Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: Blooz on August 01, 2009, 10:20:48 AM
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My system is ancient. The game was unplayable (everything is either off or at it's lowest setting) until this morning I discovered something. I ran the task manager and noticed that my CPU was bouncong from 60% to 0% then up to about 40% then back to 0% then it repeats. Not good I thought. So anyway, why I dwelled on this CPU thing I decided by accident to give offline play a try to see what it does. It played a little rough at first but then it smoothed out at 100% CPU usage. I flew around a bit. Did the normal stuff and did another thing by accident. I exited out of offline play then logged right into online play. Just to see ya know? Guess what? Yup...it plays pretty smooth! My CPU is really huffing and puffing at 100% usage but I can use it! This info may help some of you out there that are having trouble. Now I'm worried about melting my motherboard down with a CPU that's got to be running very hot. Anyway, give it a try. Good luck!
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Thanks for sharing that information, Blooz. Regarding your heat issue, if opening the case is an option, do so placing a ventilation fan next to it. That will help cool the processor.
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When you run the game it runs the CPU at 100% The bouncing is what I'd be worried about. Something else may be stealing your CPU cycles, in turn making the game run crappy.
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That's why I ran task manager to see what was up. Nothing was running except Aces High. Being that I have only one CPU (Athlon "Barton" core running almost 2 GB's) I figured it might have something to do with all these newer machines that have multiple CPU's and of course, the way that the data is processed between everything. As near as I can tell, the vid card isnt doing much. It's all CPU and system RAM doing the work. Used to be the vid card processed the graphics and the CPU did what was left. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore but I am just guessing. I have noticed that the people NOT having problems have multiple CPU's running 2 gigs or more and a heap of system RAM (I saw one guy had 8GB's!) most are around 3 GB's.
My system is very old (almost 10 years). I'm working on getting more RAM and a better vid card. The vid card is the tough one. AGP cards seem to be pretty scarce these days.
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With a "clean" system, your CPU should be at 0% and cycle to 3%.
If nothing is running but the task manager shows your CPU cycling from 0% to 60% then 0% to 40% you do indeed have something firing off in the background.
The Windows Task Manager will not show everything that is "running" on your computer. (Far from it actually)
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I'm only telling it as I saw it.
AH pulled 60%, system idle was 40%
AH went to 0, system idle jumped to 100%
AH jumped up to 40%, idle went to 60%
AH dropped to 0, idle went to 100%
Then the cycle repeated each step taking a second and a half or so.
I'm not worried about it anymore because I found a workaround. It's not the way it's supposed to happen but it works. My worry now is the CPU melting a hole in my motherboard as my processor is at a steady 100% while AH is running and that can't be good.
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I read somehwere that skuzzy said the CPU should always be at 100% when running AH.
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In my opinion, Blooz already knows that. He posted here to unveil his findings that some game installations may not be using 100% of the CPU cycles. After stating his findings he also listed the steps he took to work around the problem.
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If your concerned about not having enough free system resourses then you should try a free utility program called Game Booster from Iobit. It automatically clears up unnecessary resources and clears/frees up RAM that was used by these resources so that you can enter the game as if you booted straight to Aces High. You can find Game Booster at www.iobit.com (http://www.iobit.com).
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In my opinion, Blooz already knows that. He posted here to unveil his findings that some game installations may not be using 100% of the CPU cycles.
Thanks for the benefit of the doubt but actually, I'm concerned the CPU is working too hard and in danger of running too hot (It's doing all the work, graphics, flight model stuff and calculations for bullets and such).
When I watch a video on YouTube the CPU runs at about 45%. When I play Everquest it runs at 20% if I'm not doing anything and 85% when I'm moving around doing things in game. In AH just sitting in the tower doing nothing and the CPU is at 100% makes me nervous about having a motherboard meltdown because I know that when I fly and fight and shoot it's working that much harder and it's going to be running hotter.
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I read somehwere that skuzzy said the CPU should always be at 100% when running AH.
:huh
I don't get anymore than 50% cpu usage regardless of which of my 2 systems I'm using (P4 2.4 HT xtreme or dual core 2.6)...since the 3rd patch I get minor millisecond stutters here and there...75 frames...80 - 90 megs of video ram used.
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Skuzzy has said that 100% CPU is what you should be running when the game is loaded up. Thats why it's important to make sure nothing else is stealing CPU cycles. Running the CPU at 100% isn't going to hurt it.
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Checked my CPU usage while in game jumps from 4-100%.
Looked at the Task Manager and the System Idle Process is jumping from 17-85%.
Any Ideas what is causing this?
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Don't know what causes it but the way I worked around it is posted above. Go offline give a minute or two, deploy a plane, let it smooth out, then exit offline play and log into online play. Don't know why but it works for me.
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That's why I ran task manager to see what was up. Nothing was running except Aces High.
Under the applications tab of tack manager, yes? Under the prossesses tab I bet there is several things on and this is what may need attention.
:huh
I don't get anymore than 50% cpu usage regardless of which of my 2 systems I'm using (P4 2.4 HT xtreme or dual core 2.6)...since the 3rd patch I get minor millisecond stutters here and there...75 frames...80 - 90 megs of video ram used.
The original intent of dual CPUs was to dedicate 1 to a large program and the other to system mangment and background tasks. If you are using 50% of one CPU for the game, you have a problem. If you are using 50% of the combined power of both CPUs, that (I think) is expected.
You may however have some background tasks on the same CPU as the game.
I just re read the quote. Is the P4 2.4 HT xtreme a single CPU?
My XP machine I play on has a single CPU and goes to 100% with the game on. I'm on 56K dialup at the house, so I use a XP loptop and wireless at work to download with. It has a dual core and when I start the game on it, I get 50% on the one CPU usage meter. Haven"t found a way to get 2 meters. On the two CPU Usage History grafs(use the View button if you only have 1 graf) one is higher than the other. What concerns me is that both are bouncing around quite alot.
So my quiestions are: Is this normal? And is there a way to pick what processes go to which CPU. Does not matter to me. I don't play on the laptop. But it might be helpfull to others.
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hey blooz, check out tigerdirect.com. They have a selection of AGP cards to choose from.
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If you are using 50% of one CPU for the game, you have a problem. If you are using 50% of the combined power of both CPUs, that (I think) is expected.
You may however have some background tasks on the same CPU as the game.
I just re read the quote. Is the P4 2.4 HT xtreme a single CPU?
Yeah the P4 is a single processor although dxdiag shows 2 and task manager shows 2 cpu panes. Still only 50% in tower...jumps to maybe 75% in heavy action. The video card is only an Nvidia 7300GT 512MB vram...only uses 92max and I'm getting 60 to 72 frames...I might have to update the driver on it.
The dual core system is showing 50% on both processors with the game running as well...better video card...better performance.
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hey blooz, check out tigerdirect.com. They have a selection of AGP cards to choose from.
Thanks. I've got a used Geforce 7800GT on the way. I've also got two sticks of 512MB memory on the way.
I hope it's enough to make a difference.