Ryzen 7 and Cities Skylines

[nachIbz]

Hi,

I would like to know if the game is able to use 8 core and 16 threads and if it would be much beeter performance than lets say an Intel I7 7700K.

Thanks

 

[medopu]

correct me if i'm wrong, but Cities skylines benefits the most with a good single core performance so having 8 cores is probably not going to be a huge improvement over 4 cores / 8 threads.

As far as C:SL is concerned, i'd go with the intel.

 

[MarkJohnson]

Cities: Skylines uses up to 8-threads. So yes, Ryzen will benefit greatly. It will use its full 8 cores and leave the hyper threading for windows and other apps. I doubt you'd get more than 50% CPU usage.

In comparison, my i7-4970k @ 4.4GHz was using 100% CPU for the cities.exe by itself. I decided to upgrade to an i7 6-core @ 3.3GHz (i7-5820k) and it was running an amazing 40% CPU usage for cities.exe file. The 6-core was adding 50% extra poer and should have had only 75% or so usage, and with it 25% less core clocks should have even been higher.

But between the 2 extra full cores and the almost double CPU cache of 15MB (up from 8MB) made a huge difference.

Hyper threading usually adds about 20% more processing power in optimal conditions (which this game loves). So those two full cores made a huge difference.

But Ryzen 8-cores were running 50%, so assumably it was using all 8-core near 100% max. comparing to the i7 6-core at 40%.

Here's a save of my 655k modless-vanilla city (except the 25-tile unlock, which can be safely unsubscribed after unlocking all of the tiles) that maxes out the game completely (all 80,000 agents in use simultaneously) to test on your own rig:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=723204559

 

[Anttonilla]

I have been wondering this same question myself too.

This 2016 benchmark shows similar results to the statements above. Bummer that he didn't test with a CPU with more cores.

Spoiler: Benchmark by Science Studio

 

[DeiNaGoN]

User of a R7 1700 @ 3,9 GHz here. I can confirm that CSL uses the cores really efficiently. In fact even better than BF1 which is the Gold Standard in multicore optimization. I'm seeing about 40% (so ~ 80 % real) usage on 8C/16T with 100k cims. I'm pretty darn impressed in fact.

 

[Anttonilla]

User of a R7 1700 @ 3,9 GHz here. I can confirm that CSL uses the cores really efficiently. In fact even better than BF1 which is the Gold Standard in multicore optimization. I'm seeing about 40% (so ~ 80 % real) usage on 8C/16T with 100k cims. I'm pretty darn impressed in fact.

So if it uses 40% then doesn't it mean that it doesn't use more than 8 threads? Skylines supports hyperthreading and AMD equivalent so should't the usage be higher if it used more than 8 threads?

 

[MarkJohnson]

So if it uses 40% then doesn't it mean that it doesn't use more than 8 threads? Skylines supports hyperthreading and AMD equivalent so should't the usage be higher if it used more than 8 threads?

The game uses the cores it need. There is an 80k limit on active agent on the map. i.e. 64k citizen and 16k vehicles. Sp when your city is small, there is a light load and you'll only use a few core, while a large city will have more active agents on the map and will use all 8-threads.

He's my city of 655k (no workshop or DLC. i.e. vanilla game so it will work for anyone.) It is hovering at both 64k citizens and 16k vehicles in game and shows all 8 cores being uses on my i7-4970k @4.4GHz and my FX-8320 stock both maxing out at 100% CPU usage for cities.exe and task manager.

You'll need to subscribe to the CSL Show More Limits mod to see the agent limits. The active agent limits are "Vehicles Active" and "Citizen Instances"

655k city save:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=723204559

CSL Show More Limits mod:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531738447

 

[Vimes]

The game uses the cores it need. There is an 80k limit on active agent on the map. i.e. 64k citizen and 16k vehicles. Sp when your city is small, there is a light load and you'll only use a few core, while a large city will have more active agents on the map and will use all 8-threads.

