Quad or Dual Core, ok with GW? - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

DutchGun

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2006

Washington, USA

31 Mar 2008 at 01:19 - 81

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaker

What amuses me most are the people who say things like "I have a dual-core processor and GW has never locked up for me" as if to suggest the problem, therefore, does not exist. Well, I've never had cancer, so it doesn't exist either

Well, it's not exactly that. But computer code is static. That is, we're all running exactly the same GW client code. If we both run the same code, and we both have dual-core systems (or quad core, or whatever), and if you are crashing all the time and I am not*... then what are we to logically make of this?

I'm not saying that it isn't possibly a bug in GW code, but it's very likely got some configuration-specific component to this. I hear all the time "but I run all these other games without issues..." Well, it could be that GW is exercising your video card driver in a very specific way that causes some driver fault to explode... Or, it could simply be a latent BIOS-related bug in your motherboard (this is more common that you would guess), or the timing of your RAM could be causing issues.

I know it's disheartening to hear an answer of "it's probably something specific to your machine's configuration", but what other explanation is there when other people with identical CPUs are running problem free?

* Note, I'm not saying this at all, it's just a hypothetical...

Admael

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

California

Xen of Heroes

31 Mar 2008 at 08:07 - 82

Quote:

Originally Posted by DutchGun

I know it's disheartening to hear an answer of "it's probably something specific to your machine's configuration", but what other explanation is there when other people with identical CPUs are running problem free?

Poor maintenance? I mean if you're going to refer cancer to anything, let it be a malfunction, be it software based or hardware.

Some things just wear out over time, and if the platform is the same, that is we play the same game with the same components we can only there can only be conditions that affect this. Conflicting software maybe?

Blackhearted

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio, usa

none

Mo/

31 Mar 2008 at 10:53 - 83

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admael

I'm going 8-core pretty soon,

Why..? Isn't an octa-core setup kinda overkill for pretty much anything at this current day?

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

31 Mar 2008 at 11:44 - 84

It depends on how much stuff you run at once.
Also, as more and more software is written to be multithreaded and take advantage of multiple CPU's or multiple cores, we'll need more and more cores to keep everything running at full speed.
But yeah, for everyday desktop use 8 cores is presently overkill.

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

31 Mar 2008 at 13:34 - 85

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackhearted

Why..? Isn't an octa-core setup kinda overkill for pretty much anything at this current day?

All hardcore guild wars players have 8 instances of guild wars running at a time so they can control their whole team. Didn't you get the memo?

Personally I'm running a dual core and I have never experienced lockups. Even with me running 101 other things in the background and such. My system would probably be considered pretty slow my today's standards and I'm running all the eye candy to the max.

Admael

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

California

Xen of Heroes

31 Mar 2008 at 20:12 - 86

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackhearted

Why..? Isn't an octa-core setup kinda overkill for pretty much anything at this current day?

Never that, 8 cores is not enough.

But realistically, 4 cores is too much for real world applications--I'm not talking about benchmarking.

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

[GURU]GW [wiki]GW2

R/

31 Mar 2008 at 23:35 - 87

There's a school of thought that says processors are tweaked to pass specific benchmarks...

Or was that GPUs?

Bront

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2008

Honored Order of Light

W/Me

01 Apr 2008 at 06:15 - 88

Ok, I can confirm that droping the affinity on my PC seems to help with the Ping time. Frames seemed unchanged, but they never drop above or below 60 anyway.

I run am AMD setup, might make a difference.

And the ping time droped from 250-1000 down to 125-250. I found it rather odd, but i noticed a big difference in my ability to interupt things with my Mesmer.

Admael

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

California

Xen of Heroes

01 Apr 2008 at 07:10 - 89

Ping is connection based, not hardware based.

There's no such thing as 'passing' a benchmark

Because the true goal of overclocking, 'tweaking' as you call it, is to get the highest marks possible. Since technology changes, drastically, every 18 or so months, 'highest' is an indefinite value. Oh, and overclocking is for everything, not just CPU and GPU.

Bront

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2008

Honored Order of Light

W/Me

01 Apr 2008 at 08:00 - 90

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admael

Ping is connection based, not hardware based.

I'd like to think so.

