X2 game issue...Is it the same with ATI and NVIDIA?? How many problems are the P-Ds having???

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
Maybe it would be useful to add to your list of questions whether or not this was a clean install or a drop-in CPU replacement. That might help us in pinpointing if it is a problem with the HAL.

Drop-in Cpu replacement. Not a fresh install from scratch, so yes that may be an issue, but I am NOT about to re-install everything just because two games don't work properly on this cpu. I'd rather switch cpus.

 

[aka1nas]

Maybe a repair install would do the trick without losing all your accumulated data?

 

[Goncyn]

I have been having these same strange performance problems that everyone is reporting. I was initially very disappointed with my new rig because of this. After installing the X2 CPU driver linked from this thread, several of my problems have gone away. However, some of my problems remain.

Battlefield 2 was terribly jerky before installing the X2 driver, but runs like a dream after. FIXED.

EVE Online, which is my current MMORPG addiction, runs better with the X2 driver, but still experiences some jerky graphics, especially after playing for a while. Using "Set Affinity" fixes these problems, but I really hope it can be fixed permanently without having to use "Set Affinity" every time

1) specs

Athlon 64 X2 4400+
EPoX 9NPAJ
2GB Corsair Value Select (4x 512MB)
BFG 7700GTX

2) whether X2 driver is installed

Now, YES.

3) nvidia or ati driver used

ForceWare 77.77

4) whether you have latest game patches

Yes.

5)whether you hav elatest chipset drivers

Latest NForce drivers from www.nvidia.com

6) whether changing affnity for process helps or not...

Yes.

 

[Redox]

Update:

Games that work fine without AMD X2 driver:

Doom 3 (incl expansion), Guild Wars, UT2004, Dungeon Siege II

Games that work fine AFTER installing X2 driver (but had problems before):

Half Life 2, BF2, Far Cry, Vampire Bloodlines, Hidden & Dangerous 2

Games that still require RunFirst utility in the command line to set affinity to single cpu:

Ground Control II, Unreal 2, Thief Deadly Shadows, Pariah (to eliminate negative delta time error, acknowledged on official Pariah forum as a bug for dual core processors)

I've documented my system specs previously (see page 5 of this thread).

 

[Perpetual]

Redox -

Did you do a clean install of XP Home or Pro? Or did you upgrade your CPU leaving the origional XP install?

 

[cwolf2k]

Game: Dark Age of Camelot

1) amd 4800 x2
2) X2 installed (though didn't help in my case)
3) nvidia 77.77
4) yes, latest patches
5) Yes, latest chipset drivers
6) changing affinity works for me. X2 driver doesn't make a difference

p.s. xp pro sp2

 

[keitaro]

Thanks Redox for mentioning UT2004. I'm contemplating on installing that monster. But then all I play these days is Guild Wars. Oh well.

 

[Duvie]

You guys are doing a great job...I hope ppl can see the logic that why would the drivers fix some of the timer issues and not all....It has to be more of a software issue then most will admit....

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: Duvie
You guys are doing a great job...I hope ppl can see the logic that why would the drivers fix some of the timer issues and not all....It has to be more of a software issue then most will admit....

Totally the software drivers and/or the game software itself.

I managed to consistantly get CS:Source running again. I had to uninstall the AMD driver and run RegscrubXP afterwards. Now I use WinXPLauncher only to set the affinity and it works every time. Now, I still need to figure out Diablo2. It loads using the Launcher, but freezes the system after exiting the game still. Even tried using the Listening mode, but no luck.

 

[Redox]

in response to Perpetual ...

It was a clean install of XP Home (not Pro) - new build with integrated SP2 on the CD.

 

[tarez]

You don't have to do a reinstall to update the HAL actually

I have read about two different ways to do such. The first may work in this situation, but I can't test one way or the other...


Device Manager-->Processors-->Select processor and go to properties-->update driver

This updates both the driver and the triggers a HAL update via windows. Like I said this may work in this situation.


THe second option is to boot into the recovery console

and copy and replace specific files

I can't find a good link giving directions on the next other then this MS link talking about the different HAL files on winxp

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309283


If anyone is interested in exact directions I could provide them if requested.

 

[Sixtyfour]

Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
Oo my bad!

1) specs (4200, asus premium)
2) whether X2 driver is installed (yes)
3) nvidia or ati driver used (ati)
4) whether you have latest game patches (yes)
5)whether you hav elatest chipset drivers (mos def)
6) whether changing affnity for process helps or not (half the time)

Have you even seen a computer that has AMD CPU ?

