Processor running at 100%

[Tywayne]

I have an Athlon X2 4000 and for some reason my processor runs at 100% even at the main menu of the game. The game doesnt lag but my processor stays at 100%. I play tons of other games and that never happen with other games. Any suggestions?

[Drintion]

Compare UT3's commit charge with your other games, if it's significantly higher, then yes, it is using a good amount of your CPU. However, if the charge isn't much higher than your normal games, check your processes / services for background programs that could be hogging up your CPU.

(For example: Vista's online print spooler will hog the @#$! out of your CPU's resources if a document is left in it and the printer is turned off)

[CameO73]

Yes, don't look at the Task Manager

More seriously ... it seems that UT3 uses 100% CPU time in most cases. Only quad core systems are reportedly running 60-80%. So it just seems like a fact of life.

When you start getting problems (intermittent freezing or hiccups), try the suggestions in this thread or this thread.

[FolkUT]

Rendering a 3D scene in the background of the menus was a really bad idea. It serves no purpose except to suck watts out of your system when it should be idle. Not exactly green thinking.

[ZDragon]

I don't think that's a 3D scene. Just a video background. No one would make lots n lots of nice 3D and then make it all blurry and impossible to see anything...

Whoever finds the irony in this posting wins two internets.

[Mouton]

Rendering a 3D scene in the background of the menus was a really bad idea. It serves no purpose except to suck watts out of your system when it should be idle. Not exactly green thinking.

100% Agree for the menu. Same thing when you press ESC while in a game.

[RedSteels_Fury]

Rendering a 3D scene in the background of the menus was a really bad idea. It serves no purpose except to suck watts out of your system when it should be idle. Not exactly green thinking.

Again...our favorite term "consolfied"

[Leak]

Compare UT3's commit charge with your other games, if it's significantly higher, then yes, it is using a good amount of your CPU.

Errr... "Commit charge" only shows the amount of virtual memory (i.e. physical RAM + swapfile(s)) used, it has exactly zero to do with CPU usage.

But as far as CPU usage is concerned - yeah, it really shouldn't hit 100% on a multi-core machine when the game isn't even shown; after all, only the gameworld (if any) needs to be updated, and the menu should just be paused as a whole. If anything, dropping the max framerate to 10 or some other low value when the game doesn't have focus should help a bit...

Still - as long as you don't let it sit in the menu or keep it minimized for hours the amount of energy wasted that way is negligible.

[[FfFC]_-(MAD)-_]

its normal for 3D games without frame-rate-limiter to gain 100% CPU. Its not bad at all. If another process needs CPU Power, windows will give the another process CPU cycles. Its no problem.

[Seraphina]

right, my cpu shows 100% weather the game is minimized or I'm play but it can easily handle winamp running and firefox as well, so i dont see a problem there.