Does EQ2 Support Dual-Core Processors?

[Vireck]

It would seem EQ2 runs much worse than any other game on my system.Does EQ2 even support dual core processors, in the sense that it utilizes both cores to optimize performance?

[skinandbones]

No it dont.  Their have been several post about this asking for it.

[Loolee]

Since EQ2 was created before dual-core systems came out, it does NOT support dual-core processors.If you are having trouble getting your pc to run EQ2 smoothly, you should look here for tips on what you can do to optimize your gaming experience.

[ZThoth]

Loolee, that's kind of a BS answer (no offence intended)...World of Warcraft was released the same time and originally didn't support Dual Cores, but now does.

Maybe WoW's engine is more flexible to alter than EQ2's, I don't know the answer.

[LordPazuzu]

Azag@Crushbone wrote:

Loolee, that's kind of a BS answer (no offence intended)...World of Warcraft was released the same time and originally didn't support Dual Cores, but now does.

Maybe WoW's engine is more flexible to alter than EQ2's, I don't know the answer.

The EQ2 engine is rather infamous for being inflexible.

[Thunderthyze]

I don't have a problem with the framerates I get off my Athlon 64 single core processor. Thank goodness you don't need cutting edge equipment in order to run the game or SOE would lose half the player base overnight.

[Wingrider01]

Azag@Crushbone wrote:

Loolee, that's kind of a BS answer (no offence intended)...World of Warcraft was released the same time and originally didn't support Dual Cores, but now does.

Maybe WoW's engine is more flexible to alter than EQ2's, I don't know the answer.

No it doesn't, it was patched to offload some processes to the second core, same thing that eq2 does. It does not truely support multi-core processing, if it did then it would shomw some scaling to quad cores, which it does not. There is a major difference between offloading some processes and truely supporting parallel processing systems

[hdfxe]

Wingrider01 wrote:

Azag@Crushbone wrote:

Loolee, that's kind of a BS answer (no offence intended)...World of Warcraft was released the same time and originally didn't support Dual Cores, but now does.

Maybe WoW's engine is more flexible to alter than EQ2's, I don't know the answer.

No it doesn't, it was patched to offload some processes to the second core, same thing that eq2 does. It does not truely support multi-core processing, if it did then it would shomw some scaling to quad cores, which it does not. There is a major difference between offloading some processes and truely supporting parallel processing systems

Really? My computer shows an almost 50/50 processor usage in WOW, RF Online, Anarchy Online, even EQ1 shows usage of both cores. It shows a 99/1 split in EQ2, ocassionally going to 90/10. I, like some others who have played EQ2 since beta, know that it did at one time utilize the multicore processors to a much better level than now, not really 50/50 but more like 70/30 ( which is much better than even 90/10).

They made a patch, update 28 I believe it was, to stop an error that was caused by some multicore systems. The error gave some unintentional speed hacks due to the timing of the cores. Now, if they truely cared about not burning up one of the cores in multicore users systems, they would find an actual fix for this bug rather than penalizing those of us willing to embrace new technology.

Not even going to go into an SLI rant. "The way it is meant to be played"???????????????

[Gaige]

Holymoly@Runnyeye wrote:

Thank goodness you don't need cutting edge equipment in order to run the game or SOE would lose half the player base overnight.

In case you were unaware, supporting current hardware is a lot different than requiring cutting edge equipment.  People complain about EQ2 because as you upgrade to newer hardware your performance generally decreases.

Your statement would make more sense if you were talking about Crysis, but it had nothing to do with the OP's question at all.

[Kotomi]

hdfxe78 wrote:

Wingrider01 wrote:

Azag@Crushbone wrote:

Loolee, that's kind of a BS answer (no offence intended)...World of Warcraft was released the same time and originally didn't support Dual Cores, but now does.

Maybe WoW's engine is more flexible to alter than EQ2's, I don't know the answer.

No it doesn't, it was patched to offload some processes to the second core, same thing that eq2 does. It does not truely support multi-core processing, if it did then it would shomw some scaling to quad cores, which it does not. There is a major difference between offloading some processes and truely supporting parallel processing systems

Really? My computer shows an almost 50/50 processor usage in WOW, RF Online, Anarchy Online, even EQ1 shows usage of both cores. It shows a 99/1 split in EQ2, ocassionally going to 90/10. I, like some others who have played EQ2 since beta, know that it did at one time utilize the multicore processors to a much better level than now, not really 50/50 but more like 70/30 ( which is much better than even 90/10).

When you say 50/50 processor usage, do you mean each core being used at 50% or each core being used at 100%? I'm seeing roughly equal use of both cores in WoW and RF, but they're not being used 100%. Both cores being used does not equal multicore support, it is simply a scheduling thing where the operating system switches which processor runs the game. True multicore usage would be the game being able to use both cores at 100%.

