FYI: Jerky performance for AMD dual cores

[scramasax]

Since I've encountered this in the worst way with my new AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 over the past week, I thought I'd share the various fixes with others that might consider upgrading. I'm not a techie, so I apologise in advance for my using layman's terms.

Apparently, the AMD dual core processors don't handle NWN very well. Symptoms include 'teleporting' into weird parts of the map 20feet up, stuttering and jerky movement, and one-moment-here-one-moment-dead combat.

(a) The recommended solution is to visit the utilities & drivers link at this page... www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources ...to download and install the "AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor Driver for Windows XP" found near the bottom of that page. This ought to solve the problem. From the same page, I also downloaded and installed the "AMD Dual-Core Optimiser" (don't think it hurt to do so).

If that doesn't work, you can try the following little tweaks:-

(b) enabling V-sync in the in-game Options->Video menu

(c) disabling hardware cursor in the start-up menu Configure->Change menu checkbox

The techie powers-that-be don't seem to know why changing these settings should matter, but it's reputed to work. For a short while, enabling V-sync worked for me too.

or as a last resort, you can force NWN to run on only one processer instead of dual processors. It's not that bad, because your one processor is probably better than whatever NWN was designed to work with way back in 2002.

(d) editing the "nwnplayer.ini" file in your main NWN directory, and changing from "Client CPU affinity=-1" to "Client CPU affinity=0" or "Client CPU affinity=1" (whichever of your dual CPUs tickles your fancy)

Information was gleaned from the NWNforums found here...

nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=445423&forum=49

Last, I hope Fini and gang managed to save that kidnapped elf

Cheers,

[soulfien]

Were you using Windows XP 64 or the standard XP or XP pro?

From what I heard is that Windows XP 64 was the patch that was able to properly run a 64 dual core chip. It was written while we're waiting for Vista which is the real 64 bit version of Windows.

Located HERE

[Munroe]

I have x64 in a drawer but don't have all the latest 64-bit drivers for my motherboard so I'm afraid of it. I hope Vista 64-bit is driver-compatible with x64.

[Kharn597]

I have a
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual
Cor Processor 4200+
2.21 Ghz

and I have never encounter any problems related to my processor causing in never winter nights. I run into window xp pro conflicts at times but not often.

[scramasax]

iirc, one of the posts said that the problem was more prevalent in systems with WinXP Home and/or standalone service pack 2 installs.

I run off WinXP Home, so maybe that was a contributing factor? *shrugs*

I shan't use WinXP 64. I think there was something in the official NWN2 FAQ that NWN2 isn't compatible. Since I bought this machine primarily to play NWN2...

[soulfien]

bah, don't get XP Pro thinking it's going to fix a problem. The only thing Pro has that Home doesn't is extra networking features that professional offices need. It's still just XP.

Most people of course don't know this and automatically assume a hgiher price means more cool stuff so they purchase it thinking it'll make their system cooler.

I always use Home and I can do everything anyone else can.

[Munroe]

We have one computer with Home and two with Professional here. The one with Home doesn't have IIS on it and we do use that a good bit, buggy though it is.

[soulfien]

well, you're smarter than most people

[Kharn597]

I got XP pro cause thats what my engineering college wants us to have. Both on my lap top and my desktop.

[ChrilWavingdark]

I didn't know dual cores had this problem. Marklar has one and he hasn't bitched to me yet to fix it lol!

[Munroe]

I'd kind of like to own a dual-core but my processor isn't old enough to justify getting a new one.