Slow and Jerky tuning after installing 1.2

John Thompson

I loaded 1.2 today and now my tuning with either the FlexControl or the mouse has become slow, jerky, and continues on its own.  It is better if you use the mouse wheel or close down to only one panadapter.

Tim - W4TME

Did you see this post from earlier today?

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/solved_myflexcontrol_lag_problem

John Thompson

Tim I did.......but I wasn't sure if that reply had anything to do with the software update so I asked  the question.

Everything was fine here until I did the update.  This is a brand new computer I got when I updated from a 5000 to a 6500 so I can still have my computer guy come take a look too.  He put a video card in it so I can have 4 monitors but I have no idea what model it is.

Tim - W4TME

"...but I wasn't sure if that reply had anything to do with the software update..."

It may.  SmartSDR v1.2 with the waterfall display consumes more PC resources.  Those resources are going to be the CPU and the graphics card's GPU.  If the GPU is not off loading most of the graphics rending, then the CPU will make for the deficiency.  If the CPU is being burdened with lots of graphics rending, then the FlexControl would get sluggish as it uses only the CPU.  

I'd be interested to know what video card you are using. It may be that all yo need is a video driver software update and that might solve the problem.

EMIL-DL8JJ

Hi Tim,

I ave notice the same Problem to. When I have all 8 Panadapters open, i notice the Flexcontrol or mouse QRG Change has become slow. If you pull down the waterfall you will become quickly move.

If you have on PA 3,500 to 3,800 you will notice also slow moves. If you go wide (3,588 to 3600) you will notice all are OK. Over 5 Panadapters become Tuning slow.

On this Point i have 15% CPU. My Graphic Card GTX 570 on 6 core (12 treads) and 16 GB RAM. Win 8, latest Update, no other Software on the PC. 22’’ tft, full sceen.

My display settings are: AVG 25, FPS 25 Gain 40, Black 20.

Cu

Emil, de DL8JJ

John Thompson

Tim,

I'm going to update the drivers, the card itself is a Nvidia GTX 660. Currently the GPU usage is at 43% with SDR running.

EMIL-DL8JJ

Tim,

this is SSDR performance problem.

I have tried two GC on diferent monitors. With my  new one - GeForce 770 with latest driver (also GeForce 570) and more than 5 panadapters with slices  you will notice this problem.

Also with every additional panadapter you will be notice that the avarange goining slower and slower. The display settings on all slices are the same.(in my case 25/25)

Please check it.

Thanks

Emil, de DL8JJ

Mike KD2CJJ

Tim,
I am a prospect customer thus have no practical experience with Flex but I have some experience tuning systems.  Try some of these tips out which may help.

1.  I see your using an Nvidia video card.  Make sure your your at default settings by restoring to default.  Turn off vertical sync - this is a culprit that affects input lag.  Some applications are very picky on many of these settings in the Nvidia console.  ATI and Nvidia cards will have different affect with different video card settings.. even though those applications utilize DirectX

2.  If your using Windows 7 or Windows 8 change your power options profile to High Performance.
This will unpark your cores.  When the OS detects minimal usage it will park cores (not use them). This is great for energy savings but has a detrimental impact on applications that are sensitive to latency.  Audio and video applications are most affected.  Windows 7 does NOT manage this well via the High Performance Profile and have found that you need to use 3rd party utilities to force the OS to unpark the cores... Another way is to turn off energy saving routines in the bios like C0, C1, etc. stepping.

3.  Go into your bios and select Sync All Cores rather than auto.   They key benefit to doing this is syncing all clock ratios to the same ratio.   Many high performance motherboards make this default setting but other motherboards do not sync the cores to save on power.  This has a significant affect with some applications - again those that are latency sensitive. 

4.  No matter how much memory you have make sure you have a page file set to an appropriate size.  I will not get into the complexities as to why but you will introduce unneeded page faults when dealing with any high i/o application.  Move the page file to a secondary drive OR SSD if you have one.  This will translate into latency.

5.  Make sure you NIC card is forcing full duplex and the correct port speed.  Many NIC cards / routers do not properly detect a proper port duplex or speed.  It will typically default to 1/2 duplex when this occurs and will increase latency under load.  This will translate into latency in the UI.

6.  If your using Gigabit, make sure you definitely force the duplex and correct port speed.  Low quality cabling that can not sustain a Gigabit connection will attempt to bump the speed down and again cause latency when the reduction in speed occurs.  This will translate into latency in the UI.

7.  Exclude the Flex application from any software firewalls your using on the PC.  Flex application is a bit streaming application.  Like any bit streamed application packets dropped or delayed translate into latency (as part of error correction)  --- same reason for the other NIC changes.  I would also suggest excluding the Flex binaries from any anti virus.

All the above will improve performance but may not solve your issue... Hopefully it helps...


 It also does not preclude the need for the application to be optimized to default / common settings which the above I realize are not..