Project Mercury - CPU Priority Booster for heavy multitaskers

if it as any interest the is new version up

www.TechCenter.dk is updated

Major Geeks
Should update soon
Softpedia Should update soon


V1.2.5.0 er oppe

- Implanted adjustment of system timer interval feature. (Suggested by Necros @ www.encode.ru )
- Implanted "Reduce memory usage on minimize" feature.
- Original affinity is now restored instead of full affinity. (In regards to multi-core optimizations)
- Improved "Clear Memory" speed by 5%.
- Optimized some IF settings for minuscule reduced CPU usage.
- Moved CPU slice settings into the new settings GUI.
- Minor changes to the settings GUI layout.


Besides these improvement I'm still working on an AMD booster that should improve AMD CPU performance with up to 20%. especially on a bit older software
Sadly my wife AMD laptops just died making it hard for me to test this. If there is anyone with AMD CPU based system out there volunteering to run some benchmark i would appreciate any help
 
run pcmark 04 and 05 full suit of test
note down the 5-6 results from each

download this zip file Download File: Desktop.7z
copy those file into pcmark 04 and 05 folder.
redo benchmark and see if there are any improvements

I''m hoping for 10-20% boost in CPU and/or memory scores

Won't be able to do much until the weekend but, I will check it out. I have 2 FX systems so I will try it on both.
 
V1.2.5.1 is up

- Donations are now available in the settings menu.
- Reduce CPU priority on minimize now optional.
- Info expanded with a bit of feature documentation.
- Removed textbox bug when selecting Game profile for CPU slice.
- Fixed CPU priority box reseting to "AboveNormal"
- Improved handling of "Save settings"

www.techcenter.dk


AMD booster is still not done yet sadly :(
 
V 1.2.6.0 is up

– Implanted “Disable Core Parking” tweak
– Implanted “Start as Administator”
– Unified internal settings code
– Improved .ini layout for clarity

Coreparkign has been know to give stutter in certain games. disabling it can give smoother gameplay.
Disabling coreparking also shows clear measurable improvement on CPU's with Hyperthreading running CPU intensive software. 20% in WinRAR, 20% in 7-Zip, and 30% in CineBench ( With thread count the same as physical cores)

www.techcenter.dk


The former AMD booster showed no measurable improvements and got scratched. If i can't measure it, it's not going into my tool. No Placebo
 
Hi Sven
I decided to give this a go now I have a 6700K.
Theres a peculiarity that may not be as intended.

A CPU intense program operates on a single core and is left running.
Normally the load is spread over all 8 cores while maxing out at 12% total overall CPU use.
I can manually set it to use one core but decided to try your util.

When the utiil is not minimised it uses one core, 12% total CPU, as expected.
When minimised it uses 3 or more cores, 12% total CPU.
No problem with processing but it no longer uses a single core when minimised.
Switching between minimised and on screen, it changes between those 2 states each time.
Is this expected?
 
Hi Sven
I decided to give this a go now I have a 6700K.
Theres a peculiarity that may not be as intended.

A CPU intense program operates on a single core and is left running.
Normally the load is spread over all 8 cores while maxing out at 12% total overall CPU use.
I can manually set it to use one core but decided to try your util.

When the utiil is not minimised it uses one core, 12% total CPU, as expected.
When minimised it uses 3 or more cores, 12% total CPU.
No problem with processing but it no longer uses a single core when minimised.
Switching between minimised and on screen, it changes between those 2 states each time.
Is this expected?

At work so just shooting out a quick reply atm. i will try to burry into a better answer later today


A CPU intense program operates on a single core and is left running.
Normally the load is spread over all 8 cores while maxing out at 12% total overall CPU use.

