AMD X2 driver and hotfix correct installation

[Hesky82]

I'd like to address a problem related to poor gaming performance ppl sometimes encounter when playing games with their new AMD dual core set-up.
This issue is almost always caused by an incorrectly edited AMD X2 hotfix registry and/or not correctly installing the AMD X2 drivers.
I feel now that these AMD X2 processors are coming down in price there maybe more and more people asking why there system struggles to play games smoothly with there new dc processor. We will not see this problem resolved until MS releases SP3. That means we will have to continue using this hotfix and separate X2 drivers until the new service pack is released, so why not make this a sticky and remove it when SP3 is released??

Note: It is also a common misnomer that these AMD drivers are used for Cool'n'Quiet only, this is not true.

OK, this is the correct method of installation for the HF and X2 drivers outlined by MS and AMD.

- It would be a good Idea to back up your registry before you continue.

1 - Install the amd drivers, download it from here

2 - read this website and download the hotfix....READ Here ........Download here

3 - Edit your registry to enable the HOTFIX, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Right-click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager, point to New, and then click Key.
3. Type Throttle for the new key name.
4. Right-click Throttle, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type PerfEnablePackageIdle for the value name.
6. Right-click PerfEnablePackageIdle, and then click Modify.
7. In the Edit DWORD Value box, type 1. In the Value data box, make sure that Hexadecimal is selected, and then click OK.
8. Quit Registry Editor.

4 - Make sure your BOOT.ini has this command in it, /usepmtimer to check, right click on My Computer go to properties, click on the ADVANCE tab, then under startup and recovery click on settings, then click on EDIT....make sure your boot.ini looks like this

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

Finally your done!

How to remove the Hotfix and x2 drivers.

1 - Uninstall the Hotfix, go into ad/remove programs, click on show updates and remove update numbered KB896256

2 - Reverse the registry entry.

3 - Uninstall the AMD drivers.

4 - Go into your boot.ini and remove /usepmtimer, and your done.

The Affinity solution

If you continue to have game performance issues I recommend trying out the common affinity solution. It mostly relates to a combination of Cool'n'Quiet or games that have to have their affinity set to use one processor, but you may still have issues with CnQ disabled.

To set a program's affinity to a particular core:
1) Run the game you wish to play; then minimize the window
2) Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to access Windows Task Manager
3) Under the 'Applications' tab, Right Click the game's icon and select 'Go To
Process'
Doing so will take you to the 'Processes' tab.
4) You will notice that the game's process has been highlighted for you. Right
Click the process and select 'Set Affinity'
5) Assign the game's affinity to CPU0 as this is the default CPU core.
Doing so will allow windows to prioritise the game to a single core instead of
trying to distribute the load across both cores.

Hopefully this will help a lot of people struggling with their x2 systems.

Regards

 

[Hesky82]

That is correct.

Only Windows XP SP2 needs a dual core performance hotfix.

 

[Hesky82]

I said this in another thread.

not all dual core cpu's have this problem though, quite a lot of people with E6 revision cpu's dont seem to have problems (dc opterons and later athlon x2's). Seems a very common problem with early E4 stepping cpus.

 

[Hesky82]

Then can you try CoD2 with the dual core patch? I've already emailed MS regarding this. Its the only game I play too

hum, and you have explored the nvidia x2 driver optimization avenue then?

are you saying the patch didnt help?

 

[Hesky82]

You do NOT need to edit the registry to enable the hotfix. Read more carefully. Look at the Microsoft article and read the heading above the notes about editing the registry. Note how it says "How to disable the new performance state policy behavior".

Editing the registry and putting the value as 1 does nothing that installing the hotfix alone doesn't do.

Save yourselves time by not doing this, it's pointless because people haven't read the MS article properly.

With that piece of fluff removed I agree, it would be a useful sticky to have

I still would recommend checking the BOOT.ini file has the /usepmtimer switch command in it.

 

[Hesky82]

Like smids said its a little kernel power manager fix that allows it to correctly calculate the optimal target performance state of your dc processor. Otherwise xp will see the individual logical processor cores to be less busy than the whole cpu.
It should have sorted you problem, so you dont have to manually set the affinity of the game to a single core every time you want to play it. I guess it must be something else, you could blame the game but a lot of people have managed to get cod2 running well on there x2 system, not sure m8.