Anand wants your input on the "X2 + Gaming" issue...

[GTaudiophile]

September 1, 2005

Athlon X2 and Gaming - Thursday, Sep 1, 2005 1:39 PM

About two posts ago, GTaudiophile brought to my attention a thread in the forums that talked about game stability and gameplay issues when using AMD's dual core processors. Honestly, I was a bit surprised as it is nothing I had encountered in my dual core testing, but admittedly I hadn't really done much personal gaming on the X2.

I had some other things to take care of earlier this week that prevented me from building a X2 game box and trying to duplicate some of the results mentioned in the thread, but now I'm ready to do just that.

I will work on getting to the bottom of it, but I do need something from you all. I want to know if any of you X2 owners are having any problems with games and, a few details about your configuration:

1) Have you installed AMD's processor driver?
2) Is your X2 machine running a clean install of Windows, or did you simply upgrade with your copy of Windows originally installed on a single-core CPU?
3) Have you tried using RunFirst, and what has its impact been?

Of course, do list whatever games you are having problems with and any more details about your system config. We'll see if we can't get to the bottom of this.

Take care.

RESPOND HERE

 

[Duvie]

tell him to read from the other thread asking this or the other 3 threads we created collecting all the data

 

[Hacp]

Well he might want to collect the data himself. All the posts were very blury, and he might want to know the exact setups, what people did and didn't do to fix the problems, and finally test everything out to make for certain what the problems work. After that, he might post an article, so when the threads die, there article is still there to help everyone out!

 

[fatty4ksu]

Good stuff. Hopefully AMD can get this fixed.

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
Good stuff. Hopefully AMD can get this fixed.

Lol nice sarcasm Fatty.

 

[fatty4ksu]

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
Good stuff. Hopefully AMD can get this fixed.

Its not a problem with AMD you troll, go away... Its the software developers, and AMD's driver fixes it.

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: fatty4ksu

Useless posts to get your post count up huH???

 

[fatty4ksu]

LOL, Now I am really confused

LOL

Back to the OP, I think this is a great idea and hopefully it can help AMD fix the serious issue.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: fatty4ksu


LOL, Now I am really confused

LOL

Back to the OP, I think this is a great idea and hopefully it can help AMD fix the serious issue.

You can;t read you troll ??? MODS !!!!!!!!! see my post above in response to your SH!T

ITS NOT AMDs PROBLEM, THEY HAVE A DRIVER, INSTALL IT YOU TROLL !!!!!!!!

 

[Bona Fide]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: fatty4ksu


LOL, Now I am really confused

LOL

Back to the OP, I think this is a great idea and hopefully it can help AMD fix the serious issue.

You can;t read you troll ??? MODS !!!!!!!!! see my post above in response to your SH!T

ITS NOT AMDs PROBLEM, THEY HAVE A DRIVER, INSTALL IT YOU TROLL !!!!!!!!

Mark, I'm not sure you understand WHY they're called trolls.

The more you feed them, the bigger they get.

Duvie, there are several threads around, but this is a nice way to consolidate them.

 

[McGeyser]

This is the best gaming system I have ever experienced. My only small problems are attributed to XP x64 and gaming, very minor problems, with complete workarounds.

BF2 is a dream with this setup. I upgraded from a 3200 clawhammer, MSI K8T Neo, 512 OCZ platinum and a 9800 XT. There is no comparison. The old system froze and glitched endlessly at 1024X768 Medium to low settings.

With the current system, I run 1600X1200 everything on high, and it is buttery silk.

Do a member search on fatty4ksu, he is a disinformation tool who should be banned. He doesn't know wtf he is talking about.

Edit: I missed the point sorry, here are the answers to the questions asked:

1. No AMD proc driver
2. Clean install of x64
3. Have not tried Run First.

I am currently playing BF2 and a Quake 3 mod, Urban Terror.

 

[aatf510]

I still don't understand what the driver does?
Doesn't it add support to C&Q only?

 

[GTaudiophile]

Instead of trolling here, why noy post some useful info in Anand's blog?

 

[R3MF]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: fatty4ksu


LOL, Now I am really confused

LOL

Back to the OP, I think this is a great idea and hopefully it can help AMD fix the serious issue.

You can;t read you troll ??? MODS !!!!!!!!! see my post above in response to your SH!T

ITS NOT AMDs PROBLEM, THEY HAVE A DRIVER, INSTALL IT YOU TROLL !!!!!!!!

speaking personally; i find that people who constantly scream; "TROLL!!!" are as offensive as having to read the the drivel of clueless idiots who can't set up an X2 system properly.

just me tho.

 

[the splat in the hat]

lm a pisshead a bit and cant figure that post here link so anyways...
Keeps sending me in circles...

ok . l went from an fx55 x800xt 2 gigs ram to this 4400+ duel core ,7800gtx, 2 gigs ram, and l agree its like no pc lve ever owned.

As for games , lm a gamer at heart , its all l mainly use the pc s for , l have a few pc s, the duel has had a couple of lock ups nothing out of the ordinary really, l suspect a windows issue with drivers, in game performance is awsome , l can now run 100 bot program on a 16 player map in bf2 , and FRAP it [ record direct to sata hard disc ] , at 20 fps, on 1024 x 768 res medium settings vid , the fx55 doesnt even compair , if l lower res it can record at 30 odd fps , the fx55 in comparison would be recording at 18 odd fps.

lm running fraps version 2.5.5 , its an older version and l havent even updated it for ages, ran first go no probs, likes half life 2 , bfv , bf2 , act of war, homeworld, star wars battlefront , vice city , race driver, orb, even an old game battlezone 2 runs fine on it, bf 1942 l havent installed yet, far cry is awsome , though the fx55 pulls a better frame rate in single player, online l use the 4400+ , the fx55 is a host Lan game pc, data base etc second frap camera, in any case my opinion is the duel core with a clock speed around 2 gig is a much better cpu, than a single at 2.6.

