Disable HT with BF3 VDS

[Zaxxon]

I know that disabling hyper threading is generally a bad idea for servers in general. However, on the two core VDS I run, I wanted to try out a 64 slot server instead of the two 32 slot servers (one would crash at night and I really got tired of spending most of my time populating the servers and not really playing).

After around 50 players the server would start to lag. At 64 it was terrible. This is to be expected though and the NFO staff have cautioned 2 core VDS from trying it. Watching my CPU and memory usage I noticed that I still had 1.4 GB of RAM consistently no matter what but the CPU would climb to 50% and that is when the lag would happen.

It is normal for us to hit about 50% or more running two 32 slot servers but no lag. I was curious if anyone has tried disabling HT for BF3 and if you could end up running 64 slots on a 2 or 3 core VDS.

[TimeX]

I believe you are referring to the multithreading option in BF3. Normally it is best to leave that option off in BF3 since it can add some overhead and make the problem worse, but if you are nearing CPU limits, having it on may help. Even with it on, it is only lightly multithreaded and doesn't make a lot of use on a second core.

50% CPU usage on a 2-core VDS can mean a couple of things. It could mean that both cores are at 50% load (as with two servers using their own core), or it could mean that a single process is pushing a core to 100% while the other core is mostly unused.

[Edge100x]

We can't turn off HT on VDSes, I'm sorry. It's fundamental to the way the system works.

To run a 64-slot server, you'll need to be on one of our fastest machines -- an E3-1270 or X5675+ one, most likely. If you're not on such a machine now, contact us, and we can check for availability.

[Zaxxon]

We can't turn off HT on VDSes, I'm sorry. It's fundamental to the way the system works.

To run a 64-slot server, you'll need to be on one of our fastest machines -- an E3-1270 or X5675+ one, most likely. If you're not on such a machine now, contact us, and we can check for availability.

do I just use a General Inquiry ticket? I love NFO.

[Edge100x]

Yes, general inquiry is the way to go.

[Zaxxon]

I would just like to update that John did get me into Sandy Bridge Xenon. Running the 64 slot server without multithreading on the 2 core VDS still lagged a lot at 64 slots. Except for at one round, after enable Multithreading, the server's lag is largely gone at 64 slot. Interestingly, it seems the optimal slots for this is around 60. The magic number for CPU usage when the spikes would happen is around 50% utilization.

I am currently happy with the performance however, more time is needed since it has been difficult to fill since the R9 patch.

[Edge100x]

Thanks for the feedback, Zaxxon.

I may look into turning on that multithreading option by default for servers on VDSes.