GW crashing/lagging on dual core system - this might help

I posted this in another thread but it seems like a lot of crashes and lag problems are happening on dual core systems. So I thought I would post this as its own thread as well.

I just bought a new lap top with dual core and 1 gig of RAM figuring it should have enough power to run GW at moderate settings. But it kept crashing to desktop and sometimes even shutting down the computer.

So I became curious and decided to see what each core was doing during GW play. One core was more active than the other by far.

I think GW can only play on a single core at a time and, since each core sees only half the memory in the system, that core is trying to run with 512 MB instead of 1 gig - 512 is the minimum required for Nightfall.

I just installed 2 gigs of memory this morning and it seems to make a huge difference. Frame rate is not much better but there have been no lags or crashes so for and, even with a low frame rate (15-35 fms) the game is running very smoothly at above moderate settings.

If you are experiencing problems and you are running dual core you might try upgrading to more RAM as your first step. It seems to have really worked for me.

If your talking about the memory thing, thats related to having your RAM setup in DUAL Channel Mode.

You can actually disable Dual Channel Mode in your BIOS on some motherboards, that way your total amount of memory shoudnt be divided.

That of you can always do it manually. On motherboards where you have your Odd and Even ram sockets colored differently, installing one DIMM in the same colored ones will create a Dual Channel setup for your memory. However, if you simply install your DIMMS side by side, One in the first socket and the other in the second socket right beside it. it will create a single channel setup.

If you want to FORCE the guildwars process onto a single core each time it fires up, I described the steps to do so in another forum for an older game I still play that has issues with Dual Core Processors.

http://www.runegame.com/vbf/showthread.php?t=28223

Yes you can disable dual channel memory in BIOS - but that would mean re-enabling it when you wanted to use programs that are optimized for dual core at their full potential.

In a Desktop you can manually install the memory in such a way they work only as single channel - however, once again that sort of defeats the purpose of dual core for other programs as the second core will not function - it has no access to RAM. And most notebooks have only two memory slots to begin with.

Setting affinity to use only one core will not help unless you do one of the previous steps because that single core will still only see 1/2 the memory.

That is why I suggest just adding more RAM total - you get the benefit for GW and the dual core optimized programs without having to access BIOS or open the computer each time you switch back and forth

This is not true. Each core can access all the system memory. Maybe you were thinking about the L2 cache (which is split between the cores for AMD dual cores)?

Going from 1 to 2 gigs can still give you an improvement, especially if:
1. You are running Vista.
2. Your video card uses a part of the system memory instead of its own dedicated memory.
3. Your computer came preloaded with lots of autostarting programs (it would be a good idea to turn off most of these).

EDIT: Not sure about the crashes, though. Maybe you should run MemTest to see if your memory is ok.

Hmmmm --- looks like you are right.

Dual core shares the memory while dual processors have their own discreet RAM for each processor. I was going by what the Computer store salesman said.

Oh, well, wasn't the first time they didn't have the right information.

Oh well, while more memory is always a good thing - it has been said so many times that saying it in a separate thread is a bit pointless so, and since I got the wrong info, Mods, please close - Thanks.

The way GW tech support told me GW client don’t really support dual core systems. GW tech support gave me these directions below, since no more lag.

After you load GW, ctl-alt-del then bring up task manager, under applications select Guild Wars, right click select go to process, right click on gw process, select set affinity, clear check mark for CPU 1.

I've an AMD X2 4800+. This could be the cause of my own lockups

That RunFirst sounds like a good solution. It seems to be a safe and popular one too... ok, I'm giving this a shot. Nice find Zodiak

This is NOT true. I work with multi processor servers myself (I'm sysadmin) and each processor has access to the full system RAM. At least if you have 4 GB ram or less. So, if you have 1 GB, and set an application to use only 1 processor, you still can use all the RAM.

I would suggest looking at the link that was provided so you can force GW to run on only 1 core. The problem you're getting is that when GW is "jumping" cores, since currently it is set to run on either one, that jump time causes lag or even crashing.

That having been said, I've been running a 4200+ for about a year now with dual core on and GW allowed to run on either processor and very rarely do I notice a lag like the game was hopping cores. If you're noticing it, you're going to have to try forcing GW to run on only a particular core (core 0) but check the link out for a good guide on how to do it so you don't have to go into your task manager and do it every time you boot up and what to play.

EDIT: have you gone to AMD's website and/or your graphics card's webiste and downloading the newest drivers? It could always be that.

I dont know if this will help but it might if your using an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor. It's a official utility by AMD

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/..._13118,00.html

first one in the list

For Xp Operating systems, The dual core optimizer is a worthwhile download. For vista its already built into it so there is no need to download the optimizer.

I'm running GW on a high end gaming laptop with an Intel T7600 Core2Duo and XP SP2. The T7600 cpu uses 4MB shared cache memory fully visible to both cores. No crashes are being experienced here, so I'm guessing that this issue is probably AMD dual-core-specific.

Likewise, I'm running on a Dell M1210 with a Core2Duo processor (a medium-powered rig). The game runs quite smoothly for me as well. Of course, I've got two gigs of RAM, so it's hard to compare exactly.

its also better optimized under Vista aswell, compared to the optimized version of XP (did that make sense?)

Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!

I just had my first lag-free RA match since Hard Mode came out, and my first run around a player-populated area that didn't feel like I was bunny-hopping in a manual car.

As an added bonus, I haven't *yet* had one of those lengthy pauses on a 100% complete (area loaded) screen.

So happy... so very happy. ^^

Same problem, and I have dual Intel cores. I believe I've tried the single affinity before, but I'll give it another shot.

In my case the problem is very erratic - I'll not see it for a week, and then have two lock-ups in an hour.

Guild Wars is doing a soft reboot to my system. I cannot use task manager to set processor affinity in my vista system.... it says access denied.

Help?

your login account in windows might not be set as administrator

I play on a computer with 512 mb RAM (not sure what video card but it's not up to date with all the new ones 3 yr old comp) and it works just fine with around 30-40 FPS in battle and 50-60 in town with high-detail low detail I get 35-45 in battle and in town I have 50-60. Then again I do -image and -nosound helps a lot with computers that are not these gaming machines made within a year ago.

I thought I'd do a follow-up post since trying to fix the trouble I've been having with my dual core by changing the Affinity settings.

It works. No more hangs