This 4400+ has a fresh 64 bit pro windows install , l have AMD driver , but l have not run, Run First.

hope it helped...any questions ?

 

[superfly27]

I'll read Anand's conclusion about the X2 problem before I even THINK about getting an X2.
Also, I'm not relying on people who THINK they are right and accuse people of being trolls to make a decision for me.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: superfly27
I'll read Anand's conclusion about the X2 problem before I even THINK about getting an X2.
Also, I'm not relying on people who THINK they are right and accuse people of being trolls to make a decision for me.

That is fine...however certain unnamed member have been beating this drum eventhough it is clear they wont take ppl advice and follow what works for other ppl....He has started entire threads claiming it is a hardware bug....yet has no evidence, no data to support his claims, and is a half-wit to boot....

It canot be a hardware bug iwith such inconsistencies of soming having them, some not, some not without any X2 drivers, and some with the drivers....It is also clear since games are the only affected appliucation (single threaded) so far this again cannot be a hardware issue....

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: the splat in the hat
lm a pisshead a bit and cant figure that post here link so anyways...
Keeps sending me in circles...

ok . l went from an fx55 x800xt 2 gigs ram to this 4400+ duel core ,7800gtx, 2 gigs ram, and l agree its like no pc lve ever owned.

As for games , lm a gamer at heart , its all l mainly use the pc s for , l have a few pc s, the duel has had a couple of lock ups nothing out of the ordinary really, l suspect a windows issue with drivers, in game performance is awsome , l can now run 100 bot program on a 16 player map in bf2 , and FRAP it [ record direct to sata hard disc ] , at 20 fps, on 1024 x 768 res medium settings vid , the fx55 doesnt even compair , if l lower res it can record at 30 odd fps , the fx55 in comparison would be recording at 18 odd fps.

lm running fraps version 2.5.5 , its an older version and l havent even updated it for ages, ran first go no probs, likes half life 2 , bfv , bf2 , act of war, homeworld, star wars battlefront , vice city , race driver, orb, even an old game battlezone 2 runs fine on it, bf 1942 l havent installed yet, far cry is awsome , though the fx55 pulls a better frame rate in single player, online l use the 4400+ , the fx55 is a host Lan game pc, data base etc second frap camera, in any case my opinion is the duel core with a clock speed around 2 gig is a much better cpu, than a single at 2.6.

This 4400+ has a fresh 64 bit pro windows install , l have AMD driver , but l have not run, Run First.

hope it helped...any questions ?

Oh, I upgraded from a FX-55, x800xt pe and 1gb of ram also!
Well, however, I think the improvement comes from 2GB of ram instead of from the dual core CPU. Check the CPU usage history.

 

[the splat in the hat]

l originally had 3 gigs of ram in this 4400+ but for some reason it decided to only recognise 1 gig, so l took 1 gig out and left it at 2, now its sweet.

The cpu being duel has been for me a big improvement over the fx55.

 

[evilharp]

Yikes! Bitter Trolls begone!

On to the topic at hand:

First some specs:

• X2 4200+
  Gigabyte GA-K8NS-Ultra-939 (nForce3) F8 Bios
  X800XT AIW
  XP Pro SP2

I have noticed the so called "X2 problems".

I:

1. 
   Have installed the X2 driver
   Did not use a "clean XP Pro" install
   Have not tried using RUNFIRST.

In games that I did notice the problems, I employed 1 of 2 fixes:

Stuttering (Noticed in BF2): Fixed by disabling Cool and Quiet (CnQ). I turned it off, by adjusting my Power Scheme from Portable/Laptop to Home/Office Desk. It appears that the CPU throttling up and down causes the stutter. Apparently, this is the answer that AMD support techs are giving people as well.

Super Speed (Noticed in "Dora the Explorer: Backpack Adventure" don't laugh, my daughter uses my PC as well) : Fixed by setting the processor affinity for a given application to a specific processor "core". I usually Alt-Tab to a waiting Task Manager to do this. I have heard of a more graceful solution to this called RunOnProcessorExplicitly 1.00 (available everywhere as freeware/shareware. Karmashock on the AMD forums (see http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=53288 ) posted it as a solution. I haven't tried it yet, but it should work. According to the info the program was released in 2003 for applications on systems using upwards of 32 processors (see: http://www.innes.org/ author's site).

As far as all of this being an AMD only problem, that is complete nonsense. It appears to be a problem with x86 applications and multi-core (real or HT) or multi CPU systems. When intel introduced HT a few years back, people had similar problems (examples: http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11737&highlight=multi-threaded and http://support.microsoft.com/?id=835730 <== also adds "/usepmtimer" flag to boot.ini ) and driver improvements and patches took care of the problems over time.

Also of note: the new X2 driver adds the " /usepmtimer" flag to the boot.ini file to take care of some of the problems but also a core speed syncronisation problem that has been mentioned on a few sites. I've never noticed the core speed problem with my system, but then again I don't play the "Negative Delta Time" error games (i.e UT2003).

Otherwise, my X2 has been awesome. Prime95 and other "stability" programs run very well.