[Wingrider01]

hdfxe78 wrote:

Wingrider01 wrote:

Azag@Crushbone wrote:

Loolee, that's kind of a BS answer (no offence intended)...World of Warcraft was released the same time and originally didn't support Dual Cores, but now does.

Maybe WoW's engine is more flexible to alter than EQ2's, I don't know the answer.

No it doesn't, it was patched to offload some processes to the second core, same thing that eq2 does. It does not truely support multi-core processing, if it did then it would shomw some scaling to quad cores, which it does not. There is a major difference between offloading some processes and truely supporting parallel processing systems

Really? My computer shows an almost 50/50 processor usage in WOW, RF Online, Anarchy Online, even EQ1 shows usage of both cores. It shows a 99/1 split in EQ2, ocassionally going to 90/10. I, like some others who have played EQ2 since beta, know that it did at one time utilize the multicore processors to a much better level than now, not really 50/50 but more like 70/30 ( which is much better than even 90/10).

They made a patch, update 28 I believe it was, to stop an error that was caused by some multicore systems. The error gave some unintentional speed hacks due to the timing of the cores. Now, if they truely cared about not burning up one of the cores in multicore users systems, they would find an actual fix for this bug rather than penalizing those of us willing to embrace new technology.

Not even going to go into an SLI rant. "The way it is meant to be played"???????????????

Run a quad core with a pair of 7950GX2's (soon to be replaced with 9800GX2's) on a 680I motherboard (the board has three PCI Express x16 slots), play WOW also , it does not access the 3rd and 4th processor core. If the application was written to truely support parallel processing it would balance across ALL cores available in a system. coding to offload some processes to the second core does not equate patrallel processing capable. In addition do a search here, the QA team has verified that eq2 does offload to the second core.

Play fine even in a raid senario with full graphics on except for shadows, that is by preference I detest shadows, although I do also turn off particle effects simpley because I cannot see what is happening.

Update 28 patch primarly was for the way AMD implemented the X2 processor builds, in conjunction the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer drivers needed to be loaded to correclty fix the issue.

[TSR-TrevorG]

Looks like a good conversation here.No EQ2 does not support multi processors currently.

[Caipira]

TSR-TrevorG wrote:

Looks like a good conversation here.No EQ2 does not support multi processors currently.

"Currently" Trevor? I know reading too much into the post is just asking for dissapointment, but are there plans to rehaul the software for multi-processors enhancements, or will it be EQ3 before its just "compatible"

[TSR-TrevorG]

I have not heard of any plans to make it multi processor, nor have I heard of EQ3.  I will try and watch my verbage about this in the future.

[Kotomi]

Dismas@Najena wrote:

TSR-TrevorG wrote:

Looks like a good conversation here.No EQ2 does not support multi processors currently.

"Currently" Trevor? I know reading too much into the post is just asking for dissapointment, but are there plans to rehaul the software for multi-processors enhancements, or will it be EQ3 before its just "compatible"

Probably not, Rothgar believed (according to comments on his blog) they'd see a larger performance increase from moving work from the CPU to the GPU compared to dual core enhancements, so it seems more likely that's where we'll see future performance increases from.

[TSR-DanielH]

Just to be clear, Everquest 2 is already compatible with multi-core processors.  They don't provide a tangible increase in performance, though, since the game was designed to use just the single core.

[TSR-TrevorG]

:-/ Thats what I meant..no really.

[Nadr]

so ..

your saying that when i upgraded my computer from a 3.0.. to a duelcore 2.66 that for EQ2 I downgraded my ability to play EQ2?

I currently run at about 100% on core 2 and 5% on Core 1.  There is mininmal offloading to the 2nd core if any.

[Elorah]

They implemented a dual core support recently I thought.  I know that my playing went up somewhat...Game Update #49

[Nadr]

MULTICORE SUPPORT

* EQII now runs better with more than one CPU. * The game automatically detects if you have more than one CPU. * There is an option to control whether the game uses multicore mode in the Options Window under Display -> Performance. * If you're running multiple clients on the same computer you may want to disable multicore mode. * Game clients prefer running on CPUs other than the first CPU. * Setting the multicore option has no effect on machines with one CPU.

I will agree that it runs better on the 2nd core.. that one stays at 100% most of the time.  The first core however never goes past 20%.   I am pretty sure since my normal operations runs 10-20% spread out over both cores when EQ2 is not running ... and 10-20% on Core 1 and 100% on Core 2 when it is, that the game is using Core 2 and not even touching Core 1. 

[TSR-DanielH]

Nadr wrote:

so ..

your saying that when i upgraded my computer from a 3.0.. to a duelcore 2.66 that for EQ2 I downgraded my ability to play EQ2?

I currently run at about 100% on core 2 and 5% on Core 1.  There is mininmal offloading to the 2nd core if any.

