- New processor support: AMD Ryzen 7 1700, 1700X, 1800X and Ryzen 5 1400, 1500X, 1600, 1600X. AMD Ryzen 7 users should read the note at the end of this list.
- Improved Max Performance and Best of All Worlds profiles for AMD Ryzen and Intel Core CPUs
- Added 4 more optional Tray Icons:
A maximum of 9 Tray Icons is now possible, so free RAM and CPU usage of up to 8 cores can be displayed at the same time
- Separated Show hidden and system files into two separate tweaks
- Changed Network-share recursive events to Network share file change notifactions tweak (more reliable)
- Added Energy-Profile and Syskey access tweaks
- Added links to 'Customize Tray Area', 'Network Center', and 'Default programs' to Tools and Tray Icon menus
- Better Unicode support for non Western languages
- Sticky Core affinity feature: tie processes to specific CPU Cores; Affinity will survive a reboot or program restart
Note to AMD Ryzen 7 users:
The AMD Ryzen CPU consists of 16 CPU cores - 8 physical and 8 virtual (emulated) cores. The physical cores are placed on the CPU die in two groups of 4 cores each, the so called CCX (CPU Complex). The two groups are interconnected with with a 256-bit wide bi-directional crossbar. The speed of the crossbar is linked to the speed of your system memory (RAM). Within a CCX group CPU cores can communicate very quickly with each other. Communication between cores that sit on two separate CCX groups is significantly slower (by the factor of 2 and more).
Windows 10 appears to not be aware that the Ryzen processor consists of two individual CPU core groups. Switching program threads from one CCX group to another can cause performance degradation on an otherwise very fast processor. During our tests in the Outertech lab we have discovered that tying some Windows applications to the first CCX group (4 physical + 4 virtual cores) can increase the performance by a significant factor, as thread switching between two CCX groups is avoided. This will work well only with application that do not make full use of all 16 CPU cores, particularly computer games.
Since we are expecting a fix from Microsoft on this issue we have decided against an automatic Cacheman optimization at this time. Users can manually try this optimization. Here is an example for the game Witcher 3:
1. Start the computer game you want to optimize, in this example Witcher 3
2. Switch to desktop (alt + tab hotkey)
3. Launch Cacheman
4. Go to the Sticky Core Affinity tab
5. In the process list select witcher3.exe
6. Click on the Presets button and select Core 1-8
7. The Core Affinity will change from default to 1111111100000000
8. Restart Witcher 3
To optimize other games just look for the correct process name in the core affinity list.
Cacheman will remember this tweak and apply it automatically each time you start the game.
We will continue monitoring this issue, and if Microsoft doesn't fix it with an update, we will release a new Cacheman version with automatic Core Affinity optimization.
|
|
