Help me with MAIN_T

[KToMmi]

Hi everyone,
for a couple of weeks by now I've been suffering a really annoying issue. After a few laps (not immediately) I see the MAIN_T value going up until a point the game stutters and becomes unplayable. I start at around 40-50% and then it goes up to 93-94%, with ~90% being the critical threshold.

My setup (Dell Precision 5510):
Intel i7-6820HQ
NVIDIA Quadro M1000M
16 GB RAM
SSD M2

Some info:
- the issue of course gets worse when racing with other cars on the track, but still happens when practicing solo offline;
- the issue occurs also on Kunos's original tracks; in fact I have just tried to do a clean reinstall of the game but nothing changed;
- activating apps pushes the MAIN_T up by just very few % (1-2% each), so I wouldn't think that the apps are the problem;
- restarting the game and/or the PC solves the problem for just 2 or 3 laps, nothing permanent;
- components' temperatures don't reach critical thresholds nor thermal throttling;
- the hardware itself shouldn't be weak for the game, as it used to run just perfect until a couple of weeks ago;

For whoever might find it useful to check, I uploaded my logs folder on my Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KiUiwPRSdBzL96kn-lA-5ephoEbhAbP0


Please help me solve this problem, it prevents me from playing and enjoying the game!
I've been desperately trying to solve it but to no avail.

 

[Neilski]

Sounds exactly like overheating, despite your being pretty confident that it isn't, so I have to ask how you concluded that it wasn't CPU-throttling?
A really simple thing to do is just run Resource Monitor and alt-tab back to it and check the blue clock speed trace on the CPU page just after it seems to slow down...

 

[KToMmi]

Sounds exactly like overheating, despite your being pretty confident that it isn't, so I have to ask how you concluded that it wasn't CPU-throttling?
A really simple thing to do is just run Resource Monitor and alt-tab back to it and check the blue clock speed trace on the CPU page just after it seems to slow down...

Hi, first of all thank you so much for replying. The worst thing of this situation is that I'm left alone with no solutions found. So any help is greatly appreciated.

I am pretty confident I am not running into thermal throttling. To be honest, that might have been the problem originally: I found out that when this occurred, the CPU was pushed back to 800 MHz after reaching absurd temps like 95C. Thus I reacted and learned to use ThrottleStop: first I managed to reduce the temps by some 10-12C with a simple undervolt, then I disabled Turbo Boost because it simply isn't necessary. In fact, when the game runs smooth the first laps, 2.7 GHz are more than enough, and similarly the Turbo Boost at 3.2 GHz doesn't help when the problem occurs.
With these settings I can keep the temperatures at about 71-72C with extremely rare peaks at 80C after hours of racing with 20 people. The GPU also always stays below 80C. This is why I believe the CPU isn't throttled anymore.
Actually it's enough to check ThrottleStop when the game slows down and I see that the frequencies are still up at 2.7 GHz, unlike before.


What really bugs me is that I have always had a super smooth and reliable experience until a couple of weeks ago and I really cannot understand what causes this issue. I have tried everything so far, to no avail. Even reinstalling the game from scratch didn't help at all.

Sorry for the long answer.

 

[Bobby Pennington]

I've got a friend, @raptor1958 that had some issues with a pretty high end pc wit an i7 and I believe it as related to hyper threading. Maybe he'll chime in,but I can tell you from working with him that @Neilski knows his stuff. @RasmusP is one of my other go to mates. Sorry I'm not much help, but connecting people is what I'm best at. Well that and acting a fool

 

[Neilski]

I would still recommend checking that blue trace in Resource Monitor, just to be paranoid (no idea what ThrottleStop is).
But also, on my machine I can drop the CPU load dramatically (factor of 2-ish) by simply hitting escape in single-player mode so that the game is essentially paused. How about trying that for (say) 30 seconds when you feel it slowing down (or the MAIN_T gets high) and then when you hit Resume, if it's "fast" again, you might conclude that the CPU temperature was an issue after all. (I guess the GPU temperature wouldn't cause MAIN_T to rise so probably no point in examining that?)

 

[RasmusP]

When it occurs again, hit ESC, wait and check after 30s if the main_t is still that high.
If it is and the CPU didn't throttle, check if anything is running in the background. It's either throttling or another program.

If it's really just AC on it's own, disable all custom apps/hud. Maybe one of them is doing something odd!
If that's still not it, kick out mod cars and tracks.

 

[dud]

Any Microsoft updates hit the poor thing around that time?

 

[vegaguy5555]

There is a threading setting in assetto-corsa ini.

 

[dud]

When you say "restarting the game" I assume you only have to restart the 3d engine, right? Or do you have to get out of the launcher, too?

 

[KToMmi]

I've got a friend, @raptor1958 that had some issues with a pretty high end pc wit an i7 and I believe it as related to hyper threading. Maybe he'll chime in,but I can tell you from working with him that @Neilski knows his stuff. @RasmusP is one of my other go to mates. Sorry I'm not much help, but connecting people is what I'm best at. Well that and acting a fool

Your help is very much appreciated. That is useful as well. I'll wait for your friend, @raptor1958 , too.

