Hi,

I've recently bought a dual core amd laptop and i'm having problems with what i would call stuttering/stalling in UT2004. When i was on the oblivion tech site i noticed that this was one of the problems with oblivion and downoaded the new 32nit drivers from AMD which is meant to rectify the problem but no joy in fixing UT. I've fiddled about with all of the graphics settings in game and even dropped the res down to 800x600, even though it seems to play fine maxed. (gtx7800 256mb). Do you think this is down to my computer or internet conection? (dsl with a wireless router). (Oblivion seems to play fine).

Cheers,
Doug.

 

How much RAM/ what Applications are you running when the game is in motion? Could be down to swap filling to the hard Drive. In other words you're running out of RAM and to get by the PC is Swap filling things off RAM to Hard Drive due to this.

 

2gig with 2x100gig sata in raid=0

 

I take it you have found and installed any Game Patches for UT2004?

Also maybe worth having a look on the manufacturers website of the laptop for any updated drivers for the MOBO.

 

New UT2004 patch here:

http://www.unrealtournament.com/ut2004/downloads.html

 

patches are all up to date. Installed the cpu update from amd and updated the gpu driver. I'll go on the rock forum and see if i can get any help there.

Cheers mate.

 

Does it stutter in single-player? That would identify if it's the modem/internet connection or not.

 

Have you set the affinity via Task Manager? IIRC there was some problem with certain games recognising the cores correctly.

Instructions here

 

had a look at the affinity setting. It's using both processors. Its also on 'normal' priority. My options are to assign just 1 core and/or put the priority up to high. What does the 'realtime' setting mean??

Also away to try it in single player.....

 

Ignore the priority stuff, that won't be the problem. I would try assigning it to just one core and see if that helps.

 

What about the obvious stuff - other s/w running in the background stealing cpu cycles ?

anti-virus, etc...

 

antivirus is installed and active but only scheduled for a full check once a week. Netdetect every 4 hours.

Been busy downloading/installing new norton stuff tonight and a general cleanup of the HD's. I'll try changing things tomorrow. I'll give it a run for an hour on single player to see if its just my net connection. Then assigning it 1 core. when i'm downloading i get a steady 1Mbit so i dont think its my connection. However, the upload time is no where near that and i think it varies somewhat. (demon isp through bt line with d-link wireless router.)

 

Norton is useless and a resource hog. I'd advise Kaspersky.

Also, most anti-virus apps are pro-active, constantly working in the background. Some of them default to a very high level of protection resulting in increased cpu/resource useage even when NOT doing a scheduled scan.

Just out of interest, try disabling your anti-virus while playing your game and see if it helps.

Do the same with any anti-spyware apps, or indeed anything you see running down in the lower right of your screen - desktop tray icons.

Sorry if you know all this, but sometimes the obvious stuff gets overlooked ;-)

 

Wow, i thought Norton was a good product. I'll maybe switch to Kaspersky once my Norton subscription runs out. (364 days, lol!)

Couldnt resist but to try UT with 1 core assigned before i hit the sack. Played for a good hour and no issues. Well chuffed as the frag count went up by a good bit. ;-)

The only app. i have running when gaming is Norton. (anti.v. and sys.doc.)

Cheers for the pointers guys. Problem seems to be solved.

 

I thought the point of having a dual core processor, is that applications run better. For example the Anti-virus could run off one core whilst a game could run of another.

 

Dual core / multiprocessor systems can run software much quicker, but that software needs to be written to take advantage of it. For programs not written to be aware of multi-threaded systems, it is possible to make one program run on cpu1, and another on cpu2 by using the set affinity function in task manager, however it is a bit fiddly.

 

Ahh... Cheers. I take it the same needs to be applied on the old Hyperthreading CPUs? Or is that different?

 

Very similar. Things will only take advantage of hyperthreading if the software has been written to take advantage of it.

 

Thanks. I have now been enlightened.

 

Iain's right. Most software thats out at the moment does not support dual core processing. I think the hardware side of life is going through a tremendous leap at quite a fast pace and the software developers will need a bit of time to catch up. I would think that most, if not all programmes written now will made to take advantage of dual core setup's.

Am i right in thinking Oblivion is dual core aware?

 

Well, the problems still there. According to fellow gamers they think its down to packet loss. Its a d-link wireless router. a 634m i think. I've had a look at the website but there's no firmware update for a uk spec one. I think maybe the only option would be to stick an ethernet cable straight in. bit annoying since its in the other room. Did consider getting one of there pcmia cards which would boost the signal to my lappy. Only $89 on the U.S site. Or change the channel??

 

I'd give a length of network cable a try first, that would immediately tell you whether or not the problem lies with the wireless portion of the network.

John.

 

I've got a dlink router which works fine over the wired ethernet, but if I try playing BF2 over wireless, it's pretty hopeless. I find it drops the connection regularly when I'm using the VPN into work etc as well..

 

it seems to be fine for d/'s. A constant 110 ish if the source can supply it. Or for multiple d/l's. Did notice in the status bar that the max signal is 4/5 and will fluctuate up and down from 4-2. I'll connect directly later tonight and see if it resolves the issue. If it does i'll need to get a 15m ethernet cable from somewhere to go to my room!