Does a graphics card help a dedicated server?

[TOS_Orami]

So I have a server with the following specs:
HP Proliant DL380 G7
-2 xeon 3.33Ghz hex core CPUs
-128GB of RAM
-1.5TB SATA seagate mechanical drive (7200RPM I think)
-120GB SAS SATA drive (10k RPM)
-default server graphics. (tried putting in an old video card can't get it to identify jumped power from an old PSU into the server to test this (2)6pin plugs over to the riser board)

On the network side of things I have a 300/20 service, but I generally run faster than that according to speedtest.net by about 10%.

The problems:

When a player joins the entire server laggs for a good 20 - 30 seconds.
When the server saves it laggs for 20 - 30 seconds.
We experience a lot of desync which is very annoying.

The question:

What do we do to make the server run better and be more stable?
Do I install a SSD? and if I do this how do I move the save location it seems to override when I edit the xml file which is fustrating to say the least.
Do I buy a new nice graphics card for the server to try and mitigate the lagg?

Any insight is appreciated so our server can run smoother and be a better experience for everyone.

[Webshooter38]

Did you ever find a solution?

[TwitchyJ]

Originally posted by Webshooter38:

Did you ever find a solution?

Just start your own thread instead of necroing a thread from over a year ago. Even if they had a fix it probably won't apply anymore, there have been too many changes.

[TOS_Orami]

To be fair no I didn't ever figure anything out to make the server run better. I think they have done a lot of optimization recently, but I haven't had time to play. It might have been too old of a graphics card that I hotwired in or it may have needed more configuration to work properly with the dedicated server. A server with a higher clock rate rather than CPU cores may also help, but I never got around to trying that.

[Scooby Doo]

I can tell you that a graphics card is NEVER used in servers. The reason being there is no one that sees anything on the server. I have my own dedicated server box and I run lots of different games on it. Not only is there no GPU but there is no sound card either as the server does not process any sounds either. The server is there to process the information between you and anyone else playing the game.

For a server the 2 most important things are RAM and CPU speed. Followed by Internet speeds, upload being very important. Followed by the type of hard drive you use. SSD is better as it is much faster but if the CPU is not that fast then the SSD is not needed. RAM is important as the server has to maintain a lot more in Memory than your Client does. Client is the side of the player.

Keep in mind when you run a server that Restarts are very important as they clean out the RAM and refresh everything. Just like it use to be important to restart your PC.

[Scooby Doo]

Originally posted by TwitchyJ:

Originally posted by Webshooter38:

Did you ever find a solution?

Just start your own thread instead of necroing a thread from over a year ago. Even if they had a fix it probably won't apply anymore, there have been too many changes.

Well considering that a Graphics card has nothing to do with a server why start a whole new thread when the topic is valid? Also since the guy had the same issue makes since to get the solution from someone been there done that. Why is it a big deal when the thread was started? Why does it matter to you?

[TOS_Orami]

It depends you can crunch numbers on a graphics card without displaying anything. Plenty of physics calculations are better suited to be done on graphics cards. You clearly don't understand servers at all. Many datacenters I have been in have servers with graphics cards and I mean large arrays of 2U servers with 4 8GB high end graphics cards totaling about 2 TB in VRAM. Also another point comes to mind mining bitcoin also utilizes graphics chips (or did to some extent before they went to ASIC chips and even for a while afterwards.) It depends on how the code is written they can utilize GPUs if they code for it if not then it won't help at all, but if a computer with a higher end GFX card runs the dedicated server with no real issues like the lagg and your main differences are higher end graphics cards (RAM is comparable in each 64 gigs in the server as well as my main tower).

To be fair I am adding a link to a server I worked on this past year that had 4 TESLA GFX cards all I will say is it was for a major university. https://gyazo.com/e65910be4c9fffb0f012e3c0790ad20c

[Scooby Doo]

Originally posted by TOS_Orami:

It depends you can crunch numbers on a graphics card without displaying anything. Plenty of physics calculations are better suited to be done on graphics cards. You clearly don't understand servers at all. Many datacenters I have been in have servers with graphics cards and I mean large arrays of 2U servers with 4 8GB high end graphics cards totaling about 2 TB in VRAM. Also another point comes to mind mining bitcoin also utilizes graphics chips (or did to some extent before they went to ASIC chips and even for a while afterwards.) It depends on how the code is written they can utilize GPUs if they code for it if not then it won't help at all, but if a computer with a higher end GFX card runs the dedicated server with no real issues like the lagg and your main differences are higher end graphics cards (RAM is comparable in each 64 gigs in the server as well as my main tower).

