Processor Affinity

[qksilver]

i run a dual core win xp box with 4 gigs of ram. i also play eq (the original) which doesn't support dual core yet. after having graphic issues i discovered that i could set my eq instance to only use one processor during gameplay to knock out all of the glitches.

well now i play 2 accounts (just found this site today) and really like my 2 monitor setup since i can use one KB and mouse. recently, ive been getting the same graphic and performance issues i had before, but only on one account, they other plays fine.

so my question: anyone know how to dedicate one processor resource to one instance of the game and my other processor resource to the other instance? or, anyone else experienced these kinds of issues and have a fix?

[Xzin]

In XP, go to task manager, process tab, right click on WoW.exe and set the affinity.

No idea how to do it in Vista.

[inire]

From the below link...

"You can do that manually after the program starts with Task Manager, but that's a pain. However, under Vista, you can set processor affinity from the command-line with the "start" command.

"start /affinity 01 c:\program files\sony\EverQuestII\eq2.exe", and it runs great."

http://weblogs.asp.net/cszurgot/archive/2007/04/27/useful-compatability-switch-on-vista-start-affinity.aspx

Just make that the shortcut for the application, and it will always stick to the correct processor.

this command should also work in XP Professional SP2.

[inire]

oh, don't forget the quotes at the start/end of that phrase...

heh... wasn't too clear on that, but the link is pretty clear.

[Stabface]

Hmm, the start /affinity command does not seem work for me in XP Pro SP2... ideas? I think it's a Vista-only function.

[inire]

hmm...

I'll try it out tonight on my xp system... sorry that I didn't see this until today!

[inire]

well, shucks, looks like you'll have to use some other software for this in XP.

http://www.ice-graphics.com/ICEAffinity/IndexE.html

This is the best choice I have seen, as it allows a launch in Windows XP Professional SP2 and sets affinity at command line level. Sadly, it appears to be limited in what processors it can set affinity to, but two seems to be good enough.

I tried it with a command line batch file, like so.

@echo off
c:\ICEAffinity.exe 1 "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WoW.exe"
wait 20000
c:\ICEAffinity.exe 2 "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WoW.exe"
exit

It worked great on my CoreDuo2 Windows XP SP2 Professional system.

With the ICEAffinity.exe file in the root of the C drive, obviously. You could put it in a folder in the search path (like c:\windows\system32) if you would like to simply call ICEAffinity.exe from the command line w/o the c:\

I scanned ICEAffinity with McAfee, Clam and Symantec, but you should be paranoid yourself.

[blackwatch]

Old article... but worth checking out the utility and reading up on the subject matter, IMHO.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/05/28/getting_more_bang_out_of_your_dual_processing_buck/index.html


Given that 8 way CPU's are around the corner and if you run the 64-bit version of XP (prefer Vista) w/ >4GB RAM... how many instances do you think we have potential to run?

Next gen workstations will feature 16 Cores (2 CPU sockets x 8 Cores per CPU) and RAM ceilings around 128GB. Obviously most won't even run half of that in their systems, probably closer to around 8-16GB of RAM. But you have to think of the possibilities there. 8 Core CPU's are not far off. (QuadCore in notebooks is in the very near future as well.)

...
My current workstation has 2 DualCore CPU's. I can set affinity for all 4 (Processors 0-3). I use this when funning Folding@Home (4 jobs running on one box, 1 job per Core x 4 cores).
The same also goes for the system I have with 2 QuadCore CPU's (8 CPU's).

[Xzin]

Don't forget you have a limited GPU resource pool. And at some point, IO is going to be an issue.

The same has been said about Virtualization. It is WONDERFUL for some applications. Gaming is not one of them. (Yet?).