I would still recommend checking that blue trace in Resource Monitor, just to be paranoid (no idea what ThrottleStop is).
But also, on my machine I can drop the CPU load dramatically (factor of 2-ish) by simply hitting escape in single-player mode so that the game is essentially paused. How about trying that for (say) 30 seconds when you feel it slowing down (or the MAIN_T gets high) and then when you hit Resume, if it's "fast" again, you might conclude that the CPU temperature was an issue after all. (I guess the GPU temperature wouldn't cause MAIN_T to rise so probably no point in examining that?)

I will triple check that trace but I'm pretty confident it doesn't drop anymore. I've seen the frequencies at 2.7 GHz at the same time the game was stuttering and acting slow.

The GPU temperature itself isn't that useless, because if it reaches very high levels it may trigger some safety controls on the computer that throttle all the system in order to stay within safety limits. But I don't think that's a problem either, it doesn't go above 80C which is pretty safe.

Anyway letting the game rest for 30 seconds usually isn't enough.

Thank you again for writing back.

When it occurs again, hit ESC, wait and check after 30s if the main_t is still that high.
If it is and the CPU didn't throttle, check if anything is running in the background. It's either throttling or another program.

If it's really just AC on it's own, disable all custom apps/hud. Maybe one of them is doing something odd!
If that's still not it, kick out mod cars and tracks.

Thank you for replying. I am pretty confident the CPU isn't throttling because it still works hard (2.7 GHz) even when the game starts to stutter and the MAIN_T goes stellar high. Actually I can't be as confident about any processes running in background. It might be. But how do I check that?

I've already tried to take a look at Resource Monitor, and it says I have about 180-190 processes, but among them I have no clue which ones might be unnecessary or harmful. They all have weird names, even the ones I shouldn't shut down (ran by the system).
Do you have an idea?

Any Microsoft updates hit the poor thing around that time?

That's one of the main traces I've been following. It's one of the very few causes I can't exclude by now.

Actually the PC has been pretty busy in updating during the very few weeks. I tried to take a look at the Update history, but I have no clue which one I can blame. How can I determine it?

I've only tried to downgrade the BIOS given by Dell, but didn't help.

There is a threading setting in assetto-corsa ini.

Hi, I've seen that on the web too. It solved this issue to some people, but not to me. I've tried any value for that setting, but didn't help, unfortunately.

When you say "restarting the game" I assume you only have to restart the 3d engine, right? Or do you have to get out of the launcher, too?

I usually shut down both of them but just to be sure. I'd say it doesn't make big of a difference. Never tried to restart only the 3D engine but it might have the same results.


To all of you guys, I'm thankful for your help and for the time you invested in replying. It's the first bit of help I'm getting and I hope we'll keep the troubleshooting discussion alive. Thank you!

 

[RasmusP]

For the processes: you open the taskmanager, go to processes and sort it to CPU so you'll see if anything other than AC is using more than a few tiny percent of your CPU.

For Windows updates etc. just disable your internet connection so nothing can actually download anything in the background. Deactivating them manually would be better of course but disabling your network card would be enough I think

 

[KToMmi]

For the processes: you open the taskmanager, go to processes and sort it to CPU so you'll see if anything other than AC is using more than a few tiny percent of your CPU.
View attachment 237327
For Windows updates etc. just disable your internet connection so nothing can actually download anything in the background. Deactivating them manually would be better of course but disabling your network card would be enough I think
View attachment 237328

I've done that and I haven't noticed anything particularly heavy. Aside from the Malware executable ran by Windows Defender, all the other processes weigh less than 1%. Problem is, they are 180 processes, so there might be (say) 40 unnecessary that all together make a difference. How can I determine which ones aren't meant to be there?

 

[RasmusP]

I've done that and I haven't noticed anything particularly heavy. Aside from the Malware executable ran by Windows Defender, all the other processes weigh less than 1%. Problem is, they are 180 processes, so there might be (say) 40 unnecessary that all together make a difference. How can I determine which ones aren't meant to be there?

You close all programs you don't need for driving in AC. Like Dropbox, one drive, email, browser, spotify, iTunes, Skype etc etc. It should clean it up a little.
After a restart it will all come back so just close them all.
You should be able to determine it better then

 

[KToMmi]

You close all programs you don't need for driving in AC. Like Dropbox, one drive, email, browser, spotify, iTunes, Skype etc etc. It should clean it up a little.
After a restart it will all come back so just close them all.
You should be able to determine it better then

Uhm, I do that already. I've also modified which programs start together with the system at boot (and reduced them as much as possible of course). But there are still plenty of processes I can't figure out.

 

[RasmusP]

Uhm, I do that already. I've also modified which programs start together with the system at boot (and reduced them as much as possible of course). But there are still plenty of processes I can't figure out.

Then I'm sorry. 180 just sound like a helluva lot!
Tbh it's too complex to describe it here. You have the description in the Taskmanager though so everything that sounds like unnecessary: kill it. "logitech updater" and these kind of things. Adobe cloud, Office one click etc.
If you are unsure just upload an image here via snipping tool and ctrl+V in the post window. It'll get attached

 

[dud]

Processes not using CPU and not doing IO won't cause this.