The only think I can think of is some odd bug involving the extra added time of passing data between two cores, but that "Should" be transparent.

This wouldn't be the first game with a dual core performance bug though.

Blackhearted

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio, usa

none

Mo/

01 Apr 2008 at 13:24 - 91

My pings didn't change between going from the old single core pc to dual core. Your connection must just be having a good day.

Prof Of Black

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2006

@ Sensation Black

Death is Energy [DIE] ~ Raining fame alliance

01 Apr 2008 at 16:23 - 92

I have a Pentium D (3 GHZ dual core)
Works fine for me.

~Prof.

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

01 Apr 2008 at 16:33 - 93

Bront: did you by any chance turn off your router?
Many/most routers have memory leaks, so if they run continously they run out of memory and slow down. My NetGear needs to be restarted (plug pulled and reinserted) about once per week.

Blackhearted

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio, usa

none

Mo/

01 Apr 2008 at 18:21 - 94

Quote:

Originally Posted by Numa Pompilius

Bront: did you by any chance turn off your router?
Many/most routers have memory leaks, so if they run continously they run out of memory and slow down. My NetGear needs to be restarted (plug pulled and reinserted) about once per week.

Hmm. would that be the reason why like... My forwarded ports and such stop working and i can't log into the config without restarting it like once every couple weeks?

Quaker

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Aug 2005

Canada

Brothers Disgruntled

01 Apr 2008 at 22:40 - 95

Quote:

Originally Posted by DutchGun

I know it's disheartening to hear an answer of "it's probably something specific to your machine's configuration", but what other explanation is there when other people with identical CPUs are running problem free?

Of course it's something specific to a machine's configuration. And, most likely, it is not "caused" by having a multi-core cpu. But, forcing GW to run in only one core does cure the problem and the problem does exist.

Bront

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2008

Honored Order of Light

W/Me

03 Apr 2008 at 09:18 - 96

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackhearted

My pings didn't change between going from the old single core pc to dual core. Your connection must just be having a good day.

I think that might have been it. The next day, pings droped even more (Under 100 almost all day), and I didn't go to single core affinity today. It did crash on me twice though. Not sure why my FPS spiked that one day, perhaps it was simply where I was, or perhaps there was something running in the background that I had killed.

I don't deny that some people may have a problem with dual core CPUs. I'm fairly sure now it's not directly a guild wars problem, and related to something else. But if you find it fixes issues you have then by all means, do it.

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

03 Apr 2008 at 12:08 - 97

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackhearted

Hmm. would that be the reason why like... My forwarded ports and such stop working and i can't log into the config without restarting it like once every couple weeks?

Very likely, yes.
I've tried routers from three different companies, and they all had memory leaks and requiring restarts. I think consumer routers simply are not made to be in continuous use.

jjdefan

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2006

Virginia Beach

XoO

R/

03 Apr 2008 at 16:12 - 98

Quote:

Originally Posted by Numa Pompilius

Could the problem be something along these lines?
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;896256

I don't think so. I am running a QX6850 on Vista 64 and if I don't set affinity down to at least 2 cores, I will get random complete computer locks. I have not seen any (iirc) any locks when dropping to 2 cores. When running on all 4 the game runs great till the locks, which are completely random in nature. Sometime it will lock up when just standing around other times it will be during actual game play.

Brianna

Insane & Inhumane

Join Date: Feb 2006

03 Apr 2008 at 17:22 - 99

I'm running my AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ on Vista 64bit with two cores enabled and I get no problems thus far.

However as you all know, I have some pretty bad problems doing the same on Windows XP Professional, and I have to turn off one core on there.

Interesting.. but I'll wait longer to give a concrete answer to whether or not Vista 64bit fixed the problem.

Blackhearted

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio, usa

none

Mo/

04 Apr 2008 at 01:52 - 100

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brianna

I'm running my AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ on Vista 64bit with two cores enabled and I get no problems thus far.

However as you all know, I have some pretty bad problems doing the same on Windows XP Professional, and I have to turn off one core on there.

Interesting.. but I'll wait longer to give a concrete answer to whether or not Vista 64bit fixed the problem.

I run XP Pro myself and the problem has never hit me. So if vista fixes it for you i'd have to think the cause is a configuration issue somewhere on the xp install.