Thread by @ikrimae

1/n GameDev Environment: A Yak Shaving for fun & profit series™

TLDR: Threadripper 2 high-end dev/workstation build, 2990 vs 1950x perf numbers, compatibility issues, @UnrealEngine fastbuild integration, my poor mans' automating/baremetal provisioning, and the programs I use

@UnrealEngine 2/n After many years of holding out, I finally had to upgrade my dev machine to Win10 so figured it was as good a time to refresh my machine + consolidate the studio machines. Here's the rat hole I went down for two weeks chasing compat issues, msvc compiler bugs, and solutions

@UnrealEngine 3/n Part I: Hardware - Extremely Highend

Here's everything that finally worked together: pcpartpicker.com/user/123janus1…
-2990WX that can be comfortably overclocked to 3.8ghz
-64 gb RAM overclocked to 2933
-Main drive: Intel Optane
-Fast block storage drive: Raid-0 NVMe SSD x4

@UnrealEngine 4/ - @AMDRyzen has lots of PCI lanes but mobo pcie slots are not all x16. Lots of trial & error but optimal cfg:
- 2080ti goes in top PCIe
-1070 goes in 2nd PCIe
- ASRock M2 Raid card in slot3 (need x16 for Raid-0 SSD)
-Optane in bottom
-Airflow setup in pic

@UnrealEngine @AMDRyzen 5/n Compatibility gremlin: HPET - Disable hpet; causes inordinate perf problems.
bcdedit /deletevalue useplatformclock
Some bios allow you to disable that in bios
Credit to @SebAaltonen for root causing this.
Detailed thread:

https://twitter.com/SebAaltonen/status/1001045044567126018

@UnrealEngine @AMDRyzen @SebAaltonen 6/n Compat Gremlin: Raid-0 NVMe SSD

Do not install AMD Raid Xpert2 driver/chipset. It's atrocious; use the standard windows one. Means you can't have your OS on an SSD raid but Optane is better anyway

Details: tweaktown.com/reviews/8542/a…

@UnrealEngine @AMDRyzen @SebAaltonen 7/n Memory
- Rule of thumb is 2gb per core. For building UE4, I have to limit number of threads < 64 as I run out of memory and stuff starts paging out to disk
- Intel Optane drive is so fast it took me a bit to discover since the perf didn't tank an order of magnitude

@UnrealEngine @AMDRyzen @SebAaltonen 8/n (Memory cont.)
- Get Samsung B-Die & buy kits together as mfg only guarantees timings for kits (eg get a kit of 16gbx4 vs 4 separate 16gb of same model) (benzhaomin.github.io/bdiefinder/)
- TR needs fast memory (also NUMA arch with only 4 mem channels for 8 dies)

@UnrealEngine @AMDRyzen @SebAaltonen 9/n (Mem cont)
- Reliably can only OC up to 2933mhz (officially 2133 iirc)
- [conjecture] Past certain point, pushing memspeed is net loss esp. since hw errors induced from very tight memory/CPU timings >> latency stalls from CPU requesting memory in a Quad Channel config

@UnrealEngine @AMDRyzen @SebAaltonen 10/n Compat gremlin: #Houdini 17.0
nVidia drivers have a clash and houdini won't recognize your cards as cuda devices. Use 416.34.0.0
sidefx.com/forum/topic/59…

11/n Overclocking: Easy Mode
@AMDRyzen made it really easy with Ryzen Master

Allows you to control clock settings, whether to force turn on or use Precision Boost Override 2 and define range of dynamic scaling

NOTE: Some settings dont persist on restart

amd.com/en/technologie…

@AMDRyzen 12/n (OC Easy Mode cont)
Precision Boost Overdrive 2 seems pretty great and allows for dynamic scaling switching at a much granular timeslice

community.amd.com/community/gami…

@AMDRyzen 13/n Also has a feature called Dynamic Local Mode which is auto-pinning your threads to core die that has local memory access to deal with NUMA arch of ryzen

Always suspect of these things but windows scheduler def. has issues. More on that later

community.amd.com/community/gami…

@AMDRyzen 14/n OC Medium Mode (what I use):
Dead simple: Just set clock multiplier to 38, CPU voltage at 1.25, and memory to 2933 with 1.35v

Also, TR has a thermal ceiling of 69° before it'll start throttling

15/n OC Expert mode:
Use Ryzen Timing Checker, DRAM calculator, to push your memory overclock to extreme
(imho, this is a losing proposition and not worth the effort)
Here's a tutorial:

16/n OC software:

Tools
HWInfo - Best detailed info on all sorts of sensors & summary rolled into one
GPU Caps Viewer - GPU capabilities

Benchmark:
CPU - Aida64Extreme, CineBench, Indigo Benchmark
SSD - Anvil SSD, ATTO, CrystalDiskMark

Stability:
PassmarkBurnIn & AidaExtreme

n/n That's it for today. Tomorrow, Windows settings, hardware benchmark results, and setting up #gamedev environment.

BIG Shout out to @Level1Techs ; hands down the best hw channel for technical people:

And in funny unexpected coincidence/timing, our @KNLstudio with @AMDRyzen will be live streaming how to build a VR ready thread ripper machine tonight from scratch with target audience of consumers not devs
twitch.tv/kitelightning

Also a guide on how to overclock: guru3d.com/articles-pages…