Correct expected behavior 1 thread cam only take 100% of one core at a time so overall 12.5% of the total 8 cores


When the utiil is not minimised it uses one core, 12% total CPU, as expected.
1 core total but still spread across the 8 cores right ?. Not just a single core ?
OR did you set affinity for this process to only be on one specific core ? ( i actually think you mean this later as i reread your post)


When minimised it uses 3 or more cores, 12% total CPU.
When minimized my program should not alter you affinity at all


OHH now I think i get it

If you have "No Multicore stutter" enabled in Project Mercury any active program will get affinity locked to Core 0 (logical core 0)
but thats only when its the active program. This is a fix for stuttering in old games that runs bad in multi core/CPU system


Alternatively if you dont have any of the Multicore Optimizations enabled. but are setting affinity yourself to a specific core (or the program does it itself)
Then no this is no an expected behavior. and Project mercury should not alter your affinity in anyway


Project Mercury should not change core distribution in anyway unless some of the "multicore optimi
zations" has been ticked on.

Can you perhaps show me a screenshoot of your Project mercury settings? and tell me if you manually set affinity of the program ?
 
I have not manually set affinity.
Yes, this is with "No Multicore Stutter" enabled, sorry forgot to tell you.
Also no HT conflicts is ticked. Everything else is set to recommended settings.

When active, it uses a single core.
As you said, if I use another program it becomes multi core.
If minimised it becomes multi core.

I guess this is by design then.
It would be nice if there was an option to allow certain programs to continue on a single core but then your utility gains a fair bit of bloat.
So no worries.
 
Ok then i understand better

This is actually by design. the two multicore optimization are mainly target games, thats why the only adjust the focused application.
The two options are also mutually exclusive and "no single core stutter" will be the dominant features when they are both selected.
The reason for this is that they both adjust affinity of the active program.
I should fix the GUI to better illustrate that


Now the reason they don't stay single core only when you minimize is that i might end up hindering performance. let say you have 2 single core programs running. PM has to make sure they are not dedicated to the same core/ if they did they would only get half a core each and suffer a performance penalty.
There would have to be some kind of constant monitoring to make sure they get assigned a free core and not a used core. this kind of monitoring will always be a trade off between resource usage and accuracy. PM does not have any kind of constants monitoring that why it has a 0.00000000 CPU usage when you sitting in a game.
other "competitors" solutions works with a constant monitoring and easily eating up 1000x more CPU power while you are gaming. IMHO it kinda counterproductive to use CPU resources to try to increase performance.

If you want to fix a program to have a single core only i would advice to look at prio. it can lock affinity to programs so you only set it once and it will always start with those settings.
Prio - Process Priority Saver. | O&K Print Watch


going slightly off topic here
But i do have in mind a more effective design of No Hyper threading conflicts. it would simply go through the process/programs and anything that uses between 5 and 45% and adjust its affinity to avoid Hyper threading conflicts.
however if it reaches 50% which could indicate it can use more than just the physical cores. it will enable affinity for all logical cores.
However again i have to make sure such a monitoring uses close to 0% CPU utilization and also that all programs that gets adjusted is adjusted to different sets of even/odd numbers of logical cores to make sure a proper distribution of CPU resources
This features is very much on the back burner.

if you do have a CPU with hyper-threading i will recommend the "Disable Core Parking" for a nice boost in overral CPU performance.
 
Its not a problem, your utility has a focus which is not for the particular use I have.
Adding more complication would spoil it, its great thats its very simple to use.
Its no trouble for me to set affinity or as you added, use Prio, i'm happy.

ps The new method wouldnt work in my instance because the app runs at 100% on a single core.

Thanks for the advice, I had already disabled core parking but ticked it in your util anyway.
 
A small bug fix release

V1.2.7.1
– Fixed pause icon error in 32bit version
– Fixed typo Recieved to Received in balloon tip
– Unified punctuation in history tab
 
Link? The one in OP doesn't work.
A small bug fix release

V1.2.7.1
– Fixed pause icon error in 32bit version
– Fixed typo Recieved to Received in balloon tip
– Unified punctuation in history tab
 
64-bit v1.2.7.1

MD5
8f40e3cf57941ee7e4cee5af91f4252e

SHA1
c2a9ce11a171fcb064f59ce09d2579a8d96c9b21

CRC32
f84f254d

Could you confirm that these are valid checksums of the latest binary?

http://hlrse.net/Mercury.exe

http://hlrse.net/Mercury.txt

http://hlrse.net/Mercury.crc32
http://hlrse.net/Mercury.md5
http://hlrse.net/Mercury.sha1



