Ubisoft solution: shut down 2 cores - Harmfull or not? 2

[Vashkar]

Working with:
Acer Aspire 7551G
AMD Phenom II N950 Quad-Core 2.1Ghz, 4GB, 32-bit
AMD Radeon 6650M, version 8.783.2.0
Windows 7 Home Premium + SP1

Historie:
Laptop was bought by my son in nov-2010
A year later the harddisk deceased and the local repair shop concluded it was fried.
They put in a new HD and now it seems they changed the 64 bit into a 32 bit OS

Current:
In august my son bought an Asus and the above mentioned came into my possession.
System works fine and with cooler pad different temperatures run up to about 60 degrees in full action. So no problem there.
The only problem I have is with Ubisoft game Settlers 7. It keeps crashing after about 6 min on whatever settings or map.

Contacted Ubisoft: Needed to update graphic drivers.
Contacted AMD: Can't deliver drivers, points to ACER
Contacted Acer: Can't deliver drivers, points at a Vaio driver.
Checked Driver: Driver is for 64bit system. Here I learned that the system should be 64 instead of 32
Contacted Acer: Told them again its a 32-bit system installed. No answer.
Contacted Ubisoft: They said to startup the game, go to exe-file while running, go to affinity and decheck core 0 and 1

That worked. The game keeps running for several hours now though on low settings and on smaller maps.
Searched the internet about this solution and it seems that older games can't work well with quadcore.
But I can't find anything that will tell me if this "solution" will do harm in time. And nobody seems to be able to tell me anything more than PROBABLY not.

Questions:
So my questions to you guys.
Is it only the game that runs on half it cores and is the system behind it still on 4?
If 2 cores are shut down on playing this game regurarly for several hours will the system be harmed over time.
If the original placed graphic driver is still active while being originally placed on a 64 bit and it's now running on a 32 bit can the workings be flawed to begin with or doesn't it matter on the whole?

 

[goombawaho]

Is it only the game that runs on half it cores and is the system behind it still on 4?
YES, windows is still operating other processes using whatever cores are available as it needs

If 2 cores are shut down on playing this game regurarly for several hours will the system be harmed over time.
My car makes 400HP, but I'm only using 200HP most of the time. No, not a problem.

If the original placed graphic driver is still active while being originally placed on a 64 bit and it's now running on a 32 bit can the workings be flawed to begin with or doesn't it matter on the whole?
Not sure exactly what you mean, but a driver if causing no crashes, doesn't make any difference.

 

[BadBigBen]

As Goom said, there is nothing detrimental in using only two (or even one) cores for older games...

and it does not matter if the OS is 64bit or 32bit, as long as the hardware has drivers that will drive it...

now do the following:

1. hit the ORB (formerly known as the START button)
2. right click on the COMPUTER icon
3. choose PROPERTIES
3. Scroll down a bit, and write down what it says about the OS that is installed...

I am thinking that you actually have a 64 bit version of W7 Home and you are thinking it is a 32 bit, and because of that I want to make sure...

as to the driver issue, well that will be easy (latest Catalyst driver v12.8):

AMD Radeon HD 6xxxM 32 bit driver -

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-32.aspx

AMD Radeon HD 6xxxm 64 bit driver -

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Vashkar]

Thanks guys,
Quite a relief.

@Goombawaho
The catalyst doesn't find the 32bit-driver. Got that one from the AMD site itself and it doesn't support it.
This is already what I gave to the AMD tech support on which they pointed to Acer.
Quote
Download section only ends up with Catalyst Mobility.
Running the 32 bit exe gives errormessage: "AMD catalyst mobility can't be downloaded due to incompatible hard/software. Your computer doesn't contain a viable graphic adapter."
The check if catalyst mobility was possible to run delivered the message that I: didnt have a graphic card driver installed.
Also some message appeared out of the blue on a screen baring AMD logo that my driver was overwritten by a malfunctioning driver and I needed to revert back to my old driver.
On this, checking the driver version, it still shows the same driver version as mentioned above.
Couldn't find an answer on FAQ's nor on forum on how to obtain the latest driver.
End Quote:

Acer reponded in dutch so can't take a quote from it but it wend as follows in short.
Acer pointed at the VAIO 64bit. I again told them the machine is equiped with a 32-bit and explained that in past dealings, when I took a 64bit driver by mistake on a 32bit machine my screen wend black, diverting to old driver didn't work and my machine wend back for repairs and was gone for a month. I asked if they were sure the 64bit driver could be taken without replicating this scenario. The response was they wanted it in for repairs. Rather not. Acer repairs are not in such manner you don't need the local repair shop after it.

In regard to the unclear question I made:
I started to suspect that the catalyst found a 64bit driver on a 32 bit and therefor gave the warnings on flawed workings. On which I wondered if the Ubisoft games with their high graphics started to address a 64bit graphic driver who tries to run on a 32 bit machine gives the crashproblems and the need for low settings.

Finding a 32bit driver is a holy-grale-quest I embarked upon about 6 weeks ago and for me only lead to the conclusion. Nvidia over AMD anytime. pffrt

@Ben
No, the system runs on a 32 bit. Checked it out on Control Panel/System when going after a driverupdate and doublechecked it on DXdiag as soon as I came aware it should be a 64.

To ease your mind:
DX extrapolation
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 8/27/2012, 11:26:32
Machine name: USER-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120330-1504)
Language: Dutch (Regional Setting: Dutch)
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Aspire 7551
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II N950 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3070MB RAM
Page File: 1537MB used, 4601MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

 

[BadBigBen]

thanks for that DxDiag...

>> when I took a 64bit driver by mistake on a 32bit machine my screen wend black,
that should not have worked at all, as soon as one double click the installer it should balk and stat that the program is not a Windows 32bit application...

now for updating the driver, go to the 32bit link I provided above, that is the latest driver for the GFX card that is build into your machine, and yes that is from AMD direct...
but I would only update the drive if it is NEEDED for fixing a display related problem, and yours wasn't or isn't display related...
the driver you have now, is the Catalyst 11.11, you would only need to update if a new game requires it...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Vashkar]

Well thank you.
No, indeed it's not display related.
Machine works fine with sharp images. Only Ubisoft games give me a headache.

Seeing by the way the games shuts down, suddenly and without warning or sometimes with the standard unexpected problem of windows, I get the feeling it's more a memoryflood problem. And that shouldn't be the case also since the gamerequirements are surpassed by the system.

Well everyone was pointing at the graphic driver and hell I'm no technician.
But now I guess it's easier to put the blame on the driver then to address their developers who design with a hangover. Shame of a beautifull game.

Thanks both for setting me straight. Much appreciated.
Guess it's time to find a new game. hehehe