Reducing CPU usage for multiboxing

Heya guys, so I multibox to an extreme, and I want to help with system stability now.

I currently am using:
Geforce GTX 1080
I9-9900k
32gb Ram

Now, I’m fine on Ram/GPU usage, but I definitely need to fix the CPU usage. I am consistently sitting at 100% with 25 accounts, which is to be expected of course, however every tiny bit I can help adjust the clients beyond potato mode & advanced audio settings tweaking, I’m all ears for!

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Alright, I don’t know how much of an effect each change will have on CPU usage, but hopefully it will add up to a meaningful difference.

1. De-purtify windows

2. Stop Bloatware
Disable every program that you don’t need running 24/7. Note that startup programs used to be controlled through MSConfig in previous versions of windows.

3. Stop Non-Essential Services
Look up a guide for stopping non-essential windows services. Now, it does look like MS have gotten better about setting non-essential services to manual by default, but it looks like there are still a few set to automatically start with windows. Moreover, some of the services set to manual seem to start on their own for no reason. So, try setting services to manual first, and if they start up on their own, then set them to disabled.

4. Turn off Disk Indexing
“Windows Search” (or “Indexing Service” in older versions of windows) is another service that can be turned off.

5. Set Power Plan to Maximum Performance


Stuff Stolen from other guides :slight_smile:

6. Disable windows tips and tricks.

7. Turn off Storage Sense

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8. Run a Registry Cleaner
I used to run CCleaner’s registry cleaner, but noticed that it was breaking some context menu options. And since I couldn’t tell a difference any way, I stopped doing it. But since you’re looking for every ounce of performance… Anyway, I’d like to think CCleaner has their ■■■■ sorted by now, so you can try using that. Alternatively, you can try Auslogic’s Registry Cleaner. I used to really like their programs, but now they’re kind of obnoxious with wanting to install extra programs, pushing pro-versions, and stuff like that. Oh, make sure that you back up the registry if the Registry cleaner doesn’t do that automatically, and stop the program from automatically starting with windows if it likes to do that. Finally, you can run a registry defragmentor on top of that.

9. Disable Transparency Effects
Yeah, I love how windows 10 basically has 2 control panels and likes to put seemingly related settings is different places. Anyway, here’s another de-purtify option to disable.

10. Run anti-malware scans
Hopefully, you don’t have anything more than a couple of tracking cookies on your computer, but might as well run an anti-malware and anti-virus scan just to make sure your computer is clean.

11. Overclock your CPU
Okay, how to overclock is beyond the scope of this post. Instead, I’m going to talk about whether or not you should overclock.

First, if you already know what a BIOS is and feel comfortable changing settings in there, then you probably already have enough competency with computers to be able to overclock. If the BIOS scares and confuses you, then you should probably pay a shop or ask a friend. Overclocking is one of the more fun activities a computer repair tech/computer enthusiast can do, so a friend/acquaintance will probably happily do it for free. Maybe hook him up with a six-pack, a blunt, or some food or something.

Second, you can only overclock if your CPU and Mobo both support overclocking. Fortunately, the k at the end of your CPU name means that it is indeed capable of overclocking. And, based on your system specs, I’m willing to bet your motherboard is as well.

Third, overclocking can decrease the life of your CPU and negatively impact system stability. How far you push things is up to you. However, I have no qualms recommending about a 10% increase to clock speed. Past that, and you start entering into a grey area. Personally, I don’t mind shaving a little life expectancy off of a CPU. They already outlive their usefulness (I have working, 15 year old cpu’s in my bag of old processors). However, I would definitely be concerned about Eve crashing when multiboxing 25 clients. So make sure you do your stress testing. If it was me, I wouldn’t just run run stress test programs. I would make sure that the overclock played well with eve by trying try to take my 25 clients into stressful situations (i.e. observe a large nullsec battle, follow warp to me around and take pods into sites with them, sit on the jita undock and shoot fireworks, or something). And, I try to keep my fit costs low until I’ve observed 20-40 hours of playtime without crashing. Some people might say that a stress test is all you need, but I’d personally want to be sure if I was putting 20 bil worth of ships (or whatever) on grid.

Okay. I think that’s it. Hopefully this helps.

Also, for anyone reading this. This guide specifically addressed CPU usage. There are still other things that you can do to improve system performance. However, I’ve already spent at least an hour working on this, so that’s it for me. Time to go play Eve.

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Are you using a window manager like Eve-O Preview? Both that and ISBoxer have the ability to minimize out-of-focus clients to save resources.

Thank you for all the tips! I have already done several of the things you’ve suggested, and will tinker around with additional settings for the other things that you mentioned.

Overclocking, while I know how to do it, after watching countless hours of videos of it and doing my own research, still scares me half to death. Will likely avoid that.

I used to run ISBoxer waaaay back when Input Broadcasting was a thing. I miss it but I agree that IB being banned for the health of the game is a necessity.
I am currently using EVE-o Preview, and yes the minimization does help a bit. ISBoxer would be a nice addition as limiting frames would be great, but alas I am not looking to pay just to multibox without being able to utilize it to it's full advantage (Albeit DxNothing or IB), as for a simple window manager w/ CPU savings is definitely not worthwhile in my eyes.

All of the above suggestions…

Whats is odd to me, I box 22 almost daily and my 3700x hovers around 70%.

use interval one to limit to 60 FPS on each account.

Interval one actually limits FPS to your monitor’s refresh rate. I currently have it set to 144hz -> 144fps. I’ve actually brought it down to 60 to test it, no difference in CPU usage, as the background clients still operate at a reduced FPS as is, thus making the active client a bit slower for no benefit from my experience.

It’s not.

But yeah, you need a manager that puts everything as hidden unless with focus.

Maybe running each client in a separate VM could help.

I had the same problems, after now I am running Amd Ryzen 9 and 64 gig and 2080ti

what I had to do was turn off all audio, on all accounts. thus the main account.

I was at 100% to 25% yes a big jump. I will be testing with a new soundcard, no one onboard but what a big difference it has made.

let me know if it works for you

:smiley:

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