QIII uses 100% CPU

[[dbD]Narc]

When I run Quake III (Demo, Arena, of Team Arena) it consumes 100 % of my CPU-usage. My configuration should easily be able to play the game with some CPU to spare. The configuration is:

AMD XP2000+
1Gb DDR Memory
Radeon 9800Pro
Etc.

Does anyone have an idea to resolve this problem?

edit: I installed the QIIIGold package with Point Release 1.32 and 1.32c.

[Foo]

Set com_maxfps to 125

[AmIdYfReAk]

you cant be serious.....

you think the more power that you have the Less CPU that it uses? Sorry, but that is wrong..

And i am kinda curious, What is the reason that it bothers you that its using 100% cpu?

[Captain]

Aye, it seems normal for a CPU like that.

[Tormentius]

Yeah a 2000+ is hardly a high-end CPU. I would guess thats normal as well.

[[dbD]Narc]

Thank you for your replies.

It just suprised me that a game that should run on a PII consumes all the CPU bandwidth of a much more modern proc (altough it is not a high-end CPU). I thought the GPU would take over most of the work.

I tried com_maxfps and although the command works, it makes no difference in CPU-usage. I also tried running the game at the lowest settings.

The thing that made me think that something was wrong I haven't mentioned yet; In the menu, before entering an arena (either in single or multi-play) the CPU is also at 100 % usage. I would have guessed that the system would be more or less idle in a simple menu. This is at least the case with more modern and demanding games.

To answer AmIdYfReAk's question (And i am kinda curious, What is the reason that it bothers you that its using 100% cpu?); it disturbs other apps running in the background.

[^misantropia^]

Q3A enters an infinite loop upon starting, i.e. it keeps executing the same command sequence over and over. In twenty years time, when multi-terahertz CPUs have become the norm, Q3A will still keep your CPU pegged at 100%.

[dzjepp]

/exec stupidquestion.cfg

How come you can run like 3 copies of q3 with 125fps each then if the cpu is supposedly loaded at 100% with just 1?

[^misantropia^]

Because part of the game loop consists of wasting CPU cycles until the next frame needs to be rendered. In pseudo-code, it'd look something like this:

Code: Select all

frame_duration = 1000 / com_maxfps; // frame time in milliseconds
while (1) {
 frame_start = time();
 render_frame();
 while (time() < frame_start + frame_duration) {
  // idle
 }
}

[+JuggerNaut+]

misantropia's cranial turret gives me a stiffy.

[Captain]

olo

[[dbD]Narc]

Q3A enters an infinite loop upon starting, i.e. it keeps executing the same command sequence over and over. In twenty years time, when multi-terahertz CPUs have become the norm, Q3A will still keep your CPU pegged at 100%.

This implies that everyone playing QIII has a CPU-usage of a 100%. Can some of you verify this?

[Captain]

I see that you have 47 processes running. I bet 75% of those are absolutely useless and will save a lot of your PF and CPU.



Dual-core will obviously not spike to 100% over Q3.

[AmIdYfReAk]

that is because quake 3 was built to use the old SMP code, two proc's makes q3 use 50% to get 100%..

Kinda supid really...

[Captain]

It's those processes I'm more worried about. He's got 47 running with a "meh" CPU and lots of pagefile used up :/

Perhaps a little visit to msconfig would sort that out

[[dbD]Narc]

It's those processes I'm more worried about. He's got 47 running with a "meh" CPU and lots of pagefile used up :/

Perhaps a little visit to msconfig would sort that out

When the system is idle it takes a few procent CPU (with all those processes running), but probably alot of other resources. Most processes are labeled Microsoft :-( (in MSconfig). Maybe it's time for a fresh install :-) Hehe, or QII.

[Eraser]

Hehe, or QII.

You don't really understand it yet.
Quake II would take 100% CPU as well. That's just because of the way the engine works. Windows will take care of executing multiple threads (in really corner-cutting laymans terms "multiple programs") that take 100% CPU time simoultaniously.

The fact that Quake 3 takes up a 100% CPU time isn't anything to worry about, it's supposed to do that. And still, a CPU running at 100% is not necessarily a bad thing anyway.

[Foo]

Q3A enters an infinite loop upon starting, i.e. it keeps executing the same command sequence over and over. In twenty years time, when multi-terahertz CPUs have become the norm, Q3A will still keep your CPU pegged at 100%.

This implies that everyone playing QIII has a CPU-usage of a 100%. Can some of you verify this?

Yep. Plays fine too, no problems. Can run winamp and P2P in the background without any issues.

[Eraser]

I see one issue there though, and it's called promode

[[dbD]Narc]

Thanks all !! It is crystalclear now :icon26: