Was forced to upgrade my old I7 at 2.8 GHZ (7 year old), was lucky enough to be able to replace it by an I7 7700 at 4.2 GHZ, using the same graphic card. RF2 only generated a 7% CPU load on my previous computer, and showed no saturated purple bar in game. Didn't notice anything while playing RF2 at first, but after a week, I discovered cars were far more predictable than before, and could be pushed a lot more. On a short track as Sao Paolo, with the same setups my lap times went down around 1,5 s with a variety of cars. Is it a placebo effect, or has someone else experimented the same thing? Cheers.
I had mine for at least 5. IT held up pretty well. When a Vid card fan starting failing, I convinced the wife I needed a new one...and then of course a new motherboard, which meant a new cpu and new memory.... after all that, I'm still a pretty sucky driver. I often feel I'm catching up to the car's motion rather than dictating it... But if you are consistently driving faster, then HECK YES your new hardware is the reason. Now, about that wheel....
It's all about the feedback, just 7% load for rF2 doesn't sound right. You are prob. getting much better FFB and FPS, perhaps less input-lag. rF2 has an "Inactive Sleep Time" as most apps/softwares - so when you click/priorities another window/program rF2 will use less CPU as it is'nt 'in front', there is a setting for this in your Player.JSON though: "Inactive Sleep Time":-1, // <--- This disables the down throttle of rF2
You could probably get a more exact answer from @Marcel Offermans , but I'm quite sure it's placebo. rF2 is a real-time simulation, which means the physics don't depend on CPU speed, otherwise it would be extremely unfair and pace would be CPU dependent (the last sim where I saw this was Grand Prix 3, where the game actually slowed down with a slow CPU). rF2 can only use 2 CPU threads, so the total CPU load can never go above 25% with an i7. Instead of the CPU load from a tool you should look at the in-game purple bar. As long as it's under 100%, the physics should behave the same. A better CPU will only give you a bigger safety marginal in the purple bar and perhaps a tad bit better FPS (I never noticed FPS increase either, my FPS is almost 100% GPU dependent). Edit: what could impact perhaps is your new motherboard and new technologies like USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0 and quicker RAM. Those I can't prove don't impact latency/FFB, but CPU speed alone shouldn't. Proof is I overclocked my i5 25% and it makes no difference in lap times.
As many have remarked, upgrading the CPU involved in my case, motherboard, memory, and also a fresh instalation of W10 instead of an upgrade of W7. I drove many cars after my post, and to be honest, I didn't improve my lap times in the same proportions (but did improve also) for the cars with which I had done previously a lot of laps, trying to improve the setups on a given track. What I have noticed is that I need less laps with a car to approach the best times I had set with this car previously, that I am more consistent during a stint, and control more easily slight driving errors. I believe the lag has disminished somewhat, and that before I was able to compensate this by knowing well the limits of a car and anticipating it's reactions. Cheers.
What @stonec states above is pretty spot on, rFactor 2 does not depend on the CPU speed for the accuracy of simulation. The physics calculations that move the cars are "time boxed" and a faster CPU merely means that the calculation is done a bit quicker and that the CPU will then wait a bit longer before the next calculation starts. What you could indeed be seeing is that a different setup reduces some input or display latencies, allowing you to better control your car and therefore improving lap times.
The CPU itself doesn't seem to be the cause, but if the computer can't run the simulator with fluidness, it gives you less feedback from the car's behavior and that's what it makes you faster or slower. It's not the physics itself, it's the way you perceive the simulation. Last year we were practicing for Le Mans 24 hs, we had several races of practice and we realized that we were slower when we had 20 cars or more on track than driving alone. So before the real race, we updated our old i5 to the newest i5 models and we were able to drive as being alone. We finished 3rd In summary, just if your processor is too old, do an upgrade to let you enjoy the simulation in a better way, and that way YOU will drive better.
So important to run graphic settings etc well within the limits of your pc setup for racing simulation
