From the Second Life Knowledge Base, some possiibly useful information for those with dual core processors:
Second Life Info > Knowledge Base > Support > Performance and Stability > ;What do I do if I experience poor performance on a dual-core computer?
The following info has been contributed by Kona, Fordak, and Steve Linden:
Dual core processor machines (Pentium D, Core 2 Duo, Athlon 64X2…etc) have been proliferating in the market since late last year, and as a result, more of our Residents are using this type of PC. Unfortunately, Second Life isn’t currently optimized for dual core processor setups.If you’re reporting poor performance and you’re running a dual core machine, please do the following:
- While running SL (or at least have the SL client login up), bringup the Windows Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+Delete
- Select the Processes tab, and locate SecondLife.exe listed underImage Name
- Right-click on SecondLife.exe, and from the dropdown, select “SetAffinity…”
- When the Processor Affinity window pops up, you’ll most likely notice that two CPUs are selected, CPU 0 & CPU 1. Select only one of the CPUs, then click on OK.
Affinity will reset back to using both processors after you log off SL. You will need to repeat the process above after you log back onto SL. To see if you’re running a dual core processor machine, do the following:
- Bring up the Windows Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+Del
- Select the Performance tab
- If you see TWO graphs in the CPU Usage History section, you’re running a dual core processor setup.
What may also help you cut down on rendering “lag” is turning on the Client menu and selecting Client > Rendering > Use VBO. Vertex Buffer Objects in Second Life are still in development, so consider it experimental, but it made a lot of noticeable difference for me (Torley Linden). Please see this entry on my own blog for more context.
Additional info:
One of the following applications can be used to permanently change the affinity of a process/application:
- ImageCfg
- WinLauncherXP
- XCPU
If you’re running an AMD Dual Core system, you should install AMD’s hotfix which is located here:
http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=430If the hotfix isn’t enough, you can use a little application called Imagecfg that will allow you to permanently change the affinity of a process/application:
http://www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.phpYou can also use other similar programs that set the affinity of an application, such as those listed below:
WinLauncherXP
http://www.majorgeeks.com/WinLauncherXP_d870.htmlXCPU
http://www.appliedvisual.com/xcpu.htmAlso, you can create a batch script so the affinity settings persist between logins:
- Make a text file with the following contents:c:
cd \\Program Files\\SecondLife
imagecfg -a 0×1 SecondLife.exeand then rename the suffix “.txt” to “.bat” and run it while Second Life is closed.- Start Second Life and confirm affinity is set to only one core.
You’ll need to do this each time you’ve updated to a new version of Second Life.
Note that this information might well be out of date or not apply - I have put this here so that people can get to it without having to be logged in to the Second Life Knowledge Base.
There is a wealth of useful information in the Second Life Knowledge Base. It’s a shame that you can’t open in and leave it open in a tab in the background without having it bug you about timing out every ten minutes.
