UT3 only loads one core on my C2D

Bossk128

Bossk128

Bossk128

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I've a dual core Intel processor. Unreal Tournament 3 runs ok on my machine, but after playing and looking at the task manager, it only loads the first core at 100% (50% of total). Any idea why this happens- I thought UT3 was a fine example of a game that loves dual core PCs.

I know I can set it to use both through affinity, but if I do this it doesn't 'stick' and I need to set it each time I play.

Any help appreciated,
 
juno_first said:
Same on my quadcore: all around 90% with 8800

Maybe your prob is OS related?
Click to expand...

I'm starting to think this may be the problem, but I thought C2Ds didn't need all the patches and 'optimisers' that floated about when X2s came out.


Are there any options or reg tweaks I need to check to ensure Windows is trying to apply all available cores?
 
Are there any Intel dual core drivers like AMD? I know gaming is an absolute nightmare on an AMD system until you download and install those drivers.
 
OK, a beast of a post here- get comfy.


OK, I've done some digging. It seems my PC sometimes is not applying both cores (but sometimes is, weird). I remembered a while ago I couldn't get Orthos to load both cores unless I started the prog, Task Managed and set affinity to both cores, and then started a prime. A reboot of Orthos forgot my affinity settings. UT3 is behaving in the same way (it fully loads both cores if I set affinity in TM, alt-tabbing out at the menu).

So I found this aticle: http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/03/21/399688.aspx

essentially informing the readers that if your Explorer.exe is set to run on only one proc (through affinity), any processes it spawns (i.e. all of them, through short cuts or Start Menu or Explorer Window) are ALSO on that same processor. This apparently can be set by some progs that plug into the Explorer shell (like e.g. Winzip, 7-zip, adobe, anything that adds stuff to the right-click menu) which don't like multi-proc and so set affinity to one only. Lazy sods!

So, I checked my Explorer affinity (after shutting down all explorer windows, leaving only one Explorer process- the Start menu/task bar)-lo and behold it was set to use only one proc. I've set it to use both through affinity on TM, and it was ok. Orthos now starts up with both cores without fiddling and totally avoids that annoying "affinity mask" error I couldn't resolve previously. Awesome!

Now to try UT3, and see if it uses both cores without setting affinity through TM. I can't try it now as I'm at work setting this stuff up remotely :o

If that does work, I need to identify which app has hijacked my explorer.exe affinity and remove it, or use IMAGECFG.EXE to try and set Explorer to use both cores manually. See, I think after a reboot, Explorer.exe will again be set to use one core. I learned about imagecfg.exe here:

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?t=7532

I just have to say I don't believe yet that
C:> imagecfg -a 0xmask prog.exe

The mask is a bitmap of CPUs you want prog.exe to be able to run on. Bit 0 represents CPU 0, etc., so 1 for CPU 0, 2 for CPU 1, 3 for both, etc. The hex prefix (0x) isn't strictly necessary for small mask values, of course.
Click to expand...

will work- why would a bit value of 3 be all cores, when there are 4 cores CPUs out there? I'll try and report my findings tonight.

Again, sorry for a super long post.
 
Cheers. I can confirm that a reboot of my PC (oops) does have Explorer.exe as a dual core aware process, but as soon as I open Explorer as a process, it is set to only single core. So I need to identify what software is doing it. I suspect my Notmad Explorer sofware for my MP3 player is the culprit (enables browsing of the device using Explorer)- no proof, jsut a suspicion!


Edit: UT3 does now load both cores automatically as long as explorer.exe is already set to use both cores.
 
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