I kind of agree that a virus program of some kind is a likely culprit. Are you running the Windows installation that Dell gave you or a clean one?

Could be that some idiot protection program wants to do a full disk scan, and always waits about the same amount after boot to do it, then you shut the computer down before it is finished. So after the next boot it tries again.

 

[Neilski]

If you're on Windows 10, then even the Task Manager (ctrl-escape) can be very helpful. (It was very basic in Windows 7 and earlier.)
I normally have mine set to low update speed (in the View menu) which nominally gives about 4 minutes of history.
So you can run it, and check it now and then to see if things change in either the disk or CPU utilisation graphs when things slow down.
See screenshot for what I mean

 

[Tomi]

Hi everyone,
for a couple of weeks by now I've been suffering a really annoying issue. After a few laps (not immediately) I see the MAIN_T value going up until a point the game stutters and becomes unplayable. I start at around 40-50% and then it goes up to 93-94%, with ~90% being the critical threshold.

My setup (Dell Precision 5510):
Intel i7-6820HQ
NVIDIA Quadro M1000M
16 GB RAM
SSD M2

Some info:
- the issue of course gets worse when racing with other cars on the track, but still happens when practicing solo offline;
- the issue occurs also on Kunos's original tracks; in fact I have just tried to do a clean reinstall of the game but nothing changed;
- activating apps pushes the MAIN_T up by just very few % (1-2% each), so I wouldn't think that the apps are the problem;
- restarting the game and/or the PC solves the problem for just 2 or 3 laps, nothing permanent;
- components' temperatures don't reach critical thresholds nor thermal throttling;
- the hardware itself shouldn't be weak for the game, as it used to run just perfect until a couple of weeks ago;

For whoever might find it useful to check, I uploaded my logs folder on my Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KiUiwPRSdBzL96kn-lA-5ephoEbhAbP0


Please help me solve this problem, it prevents me from playing and enjoying the game!
I've been desperately trying to solve it but to no avail.

I just quicly read all those messages so it could be I got wrong picture about this issue, but you do know that MAIN_T value has nothing to do with CPU load, right?
You do have some kind of problem but don't worry about that MAIN_T value. I have it always something like 95% and it's all fine.

This is what it means: "CPU value is for the graphics thread. It shows the relationship between the time spent in the application (CPU) and the time spent to complete a frame (FRAME TIME). Values of CPU near 100% indicate a CPU-bound system graphically.
EX... if a frame took 16ms to complete and CPU is 50% it means that AC was able to prepare the frame in 8ms.. and the GPU took 16ms to render it. (GPU bound).. if CPU is 100% then it took the CPU 16ms to prepare the frame and the GPU is probably capable to go faster (CPU bound).
No relationship whatsoever with the value read in task manager."

 

[KToMmi]

Then I'm sorry. 180 just sound like a helluva lot!
Tbh it's too complex to describe it here. You have the description in the Taskmanager though so everything that sounds like unnecessary: kill it. "logitech updater" and these kind of things. Adobe cloud, Office one click etc.
If you are unsure just upload an image here via snipping tool and ctrl+V in the post window. It'll get attached

As soon as I can, I'll try!

Processes not using CPU and not doing IO won't cause this.

I kind of agree that a virus program of some kind is a likely culprit. Are you running the Windows installation that Dell gave you or a clean one?

Could be that some idiot protection program wants to do a full disk scan, and always waits about the same amount after boot to do it, then you shut the computer down before it is finished. So after the next boot it tries again.

Yes I am running the original Windows installed by Dell when the PC came. I am actually considering to reinstall and restart from scratch, but I'd want to leave this as the ultimate extreme solution... It is quite time costly and I have lots of material on the PC I'd have to store somewhere else so it wouldn't be a painless operation.

I just quicly read all those messages so it could be I got wrong picture about this issue, but you do know that MAIN_T value has nothing to do with CPU load, right?
You do have some kind of problem but don't worry about that MAIN_T value. I have it always something like 95% and it's all fine.

This is what it means: "CPU value is for the graphics thread. It shows the relationship between the time spent in the application (CPU) and the time spent to complete a frame (FRAME TIME). Values of CPU near 100% indicate a CPU-bound system graphically.
EX... if a frame took 16ms to complete and CPU is 50% it means that AC was able to prepare the frame in 8ms.. and the GPU took 16ms to render it. (GPU bound).. if CPU is 100% then it took the CPU 16ms to prepare the frame and the GPU is probably capable to go faster (CPU bound).
No relationship whatsoever with the value read in task manager."

Hi, yes I am aware of that. Actually, I have searched the internet for long before asking for help, and I have also read and learnt the message you quoted, I remember that clearly. While the MAIN_T doesn't represent the CPU load, it still has to do with the CPU and how it works. He says that too.

And I have also heard other people having a very high MAIN_T value with no issues, but believe me my issue comes up right when the MAIN_T goes above 90%. It might be that your PC handles that balance and mine doesn't, but my issue is related to that.
Any idea on what I should check?