Vista & AMD Dual Cores?

[Sincraft]

Skuzzy,
I upgraded to vista and am still getting the flipping chart thing.  I am fine with running the game in win98 mode as I had 50 fps at all times in game when I did that in XP to fix the problem prior.

If I installed that optimization that AMD offers, I am wondering if it is worth giving it a shot to run AH2 with 2 cores.

I don't want an application (patch) that basically retards my chips.  From what I read on the AMD site, it 'periodically checks' to ensure the timing is correct in gaming (graphics) etc.

Being in this biz for a number of years, that translates to me: Opps, our product is poo and thus we have to patch our crap with more crap that stinks a bit less.

Your thoughts on this?  Has there been any studies that you know of to prove or disprove that this truly IS an optimization patch and not just a fix for a big OPPS that actually retards the processors?

I gotta say, I've been really flying with vista ultimate.  I got it free from M$ and decided to give it a shot.  Everything is flying and my 3dmark scores even went up a hundred points.

Thanks

S

[h338]

i tell you what i was having problems...installed the optimizer...now runs 3 times better than XP

but thats because i have a new video card 3 GB ram and 500GB memory

love my new computer

as a test i ran aces fine today with 3 internet explorer sites up!

[Skuzzy]

Ever wonder why dual-core Intel CPU's do not have any problems at all running the game multi-threaded?  AMD made the error in the design.  It is not 100% compatible for a multi-thread application which needs to use high resolution timers and that is why the work-arounds.

There is not patch for Vista and there will not be a patch for Vista due to Microsoft removing the ability for third party applications to patch the operating system kernel in Vista.

Some Intel based dual-core laptops have the same exact problem.  That is due to the manufacturer trying to extend battery life by disabling the second high resolution timer.

By the way, if the game is running better under Vista, with no hardware changes, then your XP installation was really messed up.  Vista IS about 25 to 30% slower than XP in the same hardware.

[Sincraft]

Skuzzy I dunno what to do.
I am about to toss this system out the window. 
One thing for sure, I'll never do AMD or Creative again.  They are sham companies that cut costs and MAJOR functionality in their products.

I don't know why everything is running so well vs xp.  It's not that much better but it is better.  I would love to be able to move forward very quickly and try different things by reverting back to xp quickly and back to vista but you know as soon as you start putting drivers on you are doing something system wide that has affected the entire system.  So testing would be very non scientific and a very long process.

I was doing things with my little video card , such as playing COD4 on a 24" monitor that I 'shouldn't be able to do with XP. 

However with vista - I am not only having this optimization problem, I am also having a problem with my sound card - which appears to not have a fix years after first discovered.  Pretty sad.

So you are saying that optimization wizard isn't going to work at all?  And AMD isn't doing a thing about it? 
WOW that's ...alarming to say the least!

[Skuzzy]

The only way AMD can fix it is to make a design change to the CPU.  I know they are fixing this issue in future designs, but the current ones are not going to be fixed.

Good news is, Vista will be a short-lived operating system.  Of course, we have yet to see Windows 7, so it could be worse, but my bet is it will be better.

The problems with sound cards and drivers is hitting everyone in the sound card business.  Microsoft crippled the sound system API in Vista so it could incorporate DRM into the sound layer.  It is is a wonder we have stereo sound in Vista for games as Microsoft completely removed the DirectSound API as they could not get DRM to work with it.

[Sincraft]

Skuzzy,
I thought M$ released dx10 dev packs long prior to vista release to enable sound devs to incorporate their drivers?  At least that's what I read.  Everyone wants to use an old outdated method to address hardware whereas they are FORCED to write new driver sets for dx10 and basically a boycott of this occurred resulting in what we have today...a mess?  Sorry I am not on the forefront of development as I am not a programmer.  The little bit of code I do work with is html/php and some scripting for deployments, building an launching tables etc - nothing to the level of 'real' programming so to speak. 

Whatever you do don't tell the amd fanboys what you posted in here.  You outlined, highlighted and bold typefaced what I have been thinking (ala this post) and my comments of crap over crap to make crap smell like crap again when in reality - it's just crap.

Sorry you have to deal with this garbage.  I see a few games out there that are MMORPG that are not supporting vista at all.  Most of their problems are going to be trying to get people's hardware working instead of working on their actual application. 

Sad...I think we have finally hit that level where the machines have complete control over us.  All we can do is sit down and hold on.  I love tech, it's my biz - but we let things go out of control imo.  Can we blame m$ for this?

[Skuzzy]

Sure they did.  Imagine the shock and horror at teh sound card companies when they found out not only did they have to re-write the drivers from scratch, as the API was substantially different, requiring everything to be .NET compatible, but also to find that DirectSound was gone!  Imagine not being able to use ASIO any longer as Microsoft shut that down as well.

Basically Microsoft took away everything the sound card/application industry had spent years to build to get around the pathetic DirectMusic API Microsoft has been trying to force everyone to use.  Vista's sound system is the worst sound system yet.