How do I make my EverQuest run on only 2 cores with CPUAffinity being changed the eqclient.ini file?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by BhaktaRam, Apr 26, 2020.

  1. BhaktaRam New Member

    I have a question regarding a technical issue, with regards to using multiple processors in game. I run an i7 laptop with 4 cores.
    Here is a guide that includes information about how to make it so you can run your EverQuest game on all 4 cores, making it run much smoother and faster as it has for me.
    https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Graphics_and_performance_settings_guide
    Pretty much the key component here for what I'm asking is if you ctrl + f to CPUAffinity on the page you can see that setting your CPUAffinity0=0 to CPUAffinity0=-1 in your eqclient.ini file and makes EverQuest run on all maximum cores. You can also check or change this on Task Manager--> eqgame--> Go to details--> eqgame.exe--> Set affinity, when the game is running (this will tell you how many cores it is set to, from the eqclient.ini file, and you can always manually change them there, but if it's not changed in the .ini file it will revert back to one or all cores depending on what is set in the .ini file).
    The game does run much, much smoother on all 4 cores of my laptop, but during raids when I use Discord (a group-chat program) it makes my laptop quite high in temperature because both programs are running, so I tend to take it down to two cores with the "Set affinity" command in Task Manager. So here is my question:
    What do I put into my eqclient.ini file to make it start up on just two cores? So far I have tried a number of different things, and have only been able to get it to start on all cores with CPUAffinity0=-1 and only one core with CPUAffinity0=0. I don't know the actual command to make it so I only start with two cores, which is what I'm looking for. I can manually change it every time to two cores every time I start the game with the Set Affinity command in Task Manager, to two cores, which is what I want to run it on at this point, but I don't want to have to do that manually every time, if there is a way to add something into the eqclient.ini file to make it run on two cores automatically at start up. If anyone has the answer to this it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
    BhaktaRam.
  2. svann Augur

    Have you tried
    CPUAffinity0=1
    CPUAffinity1=1
  3. BhaktaRam New Member

    I have tried a number of different commands, that being one of them. I just tried that again, and that made it start up with the Second CPU running only (called CPU 1), as I could see in the Set Affinity in the Task Manager--> eqgame--> Go to details--> eqgame.exe--> Set affinity.

    [IMG]

    My goal is to have it run on CPU 0 and CPU 1, my first two cores without having to manually set it each time, which would make it two cores. If anyone knows how to do this in eqclient.ini that would be much appreciated. Thank you!
  4. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    The link you had in your first post has a section on this very thing: https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Graphics_and_performance_settings_guide

    CPUAffinity[edit]

    If your CPU (processor) has more than one core (if your computer is from 2007 to the present, it likely has more than one) you can tell EQ to set its affinity to use all cores. While EQ only uses one core, this should enable it to use whichever core is free. Regardless, everyone should set this, as it is unlikely to hurt and can help.
    To do so, edit your eqclient.ini file, located in your EverQuest folder on your computer (note by default Windows hides the extension .ini in Explorer). Open eqclient.ini (or just eqclient if extension hidden) by double clicking on it. Look in the file for "CPUAffinity0=x" (without the quotes, and a number instead of x), usually in the [Defaults] section.
    If it does not say: "CPUAffinity0=-1" (that's a negative one), then change it to that (without the quotes). If you can't find it, add it to the [Defaults] section.
    If you multibox on the computer, add "CPUAffinity1=-1" for two boxing and "CPUAffinity2=-1" for three boxing, and so on (again, without the quotes).
    CPUAffinity0=-1
    CPUAffinity1=-1
    CPUAffinity2=-1
    CPUAffinity3=-1
  5. BhaktaRam New Member

    Thank you for your help. Yeah this is a bit complicated. I naturally set it to CPUAffinity0=-1 and I noticed doing that at all made it automatically run on all cores, without having to type in subsequent entries. The issue is that I want it to run on just two cores, not all four, and it automatically sets it to run on all my cores when I set it at CPUAffinity0=-1 at all, even If I subsequently add CPUAffinity1=-1 and then try
    CPUAffinity2=-1 or 0 (I've tried both), etc up to 7 (which, 0 to 7 being the 8 cores EverQuest represents when doing 0=-1, even though I only have 4 cores on this computer). I'm not sure it's possible to set it to run on just two cores in the .ini file, maybe it's only possible to set it to just one and all 8, but I've heard of people running it on 16 cores. (And just want to run it on two!). Anyway more help would be appreciated. Thank you!
  6. Strawberry Augur

    One thing I always recommend, especially on laptops, is to turn off Turbo in the bios.

    Turbo on CPU gives you about 2% or 3% extra performance, but it tends to result in a 15%-20% increase in heat, a large increase in noise, and it shortens the lifespan of the CPU and fans. It is basically a built-in overclock, and it's not a good trade off.

    Extra heat and noise in laptops during gaming almost always comes from Turbo (both the CPU and GPU do this nowadays).
  7. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    so with

    CPUAffinity0=0
    CPUAffinity1=0
    CPUAffinity2=-1
    CPUAffinity3=-1


    You are still seeing it run across all four cores?
  8. Sokki Still Won't Buff You!!

    The CPUAffinity can only be set to 1 core or all cores, there's not a way to specify 2 cores. The different CPUAffinity lines each represent another instance of EQ, for example CPUAffinity0 is the first instance and CPUAffinity1 is the second instance, and so forth. The number after it specifies which core it will run on, 0-7 for 8 cores, changing it to -1 kind of tricks it into running on all cores. There's not a way to specify multiple cores, just the single core or all core options.
  9. Gidono https://everquest.allakhazam.com

  10. Wulfhere Augur

    Actually you want to avoid using CPU0 and CPU1 as that is where Windows services are mostly run. You want to avoid competing with the operating system for better application (game) performance.
    Skuz likes this.
  11. Soulbanshee Augur

    CPU in this instance is actually thread and not core (for processor's that are multi-threaded). CPU 0/1 will be core 1, CPU 2/3 will be core 2 in a dual core multi-threaded processor. Having two instances with one on CPU 0 and another on CPU 1 will be running both on the same core. In conjunction with the above, if you have a 4 core (8 thread) processor, you can set 3 instances to run on CPU 2, 4, and 6, or on CPU 3, 5, and 7 to spread them across cores. Anything past that and you start sharing processor time.

    Also EQ is still single threaded. Even though it can "run across all processors", it won't be simultaneous processing, it just allows it to switch the thread to the best core.
    Wulfhere likes this.
  12. Vumad Cape Wearer



    SB beat me to it but reiterating. You are confusing threads and cores. Threads allow cores to better multitask. You have 4 cores that can complete 8 tasks at a time. The computer splits the cores into threads. So you have 4 cores, 8 threads. Each of the 0-7 represents 1/2 of a core.

    So in this instance, 0 and 1 is the same core. It's 2 threads, but on the same core. to use 2 cores your need 0-3.





    be sure to read and understand this...




    Also im not sure that setting the affinity is going to do what you think it is going to do. Trying to push all the workload of the PC into 2 cores instead of 4 would probably make it work harder and hotter.