32-bit v1.2.7.1

MD5
7fcd262e7feb1b8687db3500a5de150e

SHA1
3de88ee98a0adea92a80cfe8adf4fad640b3a229

CRC32
a377c792

Could you confirm that these are valid checksums of the latest binary?

http://hlrse.net/Mercury32.exe

http://hlrse.net/Mercury32.txt

http://hlrse.net/Mercury32.crc32
http://hlrse.net/Mercury32.md5
http://hlrse.net/Mercury32.sha1
 
That seems right


Name: Mercury.exe
Size: 482304 bytes (0 MB)

CRC32: F84F254D
CRC64: EC08D5C9ED289036
SHA256: 039ED88070612234D1C892527C6A5A20D0B22E5EA68BBB8B84C4AE7741EF7406
SHA1: C2A9CE11A171FCB064F59CE09D2579A8D96C9B21
BLAKE2sp: E4F414828C8266BB09DE0ADB309F2F3C55C30C5490DA6E9EC800AD4B379CCAA6



Name: Mercury32.exe
Size: 439296 bytes (0 MB)

CRC32: A377C792
CRC64: 51AC4E8AB0D4457C
SHA256: 70751FA0204AC0D1D872E5C447D164B2586D878CBAB3773F56C77D9152E7AEFC
SHA1: 3DE88EE98A0ADEA92A80CFE8ADF4FAD640B3A229
BLAKE2sp: E6537684D22DC3C822BB09A0CFFD2E15D80E03FD4CA08DF10CEE1D58B211179F
 
You left a shameless plug in the AMD Benchmarks thread (I think.. I forget exactly where). Anyways, glad you did - I look forward to trying this out!
 
You left a shameless plug in the AMD Benchmarks thread (I think.. I forget exactly where). Anyways, glad you did - I look forward to trying this out!

I hope you get some improvements. Now this is not a magic wand that helps on all things. but on some instances it does some real miracles IMHO.

I'm about to put up a newer versioen with less donations nags. the current one is to obnoxioues.
 
Project Mercury V1.2.7.3 released

Some more bug fixing. These bugs were discovered while experimenting with new AMD Ryzen specific feature.

V1.2.7.3
– Fixed “Disable Core Parking” not restoring previous core parking settings
– Renamed “No Hyper-Threading conflicts” to “No SMT conflicts”
– Reduced CPU usage for “Multicore optimizations” features
– Balloon tip now shows what the increased CPU priority is
– Fixed a bug where priority would not be restored when minimizing program

The most important is the wrong restoration of Core park settings. Previous version would no save the system core park settings and instead just enable core parking at exit again. The new version correctly detect the current core parking setting when disabling it, and restore it correctly to previous state when closing down.

AMD Ryzen feature is working in theory, but I have yet to receive enough feedback and test result to put it into public release yet. I have asked AMD for a test kitt but I am not holding my breath for it.

If anyone have a AMD Ryzen CPU and wants to run some benchmark for me, let me know through the contacts page or the forum.
 
I am running v1.2.7.0 right now and Defender never detected anything here.

OK, this one shows a virus in Defender but Malwarebytes shows it clean so I expect it is a false positive in Defender.
http://file.techcenter.dk/Mercury.exe
Maybe, I downloaded it to give it a try and Defender immediately grabbed it and said no. I'll wait until it's cleaned up before trying it. I know a lot of Nirsoft tools get hit by FP's because they don't get downloaded a lot and apparently the amount of times files are downloaded from the Internet play into the definition of malware.
 
VirusTotal scans

64-bit
https://virustotal.com/en/file/ea1a...33904c134064e2e6de2a0c88/analysis/1491405941/

32-bit
https://virustotal.com/en/file/35f7...111a6b29689e78409039bc84/analysis/1491405951/

URL to 64-bit download
https://virustotal.com/en/url/d4113...7f531dc649ced3f9eafb7176/analysis/1491405970/

URL to 32-bit download
https://virustotal.com/en/url/befc2...625c12e5f0796e3085c0fe34/analysis/1491405987/

The AV vendors need to be reached out to to whitelist the application; I've had to do this before for some server binary of a computer game that I was very familiar with.
 
