Hi,
I play duke3d with this port and it always uses 100% of the processor. Is it OK? I play on notebook so it's annoying because of the cooling and battery usage :(
JonoF at
You'll find pretty much every game will use 100% CPU load while you're playing it.
Jonathon
dezo at
I don't think so (even NFSU doesn't take so much processor time). And while waiting for network players, why it uses 100%? Waiting is waiting, not polling.
dtcostelloe at
RAM is the main key ...
I don't know anything about the system you're running the game on ... but I do know that RAM is one of the key elements with any software.
I run a P4 3.4 GHz with 2 GB of RAM. Duke3D using the windows port uses about 20% of my processing power. (That's during full load, of course.) Doom 3, with all graphics options turned on uses 50% to 54%.
On the other hand, a friend of mine had a P3 500 mHz system with only 64MB of RAM. He asked me to install Windows XP on it for him ... which I did despite telling him he needed to quadruple his RAM first ... just running Windows XP by itself used 100% of that computer's processing power. I later upgraded the RAM from 64MB to 512MB. His system resource meter dropped from 100% at idle to 1% to 8%.
Again, I don't know any details about your system ... but if you are running with 128MB or less RAM, I would seriously consider spending some money and upgrading your RAM.
Something else to consider is that *most* laptop systems (or notebooks) were NOT designed for extensive gaming ... beyond that of Solitaire or the like. If you want to post your detailed system information, perhaps I can suggest something a little more helpful. Good luck!
Sporb at
Duke3D port - 100% usage of processor
I thought that the OS executed the users programs with the highest possible prority? IE games/apps etc. And that in doing so it should always use close to 100% CPU while said application is running. all the CPU time is dedicated to the program in execution afaik
i could be wrong but it seems more logical that way to me
I reckon that so long as the programs you run do so without problems, you should forget it and leave it be. If it aint broken, dont try to fix it.
EDIT: Someone already pointed out that programs often use lots of CPU time
dtcostelloe at
It really depends on what you have ...
High priority will make the most use of your AVAILABLE resources, but it should not take 100 percent. (Unless you have a lot of garbage installed ... ex: Yahoo Messenger, AIM, special keyboard button TSR's, anti-virus applications, etc. OR if you have a slow processor, or limited RAM.)
Like I said, I run Jonof's WinDuke on my Pentium 4 3.4 GHz machine, with 2GB of RAM, and at max, I use around 25 to 30 percent of my systems total AVAILABLE resources. That's why I told the guy that RAM is number one ... especially if he's running Windows XP, since XP has so much stuff running in the background anyway.
RAM is perhaps the key element however. Especially since Windows automatically "simulates" RAM by using hard drive space when physical memory is low. So, in effect, by running Duke3D under Windows with less than 256MB of RAM, you are having to wait while the system tries to read and write RAM information to the hard disk at the same time that it's trying to "on-the-fly" load in-game sounds, music, textures, etc. That's a LOT of processing right there that could be eliminated by adding RAM, or at the very least, completely close ANY other running applications that aren't critical to the game itself.
The only way I can EVER get my system to use 100 percent of it's total processing power is to play DOOM 3 on my primary monitor, while I watch a DVD on my secondary monitor. Other than that, the only thing that came close was when I was doing some extensive video work.
Look at it like this: if you are pulling a trailer with one ton of weight in it, then that would probably take 100 percent of a four cylinder engine's power to pull. On the other hand, if you've got a big V8 engine, if it's using 100 percent of THAT engine, then you need a tune-up ... BADLY.
Sporb at
Duke3D port - 100% usage of processor
all my big games always use 100% of my CPU - Halo, Starcraft, TA, Duke, doomsday, serious sam and probably evn wolf 3D though i havent checked this last one out yet. [it seems that] Basically anything that requires full screen seems to take 100% CPU. The same goes for games on my brothers laptop, same goes for my mothers Dell, same goes for my mates p4, same goes for my workstation at collage. If its WINDOWED, afaik thats a different story but when it in full screen, it sounds weird that it isnt using full CPU, almost like the program isnt being given highest priority.
EDIT: full screen wolfie 3D does also take up 100% of my CPU - theres no way a tiny little program from 12 years ago could possibly tie up all my memory/time slices unless the computer has specifically given it 100% CPU to execute in.