To be fair I am adding a link to a server I worked on this past year that had 4 TESLA GFX cards all I will say is it was for a major university. https://gyazo.com/e65910be4c9fffb0f012e3c0790ad20c

So if you know so much about servers and how they work why can you not get a simple game server to work when the guy you say does not understand them has no issues at all running any one of a dozen games including this one? Not being rude here but clearly you may not know as much about GAME servers as you think. Every game I run works just fine without a Graphics card. To my knowledge (over 5yrs running game servers) the games are not even set up to use a GPU. So looking at that which is the topic here (perhaps Never was the wrong word) game servers they are not needing a GPU. Infact some games servers even start up with a EXE that is named "NoGraphics.EXE". That is a key hint that a graphics card is NOT used right?

I may not understand how they tick but I do understand what is used and what is needed. Just like I can not repair your Big Truck but I can drive it and tell you what is wrong with it. With 20yrs driving them it is quite easy. mechanics hate that too as I am usually right. LOL.

[Dan2D3D]

No need of graphic card to run the Dedicated server.

Also this thread is a bit obsolete cause the Dedic is not the same anymore.

The Devs have provided the new Tuto on how to use the SE Dedic at home with the needed specs :
https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/dedicated-servers.html


________


And now all got moved to a new website so better create a new discussion OR new bug reports because the game and Dedic are not the same at all.

All moved here > https://support.keenswh.com/

Ref.: https://steamcommunity.com/app/244850/discussions/1/1709564118765103876/

[TOS_Orami]

Originally posted by Dawg:

Originally posted by TOS_Orami:

It depends you can crunch numbers on a graphics card without displaying anything. Plenty of physics calculations are better suited to be done on graphics cards. You clearly don't understand servers at all. Many datacenters I have been in have servers with graphics cards and I mean large arrays of 2U servers with 4 8GB high end graphics cards totaling about 2 TB in VRAM. Also another point comes to mind mining bitcoin also utilizes graphics chips (or did to some extent before they went to ASIC chips and even for a while afterwards.) It depends on how the code is written they can utilize GPUs if they code for it if not then it won't help at all, but if a computer with a higher end GFX card runs the dedicated server with no real issues like the lagg and your main differences are higher end graphics cards (RAM is comparable in each 64 gigs in the server as well as my main tower).

To be fair I am adding a link to a server I worked on this past year that had 4 TESLA GFX cards all I will say is it was for a major university. https://gyazo.com/e65910be4c9fffb0f012e3c0790ad20c

So if you know so much about servers and how they work why can you not get a simple game server to work when the guy you say does not understand them has no issues at all running any one of a dozen games including this one? Not being rude here but clearly you may not know as much about GAME servers as you think. Every game I run works just fine without a Graphics card. To my knowledge (over 5yrs running game servers) the games are not even set up to use a GPU. So looking at that which is the topic here (perhaps Never was the wrong word) game servers they are not needing a GPU. Infact some games servers even start up with a EXE that is named "NoGraphics.EXE". That is a key hint that a graphics card is NOT used right?

I may not understand how they tick but I do understand what is used and what is needed. Just like I can not repair your Big Truck but I can drive it and tell you what is wrong with it. With 20yrs driving them it is quite easy. mechanics hate that too as I am usually right. LOL.

No graphics means precisely that it is not drawing to the screen nothing more nothing less. It generaly means no GUI not that it wouldn't utilize the hardware if it were available. I have plenty of server for other games that run flawlessly. I have a couple left 4 dead servers, a handful of minecraft server (FTB, TFC, and a few other mod collections), a pick of the week server, 7 days to die, and a few ARK servers. Running on 3 server blades.

@Dan It is likely that the issues have been resolved, I haven't had a chance to take a look since I mostly do electromechanical disaster recovery and am stuck in Florida right now for work. Maybe in a month or so when I get home I can fire one up and update what I find then.

Now back to the graphics card discussion. CPUs are general purpose they can do anything you ask of them(serial processes) all be it some things not as fast as a GPU depending on the math involved(here is where it gets tricky). Physics calculations which are/were a big part of SE can be done on some GPUs(with specialized functions) faster than on the CPU. I would suspect factoring numbers would be better done on a GPU than a CPU as well. How about encoding and decoding video data(not actually drawing it, just the codec stuff) another thing that GPUs accelerate at over a CPU. Just because you think that all your GPU does is spit pictures out to your screen does not mean the hardware isn't working hard in the background to crunch some numbers to help lift the load on the CPU some. Cards like NVIDIA have CUDA which is a derived C - type language I wouldn't call it C++ or C# it really is closer to the older even more powerful C. GPUs almost always(probably always) do parallel tasks rather than serial tasks like the CPU. So doing something like updating one frame of movement on 500 different objects? You could probably code some CUDA to move them in parallel rather than in serial like the CPU would do(but you would need some kind of check system that would make sure that there is no possible collision). So in short yes I can see potential ways a graphics card could aid in server hosting even if you were using -nogui or -nographics.