PCTech Forums

I have a question about my CPU Usage. When I play this game (Second Life) I have installed on my computer, the cpu usage for the game (sl.exe) shoots up to 95-99 while the game is running. The graphics are nice but when I move around it's really jerky. When I play on my mom's computer (a 2.5 ghz pentium with 768 mb ram) it runs smoothly and beautifully. I have Windows XP with a 700 mhz celeron processor, with 384 MB of RAM (sucky I know). I believe this game does meet the minimum requirements though. But anyway, I was looking at this program:

http://www.downloadjunction.com/product/software/73711/

Seem fishy?

I just got done optimizing my pc's performance via this website
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html
and everything is running top-notch, nice and quick. I also just updated my ATI drivers for my Radeon 9200 128 MB video card to Catalyst 5.13. Any suggestions on how I can optimize my CPU Usage to speed up my computer and this game I'm trying to play, without having to buy anything? I know it's probably time for a new computer.

Hello:). i saw your problem and just thought i might try help you out. I aint sure i heared of the game your on about Second Life ? but are the min requirements 700mhz? or bit lower?

Any game where it says the min requirements are so and so.. you can gaurentee it wont run smooth at all if it meets them. Reason for this is that the company that makes any game just see that it runs at that speed but it wont run great or sometimes not at all..

It all depends on your computer hardware you have 700mhz is not too bad but for games now days id suggest a new computer really. Sorry to say that but its just true. Any game where they say it meets minimum requirements its not gonna work great so i suggest you should just upgrade your computer.

Some things that may help however is to make sure your not running so many other processes while playing the game e.g. anti virus and other background programs. You could try that software you talked about but it would not make too much difference im afraid as i have used them type of programs before .

You could also look at your ati control panel settings and check V Sync is off this will boost your performance slightly if this is off too. i think that is all you can do unless you wanna upgrade your comp sorry that wasnt much help...

lol thanks for the reply. I think you are right though on needing a new computer. I do close all my programs except for Trillian, the game doesn't run terribly but it doesn't run great either. Oh well, I'll deal with it until I can afford something new