EDIT2: this being based on task managers CPU usage graphing
parkar at
Games tend to be built with busy waiting which means that it is basicaly just one big loop running over and over without any pauses. You could probably do a program that just adds two numbers togther in an infinite loop and it would most likely comsume all the free cpu time. This is not a problem however since as soon as you start a second program or if you already have more then the game running They will get there needed CPU time and the game will just get less CPU time then it would if it was running alone.
The OS will typicaly let software use all the free resources if there is tasks to be done.
Doom 3 and some other games I am sure is locked to a specific framerate. 60 fps in doom 3 I belive. In this case if you have a fast enough CPU it will not be using all the resources since the loop will be waiting until at least 1/60 of a second has passed before moving on.
The rest of your system will probably have some effect on this as well.
dtcostelloe at
Most interesting ...
Well ... I don't know why every system but mine seems to use all system resources to run even old games. Just to let you know though, one of the advantages to using dual monitors is that I can run a full-screen game (AKA Duke3D or Doom 3) on the primary monitor (which I have to in most cases) while I have the system resource monitor open on the secondary monitor. This makes it very helpful for monitoring CPU usage during different stages of whatever game I'm playing. (Besides, it gives a more accurate reading by having the monitor displaying in real-time rather than having to ALT-TAB away from the full-screen game / app to see what the resource meter says.)
I just did another check to make sure I wasn't just mis-reading my screen or something:
With the following applications running:
Outlook Express 6
Internet Explorer 6 (2 instances)
Duke Nukem 3D with Hi-Res pack for Windows port
And these TSR (terminate and stay resident) programs running:
iTouch (keyboard button controller program)
atitray (ATI display settings icon)
bellsouth (BellSouth internet accelerator app)
C-Media (audio mixer / 3D sound access panel app)
PC-cillin (anti-virus with real-time scan enabled)
mouse (mouse controller app)
My system resource meter is fluctuating between 43% and 52%.
43% while standing still without any monsters roaming nearby, or any miscellaneous sound effects (EX: Duke's crashing spaceship noise)
52% while flying with the jetpack, chasing pig cops flying around and being shot at from the ground by a couple of lizard troopers and pig cops ... 1024x768 screen resolution.
Of course, the above conditions are for this computer. I will run this game on the other 3 XP computers in the house and see what they read as far as CPU usage and whatnot are concerned.
It might be something specific to this computer ... if anyone has any ideas, let me know ... here's my system specs for this computer:
Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz socket LGA775 CPU with HyperThreading
ASUS P5GDC Deluxe motherboard
2 GB DDR2 RAM (2 x 1GB sticks)
ATI Radeon X600 Pro PCI Express 256MB video card (Primary)
ATI Radeon 9250 PCI 256MB video card (Secondary)
Sony DVD-ROM drive DDU1613
Sony DVD Re-Writeable Dual Layer DW-D22A
Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA hard disk drive with 8MB cache
C-Media 7.1 channel high definition audio card (on-board)
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
I buiilt this system from scratch about this time last year.
I'll post the information concerning the other systems along with their specifications when I get time to run the game on them.
JonoF at
Duke3D port - 100% usage of processor
dtcostelloe, your hyperthreaded CPU is effectively two processors, so if a thread is in a busy loop like parkar described, you will only get 50% load. To get 100% load you would need two threads under heavy load, one running on each virtual CPU. JFDuke3D is single-threaded and does not have a framerate limiter, so it will peg a processor at 100% load.
Jonathon
dtcostelloe at
Makes sense ...
OK, that makes sense. I forgot about that hyperthreaded, virtual processor stuff ... my bad.
That explains why I have to play Doom3 and play a DVD at the same time to get 100 percent usage. (1 app per "virtual" processor)
Thanks for the info!
PS: I took the time to check the game on the other 3 systems running XP in the house, and they all showed fairly close to 100% usage. (I think the range was anywhere from 86% up to 100%.)
P3 866 MHz with 384 MB of RAM
P3 1000 MHz with 384 MB of RAM
AMD 2GHz with 1024 MB of RAM
Of course, the other three PCs are not hyperthreaded CPUs.
And, just in case anyone else might be running similar systems / processors ... the game worked great for me on all the PCs listed above. (Just the game, I haven't tried running the hi-res pack on any of the other systems yet ... I'm not sure what the minimal system requirements for the hi-res pack are.)