Why does Windows Defender detect this as malware?

Win32/Spallowz.A!cl

ITts a false positivt. MS defender, KAsperSKy and Sophos are really bad at it. THere are 2 main reason for this triggering

1: internal compression.
Some malware used internal compression to hide themself from scanner as a cheap man crypto. lazy av scanner just marks anything internally compressed as BAD insted of decompression it and doing a proper scan.
typically because its faster and gives more hits when i suer uses it and thereby thinks its the better tool

2: Hooks in windows
Due to the natura of not doing a wastefull sleep/get info cycle like other "competitor" does. i have to hook into windows shell. it does look bad in AV scanner heuristics scanner.
i could do it the way other are doing it and constantly hit you CPU up with unnede work., but i dont like wasting the users CPU resources ( see earlier thread with shows CPU/RAM usage)


I've tried before submitting for whitelisting. but it takes weeks (kaspersky is especially slow on this) and then whenever i update it with a new version is still says its bad. rinse and repeat
i dropped this since many times I would have a new version ready before the previous one got whitelisted.
 
Maybe, I downloaded it to give it a try and Defender immediately grabbed it and said no. I'll wait until it's cleaned up before trying it. I know a lot of Nirsoft tools get hit by FP's because they don't get downloaded a lot and apparently the amount of times files are downloaded from the Internet play into the definition of malware.
There is nothing i can do to "clean it up" beside making my program wasteful.
This is an error on MS defender side.


Remember my program does NEVER need internet access so you can always block it in your firewall.
Neither does it change anything in registry with the exception of having to change CPU slices , if you use that feature, so you can happily block it from that access to.
It should never change/edit any files except its own .ini file in its own folder and maybe in your Temp folder.

The program was built to not dirty your system with random crap/files everywhere. it also make it easier to block it out.


Also you can download it form Majorgeeks and softpedia and Computerworld, which does its own testing of the software for malware, if you want to be a bit more cautious
 
Oh I'm sure if it had malware this post would of been taken down a long time ago. I was just interested in knowing why it was a FP. Thanks for the helpful explanation.
 
Man ... Firefox UI (bookmarks) is way faster with this on. There is no delay anymore.
 
Micrososft wouldn't let me upload it to Virus Total so will white list it in defender.
 
Just letting you know im updating Project MErcury tommorow.
and will send it for whitelisting at MS and hope it will clear defender then.
 
Finally the release I wanted to finish for the last couple of weeks. This contains some improvements meant to give Ryzen owners some more game performance as well as intelligently dealing with SMT in both Intel and Ryzen processors

V1.2.8.0
- Implemented AutoSMT (beta)
- Implemented "NO CCX Switching" feature for Ryzen™ processors
- Temporarily Fixed Affinity inherit issue
- "Disable CoreParking" is now on as default
- "Windows FastReact" is now on as default
- Default icon click action is now "Settings" instead of "Pause"
- Optimized some IF settings for minuscule reduced CPU usage
- Optimized exit procedure for faster exit
- Changed prev Core Parking fix to not use temp file

I had to go back to restore full affinity to a progam when leaving it to deal with the affinity inherit issue. I am working towards making the program more simple and easier for none-geeks to get the full benefits of Project Mercury, which is why some features are now enabled as default.
More automatic stuff will come in the next couple of releases, as well as a Project Mercury Pro branch, that offers more advanced configurations (per process settings).
 
Last edited:
This actually works very well with an MMO I'm playing at the moment, Blade and Soul. From what I can tell, it doesn't slow down as much as it used when there's a lot of people on screen.
 
Thank you for the feed back. it should help smooth things out a bit


This is the recommended settings I would try for Ryzen owners

PMauto_SMT.png
 
Over the weekend there has been a semi successful intrusion attempt, on my file server. They should not have gotten access to modify the downloadable files, but for extra precaution i advise anyone to delete any files downloaded from the site over sat/sun( 4/29-4/30) and re-download them.