Not really.  The post you're responding to is over 6 months old.  Multi-core support has been added in the meantime.  The option is listed in the performance options in-game. You should see a performance boost with multi-core CPUs at this point.

I just upgraded from a 2.8ghz P4 to a 2.4ghz quad core yesterday and I saw large performance gains.  Even after switching from high performance to high quality I was getting more than double my previous frame rate.

[Nadr]

That still doesnt explain why I run at 100% on core 2, and 5-15% ( i have shut off alot of background as I crash alot if i go above balanced)  on core 1?

It is not sharing the load between the cores.

I am not a computer expert and I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that I get the outofmemeory errors every time I visit Neriak. The game trys to work it all on the one core and starts blowing thru my memory?

I have 2gb of memory and run Windows XP.

I have played almost every well knows MMO in the last 5 years and I have never had issues like these with anything other then EQ2.  (Sorry thats a lie, I was there for AO's launch).

[Totengraeber]

hi

lol i was there for the first few months of AO also.  I still wake up screaming.

i run eq2 on 2 pc's  1 is a quad core intel 9650 and the other is an amd dual core 4600.  other than that both are pretty much the same and i see no improvement on either if i switch from enabling multicore support to disabling it.

i do know that compared to wow, daoc, eq1, lotro, D&D Online, that eq2 is the touchiest game about my hardware setup.

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from the evil overlords handbook......"when i see the hero across the field about to be attacked by my minions of evil, under no circumstances will i yell out......Leave him alone, he's mine!!!

[asmiro]

To simplify things, unless the EQ2 engine gets a COMPLETE overhaul, it will NEVER have TRUE multi-core support. period.

when buying a new system with up-to-date hardware, you REALLY need to pay close attention to what the CPU speed is compared to what you have now.

in the TSR's example, he upgraded from a 2.8Ghz P4 single core processor, to a 2.4Ghz quad core. the ONLY reason he saw any performance gain at all, is likley a combination of having more system ram, and having at least 2 cores in the system with the recent addition of the process off-loading "feature". lets say for kicks and grins he started out with a 3.2Ghz single core P4... then went to that same 2.4Ghz quad core.... he wouldnt have noticed much of an improvement, and may even have noticed LESSER performance. why? because you are actually DOWNGRADING to a slower single core, even though ALL FOUR cores run at 2.4Ghz. the one that EQ2 uses is still significantly SLOWER than your original processor.

that said, assuming you go from a single core system to a multi-core system with a slower CPU clock-rate.... if you get a motherboard or system that supports OVERCLOCKING (or OCing for short), and you take that (assuming an intel CPU here) 2.4Ghz quad core up to around 3.16 Ghz or so (it should, given that you also bought an aftermarket heatsink and fan unit), you should see your performance at the very LEAST, even out again, if not, increase over what you had before you bought the new system.

OCing is NOT recommended for those not familiar around a system's bios settings. messing with these in the wrong manner can cause your system to be unbootable, and even fry some hardware itself.

that said, it can give you significant performance gains on slightly cheaper hardware.

[Nadr]

I went from my 3.0 with a 8600GT AGP video card to the new system....  2.66 duel core, Much better vid card (sorry cant recall exactly what).

I bought a new MB and upgraded the memory and the whole thing was built with the intention to overclock it.

I had it running about 3.2 until i started playing EQ2 again.  EQ2 kills it tho and I have to put it back to about 2.8.

I used to run on Balanced with my old rig.  This new one.. so head and shoulders above the old one.. runs on balanced and even there crashs all the time.

Hell, I am thinking about going to vista just to get more memory to see if it stops the crashing.

[TSR-DanielH]

asmiro wrote:

in the TSR's example, he upgraded from a 2.8Ghz P4 single core processor, to a 2.4Ghz quad core. the ONLY reason he saw any performance gain at all, is likley a combination of having more system ram, and having at least 2 cores in the system with the recent addition of the process off-loading "feature". lets say for kicks and grins he started out with a 3.2Ghz single core P4... then went to that same 2.4Ghz quad core.... he wouldnt have noticed much of an improvement, and may even have noticed LESSER performance. why? because you are actually DOWNGRADING to a slower single core, even though ALL FOUR cores run at 2.4Ghz. the one that EQ2 uses is still significantly SLOWER than your original processor.

I can point to several reasons why the performance increased, actually.  The increased CPU cache plays a big role in it among other things.  I didn't mean to imply that the multi-core support was the only reason for the gains, but they definitely played a part.

The multi-core support performance gains will help the most when at the higher quality settings in game.  I would need to run some benchmarks with the feature turned on and then off to tell exactly how much the multiple cores are helping.  I imagine I will try something like that soon.

[Nadr]

I have run the game at every setting from balanced on up, trying to see what makes it crash.

I get 100% on Core 2 and minimal on Core 1 at any setting.

Zoning however spread it out nicely.  So maybe the offloading to the second (first) core is happening... just not for me when I am running around the world.