The Enigmatic Performance Surge: A Windows 8 Odyssey

Greetings Everyone,

I'd like to delve into an intriguing experience I had with my Windows 8 machine. Back in 2013, after purchasing a new PC, I inadvertently locked myself out due to a typing error while entering the password. To address this, I created a bootable USB using a Windows password recovery tool. Following the boot from this USB, I encountered a black screen followed by some unexpected installations. Once Windows resumed its normal booting, everything seemed fine. Interestingly, I began to notice a significant improvement in multimedia playback performance on this machine. Upon inspecting the task manager, I observed a peculiar system information entry that displayed real-time changing numbers like "HT: 1->2->3". I surmise these were related to the core numbers, as my PC had 4 logical cores and 2 physical. It appears the event led to some sort of optimized thread affinity scheduling.

Certainly, It's not often that one witnesses such nuanced shifts in performance, but my experience stands as a testament to the unexpected. While it's standard to convert animations from 15fps to 30fps from .avi using the Cinepak codec, the animations I worked with displayed remarkable morphological changes. An illustrative example would be the enhanced definition in roller-coaster railway thresholds. Moreover, their playback exhibited a finesse that was both temporally and spatially more refined. I'm inclined to believe that this improvement might have a connection to the affinity-aware scheduling indicators I identified in the task manager.

At the time of my initial discovery of the exceptional performance boost, I innocently believed it to be a standard trait of Windows. However, a hard drive issue in 2015 prompted me to reformat the disk, causing the loss of that unparalleled efficiency. In spite of my relentless endeavors, no other machine, be it under a general, real-time or similar operating system, or even specialized embedded devices, has managed to mirror that level of performance. Unquestionably, that specific machine possessed a distinct caliber.

All that remains now is to share this conundrum with the wider world. It's my hope that someone, somewhere, somehow might have experienced a similar situation or might possess the insight to deduce the nature of this phenomenon and provide guidance on how to reclaim such performance.

System where this dramatic change occurred:

Hard disk: ST500DL001 HD503HI ATA Device

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT 640

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220

Motherboard: Gigabyte H61M-DS2 rev. 3.0

RAM: 2x2GB ACR256X64D3U1333C9

OS: Windows 8 Single Language 64 bit

I appreciate any insights you may have.

Edited by max1001, 13 September 2023 - 06:35 PM.
Moved from Win 8 to Tips/Tricks - Hamluis.

Hi, Welcome to BC.

When posting information on any PC parts please make sure you have the full name : Gigabyte H61M-DS2 3.0  is incorrect as missing (Rev) info : rev. 6.0 rev. 5.0 rev. 4.0 rev. 2.2 rev. 2.1 rev. 2.0 rev. 1.2 rev. 1.0

If have not done so update your BIOS.

turbo boost  maybe.

Regardless there is no way of knowing.

So does this belong in the Win8 Help Forum or in Tips and Tricks  ?

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.

I've made sure to provide the full details of the motherboard revision as "Gigabyte H61M-DS2 rev. 3.0".

My main objective for posting was to share this peculiar experience with my Windows 8 machine and to seek insights or experiences from others who may have encountered something similar.

Given the specificity of the issue related to Windows 8, I believed the Win8 Help Forum would be the most appropriate place.

However, if you think that this fits better in another section, like Tips and Tricks, please let me know, and I'll make the necessary adjustments.

Thank you for your guidance.

You are already in Tips and Tricks as per bottom of your 1st post : Moved from Win 8 to Tips/Tricks - Hamluis

It is to long and condensed for much use IMHO.

Hello,

I apologize for the oversight regarding the placement of my post.

Thank you, Hamluis, for relocating it to Tips/Tricks.

I understand your concern about the length and detail of my message.

I wanted to provide a comprehensive overview of my experience to increase

the chances of someone recognizing the situation or offering relevant insights.

However, I can work on creating a more concise version if that would be more suitable for the forum.

Thanks for the feedback and guidance.

Hello to all,

I'd like to shed light on a particular aspect of my experience.

When I booted from the USB after password recovery procedure, I encountered a black screen, quickly succeeded by unexpected installations as i already mentioned in the original post.

A notable message emerged on the display during this installation: "kernel latency reduced... reduced..."

I'm sharing this in the hope that someone might recognize or shed light on it.

Edited by max1001, 17 September 2023 - 09:23 AM.