[How to] Old games and dual core processors

[Stifmeister]

Q: My Serious Sam/Quake 3/Unreal (or any other old game) is very laggy with my dual core processor. Even the menu is very laggy. What's wrong with my processor?


A: Nothing. Some old games don't work with some dual core processors, because the game doesn't know how to use two cores. You'll have to force the to use only one core. Luckily there are easy ways to do this.






Setting the affinity manually

1. Start your game normally.
2. Press Windows button or ATL+TAB to get out of the game.
3. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to go to the Task Manager.
4. Under the Processes tab, right click the *.exe file for your game and go to Set Affinity, Uncheck CPU 1 (or CPU 0, doesn't matter). And click OK.


Example: Setting the affinity manually for Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. Choose only one core.




Unfortunately, you will have to do this every time you open your game. Luckilt there is a way to make this permanent.







Setting the affinity permanently

1. Download imagecfg.exe, here.
2. Copy imagecfg.exe to %systemroot%\system32 (or C:\Windows\system32), and %systemroot%\system32\dllcache (or C:\Windows\system32\dllcache). Doing so will make imagecfg a system command.
3. Back up your game *.exe file. Imagecfg will alter your game *.exe file, if you want to use two cores again just put that old *.exe back.
4. Go to command line: Start -> Run -> type "cmd" and press Enter.
5. Write this command: 'imagecfg -a 0x1 c:\path\to\file.exe' and press Enter. Of course use your real path to the game. Your game will now always use one core.




Example: Setting the affinity permanently for Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. Path to the game.




Example: Setting the affinity permanently for Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. Command line.







For more info & examples regarding ImageCFG.exe, visit this page.

[Petter]

That was fast AND understandable. Well done . I'll let you know if I'll still be needing the YouTube tuto when I'm there

[Dr. Dre]

Yeah nice tut

[Joakim]

Very nice tutorial

A: Nothing. Some old games don't work with some dual core processors, because the game doesn't know how to use two cores. You'll have to force the to use only one core.[/SIZE]

Its funny, because I can run Sam perfectly on my Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (with Vista) laptop, but some guys cant... I guess I am lucky, but it has to depend on something, if it works or not? It cant just be random

[Dr. Dre]

It works with my E8500 and my Q6600 too.. maybe it's a amd problem ? Or it's been fixed with new dual core processors..or with SP3 I have no idea

[Joakim]

Or it's been fixed with new dual core processors

Probably

[Stifmeister]

It works with my E8500 and my Q6600 too.. maybe it's a amd problem ? Or it's been fixed with new dual core processors..or with SP3 I have no idea

I think it's AMD problem. But if I'm not mistaken I have this bug only in 1.05, not in 1.07.

[Ermac]

Nice tut
Mostly that i heard AMD processors have problems with many things donno why
Better spend more money for good Intel Processors

[Stifmeister]

Nice tut
Mostly that i heard AMD processors have problems with many things donno why
Better spend more money for good Intel Processors

I have only problems with SS 1.05.


I have downloaded drivers recently though, I should test if this bug still exists..

[Petter]

I have only problems with SS 1.05.


I have downloaded drivers recently though, I should test if this bug still exists..

What oproblem? You did mean with AMD yes?

[AmcoTraD]

heh steve our dual core professor

[Stifmeister]

What oproblem? You did mean with AMD yes?

Yes... But I just tested nd guess what - the lag is gone even if I use 2 cores.


I'm not sure what did the trick, downloading the latest drivers for my AMD (some months ago) or downloading the AMD Dual core Optimizer (6 months ago). Either way, I don't have any lag in 1.05 or 1.07 with 2 cores.

[Dr. Dre]

That's great news

[Stifmeister]

Yeah..


And I wasted 10-15 minutes to write this.


I think it's the Dual Core Optimizer that fixed it...

[foxhole]

Q: My Serious Sam/Quake 3/Unreal (or any other old game) is very laggy with my dual core processor. Even the menu is very laggy. What's wrong with my processor?


A: Nothing. Some old games don't work with some dual core processors, because the game doesn't know how to use two cores. You'll have to force the to use only one core. Luckily there are easy ways to do this.

No laggy!