 

[Acanthus]

I think the ultimite solution is... format... use the X-2 drivers...

be happy.

 

[xtknight]

Also list whether you did a clean install, a HAL update, or just slipped in the CPU.

 

[Gagh]

Ok, this issue has had me pulling my hair out of my head for weeks now. First, here are my specs..

AMD a64x2 4800+
MSI k8n nforce 4 platinum sli
2gig OCZ ddr400 (running default spd timings)
two EVGA geforce 7800 gtx cards runing sli
Audigy 4 platinum

Running windows xp pro with sp2 built in. 6.66 nforce drivers, and the 77.77 video drivers. Stock cd audigy drivers, because like someone said in here earlier, the update from the creative site always breaks something. Now, when i first built this machine, i didnt know the amd driver existed, and just went along with the normal installs. Doom 3 ran fine, half life 2 ran fine, BF2 ran fine, wh40k DoW ran fine. Eve-Online and ground control 2 ran fine, but after alot of playing i would get the jerkiness problem. Rebooting always fixed it. Everythign was running rather well except that, which was getting annoying but wasnt major. I ten go to install an older game , Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos. Crashed out initiall, but the patch for the game seemed to fix that. But then after that i would have issues with the fmv cut scenes where it would run horribly choppy or hardlock the pc focing manual reboot. Checked around here, and was suggested to install the amd driver, which i did. It instantly made the problem with eve online worse, in that i would get the jerkiness immediately right off of a fresh reboot. This bothered me alot as eve online is the game i play most of the time. So i go nuts changing around drivers, and trying a suggestion or two mentioned in a thread i had made on the tech help forum here. Nothing worked. So finally i figure ill do another fresh format, installing that amd driver first, and going from there. No go, same issues i had after installing the driver on my first install. Installed a few other games besides eve, wh40k: dow still seems to work ok, and the starting fmv in the beginning seems smoother, half life 2 still has no issues, and with i-war 2 the fmv in the beginning was smoother, but i had jerkiness in the game itself.

Setting cpu affinity using ROPE gets rid of the jerkiness in eve, and i-war 2, but since going that route i get random BSOD in eve, and i-war hardlocks the machine the instant the game tries to go into a cutscene. The BSODs worry me, as i havent a clue was causing them.. i spent a day or two testing stability on the recent install with the x2 drivers using prime95, ran the memory test 11 hours before i turned it off, and ran two instances of the prime cpu (max fpu test) test, one set for each cpu core for 14 hours before i turned it off. No problems whatsoever. I really dont know what to do anymore, system always auto-reboots on the bsods so i cant get a good look at what it says, and it only seems to do that in eve, apparently whenever i set affinity, doesnt matter which core i set it to. It happens at random intervals.. first time i set affinity it blue screened me right there, then i tried it again after the reboot and played fine for 3 hours, where it then blue screneed me twice within 15min, then fine for another hour and a half before i quit for the night. I-war 2 just seems to refuse to work, ill have to see if there are any official forums for that game anymore , maybe someone has a fix. Bunch of people on the eve forums are experiancing the jerkiness, but didnt know what do do, till i told them about the affinity deal. No word yet on if any of them are getting the blue screens as well.

Hope this helps, and any help anyone else can provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Redox]

I've posted previously within this thread but just wanted to add some comments ...

I don't have experience with the ROPE utility but have had no problems with Runfirst for those games still experiencing problems AFTER installing the AMD X2 drivers (they are still there for Unreal 2, Thief Deadly Shadows, Ground Control II, and some other games). No BSOD or any other stability problems and other background applications can continue to run (e.g. virus scanner).

I think the ultimite solution is... format... use the X-2 drivers...

I had a clean install (new build with fresh installation of XP with SP2) so I don't expect that just a reformat will be sufficient - seems to depend on the specific game and perhaps some of the specific hardware used (although nothing in my system would be considered particularly unusual). Certainly the AMD drivers have helped but they are not a total solution. I've ended up with Runfirst in selective game shortcuts as the solution which works best for me.

Reference previous post for my system specs.

 

[Killian24D]

New Build
Windows 2K fresh install of course
MSI K8N-f Mobo
A64 4400+ Dual Core
1GB OCZ PC3200
200GB Seagate
ATI 850 XT PE

X2 driver not installed since I'm running W2K

ATI 5.8 Catalyst Drivers

BF2 with latest 1.02 patch

6.66 nForce4 chipset drivers

I'm only having issues with BF2. I have not tried any other games and all other programs have worked perfectly fine.

