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Avadon 2 CPU use


sandbags

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Hi.

 

I bought A2:TC via Steam to play on my 2013 MacBook Air (13",i7,8GB,10.9.0).

 

The game plays fine but I have noticed it seems to take a lot of CPU and, additionally, while the game is running the kernel task process also uses ~100% of one core.

 

The net result is the machine runs really hot & loud while I am playing. That's pretty unusual although, to be fair, this is one of the few games I've played on here. But I am a little surprised it seems so thirsty.

 

If I shut down A2 the kernel task drops quickly to normal level.

 

Is this expected?

 

Kind regards,

 

Matt

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  • 5 months later...

Hi, I have regularly seen complaints about Spiderweb Software's games CPU usage. Here are some of them :

 

https://itunes.apple...489706663?mt=12

http://spiderwebforu.../page__hl__fans

http://spiderwebforu..._fans#entry1070

http://spiderwebforu...ans#entry192906

 

By (bad) design, these games will use 100% of one CPU core no matter how fast your processor is. This is simply the way they were programmed. In my opinion it's a serious problem. I had written a long e-mail about it that I wanted to send to Jeff, but I never completed it. It is still in my drafts.

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There are a couple of workarounds to force the limit of CPU usage.

 

If your cpu supports SpeedStep, and you are using Windows Vista or later, there is a built-in feature to set the maximum processor state. Create a new power plan, set the Maximum processor state value (see link) to 60% or so, and switch to that power plan before launching the game (don't forget to switch back after quitting). I have been using this and the effect is immediate. Note that if 60% makes the game slow or it still generates lots of heat and noise, change it to 50%, 55%, 65%, 70%, etc. until you find a balace between the heat of device and the smoothness of gameplay.

 

And there are also some utilities that do the same job: Rmclock for windows and Macs Fan Control for OS X. Haven't tried them though. But both of them have detailed user guides on their respective websites, so read them before downloading.

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There are a couple of workarounds to force the limit of CPU usage.

 

If your cpu supports SpeedStep, and you are using Windows Vista or later, there is a built-in feature to set the maximum processor state. Create a new power plan, set the Maximum processor state value (see link) to 60% or so, and switch to that power plan before launching the game (don't forget to switch back after quitting). I have been using this and the effect is immediate. Note that if 60% makes the game slow or it still generates lots of heat and noise, change it to 50%, 55%, 65%, 70%, etc. until you find a balace between the heat of device and the smoothness of gameplay.

 

Mine is set to 100% but my laptop never overheated even once. Just stay on one place, use a table instead of a pillow, be in a cold room, clean your system, be sure to run one program at a time etc.

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Strange, mine runs the game perfectly fine and never gets hot at all (so zero fan noise), though I never checked the CPU usage to see how high it is. Using a 1.5 Ghz AMD A8 in my laptop. Modern games can make my laptop get hot, but maybe my processor is too low-powered to output heat relative to my graphics cards.

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My Avadon 2: https://fbcdn-sphoto...864836361_n.jpg

(although there was no reason I was supposed to post this, I wanted to show you guys my Avadon prof pic :p)

My Resource monitor: https://fbcdn-sphoto...605628448_n.jpg

 

 

 

Running in a Windows 8 64-bit laptop on a balanced performance mode, getting steady 60 fps on Avadon

4GB ram

Intel HD 4000

Intel i5

 

Strange, mine uses up only 2% of CPU, my highest was 10%. I don't know how Avadon manages to use up yours so badly, but maybe the number of cores would be the answer? I don't know about Mac, but that's just weird. Laptop's not heating up that bad either, even if it's in laptop (get it? because lap-top? it's on the top of my lap?)

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My Avadon 2: https://fbcdn-sphoto...864836361_n.jpg

(although there was no reason I was supposed to post this, I wanted to show you guys my Avadon prof pic :p)

My Resource monitor: https://fbcdn-sphoto...605628448_n.jpg

 

 

 

Running in a Windows 8 64-bit laptop on a balanced performance mode, getting steady 60 fps on Avadon

4GB ram

Intel HD 4000

Intel i5

 

Strange, mine uses up only 2% of CPU, my highest was 10%. I don't know how Avadon manages to use up yours so badly, but maybe the number of cores would be the answer? I don't know about Mac, but that's just weird. Laptop's not heating up that bad either, even if it's in laptop (get it? because lap-top? it's on the top of my lap?)

Well, that is weird. My laptop has exactly the same 4gb ram and an i5 processor and it heats up very quickly playing sw games (not with other games that's what is weird).

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  • 3 months later...

I've been playing this on a macbook pro (i7, 16 gig of ram, OS X 10.9.5) and it runs great - no heat issues at all.

 

Spiderweb is now one of my favorite gaming companies for games for my notebook because they don't cause my fans to spin up and my comp to get hot. It's actually something I check for in every game demo for my macbook.

 

With Avadon 2 playing, and several sites open in Safari - i see about 12-14% cpu usage overall.

 

All 4 cpu cores seem to have an even load too as opposed to one core carrying all the processing burden. (I guess i could load the game just by itself and see how it balances out then... I'm guessing though that it will spread out evenly but even If it were all on one core, it still may not be enough to cause a notable performance issue.)

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