CPU Load

[andym]

When im playing HCE i have noticed that my CPU fan goes into turbo mode and the lappy gets VERY hot.It doesnt do this when i play other games such as rome total war,JTCS,MS Train Sim and Silent hunter 2,which are all heavy graphically.I also sut down non essential processes and programmes when gaming.Any ideas?My system is well within the requirements for the game.

[MarkShot]

Yes, I just confirmed that HCCE burns max CPU no matter what it is doing. For me, I have four CPUs (one which I dedicate to running my games) and they are all liquid cooled.

This is probably due to the old DOS style programming. Typically when waiting for something in DOS game, you did this:

LOOP: Is there any user input?
GOTO LOOP

In Windows programming, it would look more like this:

LOOP: Turn over control to Windows until input received
GOTO LOOP

So, DOS programs can run at 100% CPU. Of course, for DOS this programming style was not an issue, since you couldn't do anything else with your PC anyway.

You might try this. I use this for old games that run too fast (like the map scrolls too fast, because they get too much CPU):

http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/moslo.asp

You can limit CPU on a per process basis. So, imagine you run HCCE at 25% or 50% CPU. This should cause your machine to run cooler, still meet HCCE requirements, and leave CPU for other things to run.

I think this utility costs $25.

[mack2]

Only uses half the CPU (as shown in Task Manager) of mine. It is a dual core.

[MarkShot]

Well, if you do independent CPU displays, you will see that it is consuming 100% of one single CPU. So, on mine overall that is 25%.

[mack2]

Not for mine.

[MarkShot]

100% of a processor with 1 processor = 100% overall

100% of a processor with 2 processor = 50% overall

100% of a processor with 4 processor = 25% overall

Dual core means 2 processors.

[Johnus]

MarkShot:

I also run a dual core and see that HCE is using 50%, or, as you have explained, 100% of one of the processors. This is not a problem for the machine, or is it ??

Thanks.

[MarkShot]

Only two potential issues:

(1) If you have a single core, it may be an inconvenience if you like to run your mail or other things in background. You could resolve that through demoting the priority of the game, such that your mail or other stuff gets CPU time whenever it asks for it first.

(2) If your machine cannot handle the heat of a single processor running at full tilt. However, most machines should be designed to run at max CPU allocation. (It could be some wear on variable speed laptop fans and increase the speed of dust accumulation on radiator fins and stuff.)

---

One thing a laptop user could do if it bother them is use a speed step program to run the CPU at a lower clock frequency. Typically laptops will do this automatically in XP or Vista due to the power profile when you switch from AC to DC. But you could force it processor to step down even when running on AC.

[MarkShot]

To demote, you use the Task Manager and right click. Set the priority to lowest.

For a single processor machine this will allow other programs to jump ahead of the game if they want CPU. However, the CPU will still show 100% utilization, since either something else will get some cycles or HCCE will take it all for itself.

Before this machine, my old machine had a single processor without hyper-threading (2002 issue). This technique worked well so that I could play games and mail and Web surfing all at the same time. Otherwise, the machine would crawl like molasses if game tried to run flat out all the time.

[TonyE]

Well, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, HC isn't going to be stealing all that much thunder from your mail program as they are at equal priority levels and there is very little HC inspired disk activity.
 
As for notebooks, yes, some less well designed notebooks (and ones with heatsinks full of dust) could have heat problems.  MarkShot lists valid ways to minimize that chance, mainly by slowing down the processor (in turn using less power/giving off less heat).
 
In the end I doubt you have to worry about killing a machine that is otherwise in good health.

[TonyE]

And unless I'm missing something, the first patch will get rid of that constantly pegged CPU usage, and it took a grand total of 5 lines of code (one line of comments, two lines with { }, and two lines that actually do something).  That has bugged me literally for years

[SteveF2006]

Wow, I feel so insignificant with my one measly P4! [:(] I must be a looser! [:@]

[MarkShot]

Well, at least, a single P4 should run this game just fine.

I used to be a flight simmer and buy a new top of the line PC every two years. These days I find as a wargamer that a PC should be good for 5-6 years, since the demands are lower and I am playing a lot of older title "classics".

[mack2]

ORIGINAL: MarkShot

Well, if you do independent CPU displays, you will see that it is consuming 100% of one single CPU. So, on mine overall that is 25%.

Mine was indepedent CPU displays. It never used 100% combined, or 100% of one or the other.

[Divefreak]

ORIGINAL: MarkShot

Well, at least, a single P4 should run this game just fine.

I used to be a flight simmer and buy a new top of the line PC every two years. These days I find as a wargamer that a PC should be good for 5-6 years, since the demands are lower and I am playing a lot of older title "classics".

My Pc is a PIV 2.4 with 7xx MB Ram
or i use my Laptop/notbook PIV 2.6 with 512mb RAM(shared)

HCE runs fine on both machines...

[andym]

Glad to see that its really quite normal,ill just have to pause it every now and again.Be interesting to see what effect the patch will have.Shame that bit cant be released early.