My problems are intermittent and do not happen every time I play. When they do BF2 will slow down to the point where it almost looks frozen. But if I Alt+Tab and wait at least 30 seconds eventually it will go to the desktop. Then a few seconds later my mouse cursor will show up almost as if the system has finally "caught" up. I will set BF2 to run on only one CPU and go back into game. Things will be perfectly fine and smooth for awhile (10-20 mins.), but then I get intermittent lag and slow downs.

OR if I set BF2 to run on one CPU before I play I still run into the lag and choppy play from time to time. Sometimes it will play perfectly for an hour, and then on a new map get choppy again. Or just completely freeze up during a new map load and I'll have to do a hard reboot. There does not appear to be any rhyme or reason to when the problems occur or do not occur.

Hope this helps in finding a fix for the various problems people are running into.

Quick question, would it be advantageous to upgrade to Win XP? Thanks.

 

[evilharp]

Originally posted by: Killian24D


I'm only having issues with BF2. I have not tried any other games and all other programs have worked perfectly fine.

My problems are intermittent and do not happen every time I play. When they do BF2 will slow down to the point where it almost looks frozen. But if I Alt+Tab and wait at least 30 seconds eventually it will go to the desktop. Then a few seconds later my mouse cursor will show up almost as if the system has finally "caught" up. I will set BF2 to run on only one CPU and go back into game. Things will be perfectly fine and smooth for awhile (10-20 mins.), but then I get intermittent lag and slow downs.

I had the same problems with BF2 on my X2. "Cool and Quiet" (CNQ) is causing the problem. If the CPU is not at 100% load, CNQ will throttle the speed, causing the jerkiness and slowdowns. Setting the affinity helps (as BF2 will load balance over both cores according to Task Manager), but the throttling will still occur.

Turn off CNQ by changing your power scheme to "Home/Office Desk".

As for the X2 driver, it clears up timing problems for certain applications (ie UT2003).

Really, there should be a sticky in the CPU forum that summarizes the fixes:

1) Use the X2 driver (fresh install not always neccessary)
2) Set affinity (Runfirst, ROPE, etc.) for those apps that need it (a list off applications that need it would be nice).
3) Disable CNQ when gaming (really, you should do it anyway. You wouldn't clock back your $$$$$ videocard to save power when gaming. Why throttle the CPU?)

Originally posted by: Killian24D

Quick question, would it be advantageous to upgrade to Win XP? Thanks.

Yes and no. XP gets better support than 2000, but basically it is the same OS (at its core). I moved to XP as I found driver support for 2000 to be lacking.

 

[Killian24D]

Thanks for your reply Evilharp.

Unfortunately I'm not currently using CnQ so I don't think that is the issue. I have it disabled in the BIOS and my power settings are currently set to Home/Office Desk.

I wish the solution would have been that simple.

Currently I'm going to try Tom's Hardware's Task Assign and see what results that produces. Seems to me it should be exactly the same as manually setting the affinity in task manager but anything is worth a shot at this point.

Thanks again.

 

[Duvie]

Fact is many running BF2 are not having issues so there must be some other variable that is slightly different that gives you the problem yet others have never experienced one....Oh the wonderful world of sftware...

I can tell you those things happen on my dothan Dell laptop from time to time and mainly in Legos Sar Wars for my son...whereas games like Flat Out and NFS2 underground no issues.....

 

[Redox]

I have tried Tom's Hardware task assign utility and for some reason it doesn't work. Utilities that do work for me are Runfirst and WinlauncherXP (the latter has the ability to add command line parameters).

 

[Killian24D]

Well unfortunately it didn't help. Still getting random freezes, lag, and lock ups.

Wish I could figure this out!

 

[stevty2889]

I still have yet to run in to a problem with any game, just got BF2 and it's been running great with no problems.

 

[Killian24D]

I'm beat. Can't figure out a solution. Anyone wanna buy my processor? lol

 

[Topweasel]

Althon64 X2 4400+
BFG 7800GTX OC
2GB Ram
Nforce4 SLI chipset
WindowsXP 64bit

I have the 78.01 64bit Drivers installed, 6.66 64bit chipset drivers, the X2 driver install. While this is a fresh install I had to set it to Multi proccessor after install due to a required Bios update.

I do not Have problems in any of the games I have Played. Which include HL2, Farcry, BF2, BFME, and Act of Warirect Action, not really the games people have problems with. I by Policy Set Affinity when Encoding so I don't know if Encoding and a game is unstable.