He's my city of 655k (no workshop or DLC. i.e. vanilla game so it will work for anyone.) It is hovering at both 64k citizens and 16k vehicles in game and shows all 8 cores being uses on my i7-4970k @4.4GHz and my FX-8320 stock both maxing out at 100% CPU usage for cities.exe and task manager.

You'll need to subscribe to the CSL Show More Limits mod to see the agent limits. The active agent limits are "Vehicles Active" and "Citizen Instances"

655k city save:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=723204559

CSL Show More Limits mod:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531738447

Interesting taking a look at thatcity Mark, thanks for posting.

Is it typical of such a large city which has pretty much maxed out on the number of active vehicles to visually show so few of them considering the population and city density...?

Considering (IIRC) that the traffic is showing around 68% I would have expected to have seen much more traffic and pedestrians. I suppose it is pushing to the absolute limit what the engine / game can support.

I tested it on a i7 6700k at 4.6ghz. Using 16GB of DDR4 at 3200 and a 1080Ti GPU with 11GB of DDR5 memory.

Surprised at how much CPU usage there is and how little the GPU is used.

I can imagine that you would consider that city, in terms of growth, pretty much complete now....?

 

[MarkJohnson]

Interesting taking a look at thatcity Mark, thanks for posting.

Is it typical of such a large city which has pretty much maxed out on the number of active vehicles to visually show so few of them considering the population and city density...?

Considering (IIRC) that the traffic is showing around 68% I would have expected to have seen much more traffic and pedestrians. I suppose it is pushing to the absolute limit what the engine / game can support.

The game has several despawning mechanics. One seems to be that when cims are completely happy that they don't spawn anymore. If a city is imbalanced, they show up on the map as exports. imports, too many jobs, etc. But unemployment doesn't.

Cims will be happy staying home unemployed with zero complaints. While happy cims seem to teleport to work. This teleportation is a mechanic to keep agents off the map. Same with happy unemployed cims. It's a mechanic to keep them off the roads and leaving town, plus just keeping them happy so the city doesn't fall apart.

Also, unhappy cims just won't spawn at all. If it is determined that it can't make is destination on time then it won't spawn at all. This keeps traffic down as well. I'm sure this has it's own issues keeping tabs on not spawning cims.

You already know the depawning of vehicles that get delayed in traffic if it is determined that cims can't make it to destination on time. i.e. to work or freight delivery on time. This is to keep the agents down as well.

I tested it on a i7 6700k at 4.6ghz. Using 16GB of DDR4 at 3200 and a 1080Ti GPU with 11GB of DDR5 memory.

Surprised at how much CPU usage there is and how little the GPU is used.

I can imagine that you would consider that city, in terms of growth, pretty much complete now....?

Oh no, that city can still grow. It just needs some TLC. lol

You just have to balance the zones and get cims off the road.

However, I messed up the city on my previous save when I hit the vehicle agent limit. I think they made some adjustments to the balancing and I was getting not enough raw materials. I just assumed it was the freight system overloaded from the many combinations of freight being produced. Specialized creates two type of freight. raw and processed materials, so I thought eliminating them would cure my issues. It made it worse. On top of that I got a new SSD and reinstalled windows and windows backup didn't backup my saved games, so I couldn't revert back to my previous save and continue.

So I just balanced it the best I could and then another new patch came out and it messed with the agents and I just never continued. I kind of burnt out on the constant changes. Plus there are just so many sections that need balancing.

But my city started hitting limits around 150k with vehicles. So I learned to balance the Industry production chain somewhat. Then I started hitting the citizen limits around 250k and learned how to balance the RCI zones. and slowly crept up to 655k with a lot of rezoning. I'd hit my limits and adjust just enough to get growth going a little, then get maybe 1-tile of growth, then rebalance again. I think I'm just finishing off the outer sections before going to 81-tiles and learning the ai behavior that far out. If I ever get around to it.

Once you pass 9-tiles, the AI doesn't play well anymore as it was designed for 9-tiles. But it will work for 25-tiles fairly well.