Game Help:Dual Core Issues
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Dual/Quad Core Issues
PLEASE NOTE: Having a multi-core processor is not the only cause for the below problems! Among other things, having an underpowered computer is one of the most common causes for performance and stability problems. Make sure that your computer meets recommendations to play TS2 and all expansions.
ALSO NOTE: This guide only applies to TS2, and not TS3. TS3 is optimized to work with dual core processors and greatly benefits from them.
Problem(s)
- The game is quite jerky, even at high frame rates, and may intermittently crash.
- Things seem to run slow and fast randomly.
Cause
This is because the game may have compatibility issues with some multi-core CPUs. TS2 can not make use of multi-core (dual, quad, etc) technology, so not only is there no performance boost with these CPUs, but there may be issues which require the following steps to be resolved...
Solution
To fix this problem, you must set your processor affinity manually. Note that setting processor affinity automatically is not possible without 3rd party software (in other words, it's not inbuilt into XP or Vista and this process, without extra tools, must be performed each time you run the game).
Setting Processor Affinity Manually:
- Launch the game.
- As soon as the game appears to begin loading, or after it has loaded up, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the Task Manager.
- Under the Processes tab, find the nameofthegame.exe process (Sims2EP5.exe, for example), right-click on it, select 'Set Affinity'
- In the box which appears, keep 'CPU 0' ticked but untick all other boxes.
But what if I have a Dual/Quad Core processor and everything runs fine?
That's great. If you don't have any of the above problems, there is no need to change the affinity. Also, in some cases, changing the affinity may CAUSE performance and instability problems. If things get worse after following the above guide, just re-tick the boxes.
Related Links
Credits
Thanks to Echo for originally sharing this information.