I advice to scan with you defaults Antivirus scanners, alternatively Dr Web’s Free Cure-it can be used (or even use as extra scanner). https://free.drweb.com/download+cureit+free/

They did however get access to two of my desktops systems that due to the strong experimental nature runs in full admin mode (Which is not optimal from a security point, so don’t do like I do).

I am sorry for any inconvenience.

-SvenBent
 
Hi, I just found out about your program and want to give it a try. However I have a couple of questions:

- for casual use like browsing, coding etc. should I change anything else besides the recommended options (I mean enable them)? So I have a xampp which is heavily cpu intensive and a project which litterally plummets my cpu to the ground when I start it :)
- how do I set custom settings (like Priority Level etc.) per application. Do I have to have focus on the application and then go to the Project Mercury and select settings, and this way they'll apply for that application only and when focus another application, settings will be changed to the default ones unless I've selected custom for that one as well?
- is there a way to make it auto start besides adding it to the start up folder?
- do I have to select the "Windows CPU slice (Permanent)" every time I start the program?

NB. Noticed a small typo in the info:
"Reduce memory on minimize
This will force Applications you minimize to swap our their data..."
I think it should be
"This will force Applications you minimize to swap out their data..."

"Disable standby on CPU load
Nothing is worse than setting up you computer "
should be:
"Nothing is worse than setting up your computer"

Thanks for the time and effort you put in this!
 
Hi, I just found out about your program and want to give it a try. However I have a couple of questions:

- for casual use like browsing, coding etc. should I change anything else besides the recommended options (I mean enable them)? So I have a xampp which is heavily cpu intensive and a project which litterally plummets my cpu to the ground when I start it :)

its generally not advice to enable anything that is not enabled as standard. all non standard enabled features can have severe side effect (in regards to performance) and are only meant to be used when you really know its beneficial, and not for general use.
The exception for this should be the AutoSMT featuere, however it is not working 100% correctly as I want to, hence why its not enabled as standard.
In short: don;t touch the settings unless you have a veryu specific reason to do so.

- how do I set custom settings (like Priority Level etc.) per application. Do I have to have focus on the application and then go to the Project Mercury and select settings, and this way they'll apply for that application only and when focus another application, settings will be changed to the default ones unless I've selected custom for that one as well?
Currently there are not per application customization. The programs is meant as a start and forget for the basic use. It will automatically increased the CPU priority for any active/focused programs/process.
so once you alt-tab or click into a new program. PM will automatically adjust the priority.
Per application settings are coming in the pro version. but currently my workhouse and Wife sickness has left me very little time to work on this. (i also really want to fix the AutoSMT for improve performance)
in short: you cant yet.

- is there a way to make it auto start besides adding it to the start up folder?
Currently there are no way to set auto-start from withing the program. I will fix this s next release so you can enable an auto-start from withing the settings menu.
However manually you can do it in multiple ways
* shortcut into start up folder
* make an entry in the Registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
* create an start at logon task in taskscheduler (best way for Windows 10)
In short: have to do it manually until next release

- do I have to select the "Windows CPU slice (Permanent)" every time I start the program?
Nope. This is the one single settings that make a permanent changes into the system..
You will however have to set it back to default if you decide to not want this change anymore. It not enough to just delete the program.
All other settings are only changes to current session/run of the program and should reset i you close the program. or if it crashes a reboot should fix it.
in short: Nope


NB. Noticed a small typo in the info:
"Reduce memory on minimize
This will force Applications you minimize to swap our their data..."
I think it should be
"This will force Applications you minimize to swap out their data..."

"Disable standby on CPU load
Nothing is worse than setting up you computer "
should be:
"Nothing is worse than setting up your computer"

Thanks for the time and effort you put in this!

Oops...
You are correct I will fix these in the next release :D



A bit more on the upcoming pro version
You will be able to set up priorty level. as well as if " No SMT conflcits" and/or" " No CCX switching. should be enabled or not for different kinds of programs ( based on process name)
So you can have SMT disabled for WoW whenever you are playing WoW.
but if you start Doom 2016 All cores should be available.
 
Thanks for the prompt reply!

Will continue monitoring if my pc behaves better with this program and might try out some options.

Looking forward to the new features and wishing your wife a speedy recovery!
 
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