pentium 4 HT, GW maxes out at 50% CPU usage

while this is certainly not a dual core processor, the pentium 4 HT does handle up to 2 threads at a time, and can dynamically allocate resources to the most demanding application.

problem is, GW will only have 50% CPU usage. this isn't just a GW issue, since i found that when i was test-running my bigger java projects, the processor will only click at 50% as well.

in fact, when i go to set affinity in the task manager, it clearly showed two (2) cores, when there should only be one.

is there a way to get around this?

You can "disable" HT but you'll take a performance hit. Don't worry even though it says 50%, I can guarantee you that it's using way more than 50% of the CPU. If one thread is at 100% like Guildwars, the processor works at 100% just for guildwars, but if another process uses the CPU at another thread at 100%, the CPU needs to divert it's resources to the other process as well, leading to 50% GW, and 50% other process.

If you don't have any other processes running, then you shouldn't worry about it.

well, as Lania said, you can disable HTT if you want to
but DONT, despite what anyone on here will say u will LOSE performance

And short answer to GW not using more then 50% is that GW can't handle more then one Core/Thread/Cpu , it has no SMP capability
so 50% is perfectly normal and it should be that way

Windows sees HT as 2 processors; that's normal.

Not always true. Some applications actually run slightly slower when hyperthreading is enabled.

Yeah but the advantage HT gives for multi-tasking is better than a tiny bit of extra speed IMO.