finsbury Park area - three smaller ones (a TD for the Loco Sdgs, a delayed departure time, and a reminder that P1/2 at Finsbury Park is OOU), and a slightly bigger one reminding me about the upcoming possession on the Up Fast:
Quote:
Engineering work is taking place
between Finsbury Park and Belle Isle
on the Up Fast line from 23:45.
If I use the mouse wheel to rapidly scroll back and forth around that area, my CPU usage (four cores, i5-3570) jumps to approximately 15 - 20 %. If I delete the big note, leaving only the three smaller notes, the CPU usages when scrolling back and forth drops to below 10 %.
Also, when editing/moving one of the sticky notes - no matter which one - the big note is taking noticeably longer to redraw, which leads to some amount of flickering.
Just to say that this is more or less identical to the behaviour that I'm experiencing - I'm glad I'm not alone!

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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 08/12/2014 at 16:39 #66350
GeoffM
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Were the notes on top of anything, or just a blank area of screen? Just trying to narrow down the possibilities.
SimSig Boss
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 08/12/2014 at 18:55 #66360
Jan
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889 posts
Looks like all of them were on top of something:

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Two million people attempt to use Birmingham's magnificent rail network every year, with just over a million of them managing to get further than Smethwick.
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 08/12/2014 at 18:57 #66361
Danny252
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1461 posts
" said:
Were the notes on top of anything, or just a blank area of screen? Just trying to narrow down the possibilities.
Both cases show the problem.

Having tested some more, it appears that it may not be sticky notes alone - I'm only encountering the slowed scrolling problem on KX when running the 4-day Timetable (which Jan tested by coincidence!). Trying other TTs and keeping an eye on CPU use, it seems that CPU use whilst scrolling is related to the number of trains in the TT, and that the scrolling in the 4 Day TT (3000 trains) is slightly slower, even under normal circumstances, than in smaller TTs - see the table below.

In all cases, the CPU use when not scrolling is negligible, implying that the normal operation of the sim is relatively lightweight, as expected. Paused/unpaused makes no difference.

Is Simsig running some check on every train in the TT whilst scrolling?



[table]
[tr]
[td]Timetable[/td]
[td]Num Trains[/td]
[td]CPU Use[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]4 Day TT[/td]
[td]3128 Trains[/td]
[td]25% CPU, scrolling is slowed, worse with stickies[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]August 2012 TT[/td]
[td]1027 Trains[/td]
[td]25% CPU, scrolling not affected[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Test TT[/td]
[td]47 Trains[/td]
[td]No noticable change in CPU use[/td]
[tr]
[/table]

Last edited: 08/12/2014 at 18:58 by Danny252
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Stickies - causing excessive CPU use? 08/12/2014 at 19:33 #66364
GeoffM
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That may well be a factor (or cause!). As you know, it detects timetable IDs in notes, so it may be that something is checking far too frequently.
SimSig Boss
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