Anyone have a list of the current games that require the Task Manager Affinity setting?

[BroadbandGamer]

So far Madden '06 is the only game I have that doesn't run correctly without using the Affinity setting.

Thanks!

 

[BroadbandGamer]

So nobody has come up with a list?

 

[Skott]

From what I have heard it not everyone who has a problem needing affinity set since the hotfix. Its kinda a hit and miss thing. Some people have the problem and some dont.

 

[Unkno]

i don't have any problems after installing the amd driver and ms hotfix

 

[SynthDude2001]

The only game I can think of that I need to set the affinity for is the original Unreal Tournament (along with Unreal; uses the same engine) - sometimes it'll run fine without adjustment, but other times it runs either really slowly (game speed; framerates are fine) or really fast and jerky (again, game speed). I don't play a whole lot of other games, but none of the others I've tried so far have required the affinity setting.

 

[fatty4ksu]

Madden 05....Original Halflife...and so on.


f-ing sad.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

All my games work fine after the AMD driver and the MS Hotfix. No affinity required.

 

[Octoparrot]

There seems to be some confusion about what the MS hotfix corrects. It only fixes Cool 'n Quiet + power management being enabled which causes the AMD X2 cores to get assigned active tasks even though they've been throttled back. Installing the Hotfix doesn't do squat to fix certain issues with games that don't like dual cores. System Shock 2, Unreal (& descendants like Deus Ex 1), etc. have problems even if you install the hotfixes. Also note that this bug with AMD X2 can be removed by simply turning off Cool 'n Quiet in the BIOS, but this won't help your ability to run these old games. If you are overclocking your system, it's probably not optimal to turn on Cool 'n Quiet anyway.

Some of these games also exhibited problems with HyperThreading (final release of System Shock 2, unpatched Syberia, unpatched Gary Grigsby World at War, list goes on....). It's simply a matter of bad coding. For example, Call Of Duty 2 version 1.0 unpatched single player apparently doesn't work correctly no matter how many hotfixes from MS you install--just get the 1.01 patch and the scripts will actually run when they're supposed to on your dual core system.

Rather than manually apply the CPU affinity with Task Manager, just download Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit to install automatic affinity settings whenever you launch these problematic apps:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/appcompatibility/toolkit.mspx

 

[GICodeWarrior]

I have issues with BF1942, Battlefield Vietnam, and some, possibly not dual-core related, issues with BF2. I was having some glitching issues with the Source engine, but those games seem very smooth now that they have moved HL2 to 64-bit.

~GICodeWarrior

 

[GICodeWarrior]

Originally posted by: Octoparrot
Rather than manually apply the CPU affinity with Task Manager, just download Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit to install automatic affinity settings whenever you launch these problematic apps:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/appcompatibility/toolkit.mspx

The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit doesn't work on Windows XP x64 Edition.

~GICodeWarrior

 

[BroadbandGamer]

Originally posted by: Octoparrot
There seems to be some confusion about what the MS hotfix corrects. It only fixes Cool 'n Quiet + power management being enabled which causes the AMD X2 cores to get assigned active tasks even though they've been throttled back. Installing the Hotfix doesn't do squat to fix certain issues with games that don't like dual cores. System Shock 2, Unreal (& descendants like Deus Ex 1), etc. have problems even if you install the hotfixes. Also note that this bug with AMD X2 can be removed by simply turning off Cool 'n Quiet in the BIOS, but this won't help your ability to run these old games. If you are overclocking your system, it's probably not optimal to turn on Cool 'n Quiet anyway.

Some of these games also exhibited problems with HyperThreading (final release of System Shock 2, unpatched Syberia, unpatched Gary Grigsby World at War, list goes on....). It's simply a matter of bad coding. For example, Call Of Duty 2 version 1.0 unpatched single player apparently doesn't work correctly no matter how many hotfixes from MS you install--just get the 1.01 patch and the scripts will actually run when they're supposed to on your dual core system.

Rather than manually apply the CPU affinity with Task Manager, just download Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit to install automatic affinity settings whenever you launch these problematic apps:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/appcompatibility/toolkit.mspx

Thanks Octo!

Now how exactly do I use this program? It's a little confusing.

 

[Octoparrot]

I wish I could find the original link to another forum that explained this tool, but as I recall (& yes this is very platform dependent & it isn't for XP64):

Launch the Compatibility Administrator program (not the Toolkit Framework)
Under Custom Databases, click on the New Database/untitled whatever & go up to the menu Database and Create New... Application Fix.
Pick out where your program's exe is
Click None on the "Compatibility Modes" dialog--you don't need these.
Scroll down the "Compatibility Fixes" dialog--find SingleProcAffinity & check it to be on.
Click Finish. I guess you can fine-tune the last dialog so that if the version of the EXE changes it will still be applied.

Once you've installed all the fixes you want into your new database, I believe you must go up to File menu & select Install to install the database.

The database will be put into the Windows Add/Remove Control Panel applet...so you can install your database as "Joe's 1/1/06 CPU affinity fixes" and then just uninstall it if you have to, or you can go back into the Compatibility Administrator & tinker with your already installed database.

Sounds like a hassle, eh? Well, best as I can tell, this app uses the same low-level kernel mechanisms that XP uses for the legacy program support it has (like having multiple versions of API calls since some kernel calls changed from Win95 to 98 to 2000), far more powerful than the simple "Win 95/98/2000" compatibility checkbox you have when you get properties on a program. Most importantly, 1) you do not need to go through an external launcher or shortcut or BAT file, which can mess up your helper programs (i.e. you launch from a game browser), AND 2) you don't tamper with the EXE itself so PunkBuster doesn't boot you from a game because you ran a program that manipulates the bitmask that affects CPU affinity. You don't have to worry about new patches to your game--the original EXE is untouched.

Just remember to consider if future versions do have correct affinity support, you'll want to remove the fix, or at least edit your fix to force SingleProcAffinity only with early bugged versions of the game in question.