CPU usage is continuously at 100%!

[axi0m]

I've used the search function, but nobody seems to be having this problem:

Not only is the game slow between turns, but it also uses 100% of my CPU when it should be doing nothing.

Here's an example of what I mean:
I'm in the middle of a game. It's my turn, and one of my units is sitting there, awaiting my command. I decide to Alt-Tab over to Internet Explorer to read some strategy threads on Apolyton. Hmmm. That's strange. Internet Explorer is sluggish. I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Task Manager and see that Civilization3.exe is keeping my CPU at 100%. I change the process's priority to Low, and go about my business.

When it's my turn and I haven't yet moved, Civilization3.exe should be mostly idle. I suppose it could be calculating AI routines in advance, but eventually it would finish. It doesn't. As an experiment, I left my computer on for several hours to see if Civilization3.exe would ever stop "calculating". It doesn't. It can't possibly be calculating future moves for hours on end.

When I run Civ3 on my wife's computer, I have no problems (other than her irritation ). When it's my turn, CPU usage drops to a reasonable 10% or so. She has an 800 MHz P3 with 256 MB on Win2K. I have a 500 MHz P3 with 256 MB on WinXP.

I'm thinking it's a problem with the way Civ3 renders sprites combined with my video card driver. For the record, I have an ATI Rage Mobility (quite easily the most common laptop video card). I've tried several XP drivers, but no luck yet.

Will someone else with WinXP and an ATI Rage Mobility card please see if this is happening to them?

(Yes, I'm running 1.29 and the latest XP patches.)

Thanks in advance. Hopefully I'll get more help here than I did with Firaxis.

[Willem]

If you're running XP, you need pretty much 256 meg RAM just for the OS. You should at least double your memory for Civ III, otherwise it will be continually accessing Virtual Memory on your hard drive.

[axi0m]

Thanks for the quick reply, but I don't think this is a memory issue.

Task Manager indicates high CPU usage, but Page Faults Delta for Civilization3.exe remains at or near zero during this time. (For non-Windows-nerds, that means it's not hitting the swap file.) Furthermore, disk access remains normal. Remember, this is happening when Civ3 is supposedly idle.

Sort of going on a tangent here, but I beg to differ on WinXP's memory usage. XP's caching algorithm tries to use all available physical memory at all times. Unallocated memory is doing you no good, so XP caches the most recently used data until it's needed for something else. Physical memory is very fast, so the time required for de-allocation of the System Cache is a small price to pay for having the most recently used data already in memory.

Try this:
Open a large program in XP/NT. Close it and immediately re-open it. The second time you open the program, it should load much more quickly. That's the System Cache at work. Theoretically, the longer you run a given XP/NT session, the faster your computer becomes, because the System Cache is gradually populated with the data you've been accessing. In actuality, this only happens if you have lots of physical memory or tend to run the same programs or access the same data.

If I were running an OS that always left hundreds of MB of otherwise unused physical memory unallocated to caching, I would conclude that that OS sucked.

(And yes, I am a nerd. )

[Willem]

I'm using a program called MaxMem, by AnalogX, which is a memory management tool. I'm sure you know they work. With nothing running, and after a RAM purge, it indicates that at least 256 meg is being used only by background applications, or XP in other words. So anything beyond that has to use virtual memory, which will slow your machine down.

I just did a check on my system, and started a game. Without even building a single city, my RAM usage was 85 meg for Civ, and the CPU was between 80-95%. So I'd say what you're experiencing is pretty normal, though you no doubt would find it wil work much faster with more memory. I have 440 something, and my memory meter still goes into the yellow.

[axi0m]

So your CPU usage remains at 80%-95% when Civ3 is idle? Because that's the problem I'm having. I understand if Civ3 is going to spike the CPU when it's actually calculating something, but while it's waiting for you to move? Wow, is that bad coding or what?

To illustrate, I just started a new game on a Tiny map with one other civilization. I have yet to make my first move. The usual "It is the year 4000 BC . . ." dialog box is visible. I Alt-Tab back to IE to continue typing this message and check CPU usage. Civilization3.exe is at 0% usage.

I switch back to Civ3 and hit Enter to dismiss the dialog box. I Alt-Tab back over here. Lo and behold, Civilization3.exe is now using all available CPU cycles. And I have 54 MB of physical memory free. If I closed IE and Outlook, I'd have 84 MB free. The hard drive is silent. There is no swapping going on. Page Faults Delta for Civilization3.exe is at zero. The game is just sitting there waiting for me to move. CPU usage is at 100%. This should not be the case.

Thanks for the suggestion that my problem might be related to memory, but (as you can see from my experiment) that just isn't the case. Do you have any other ideas? I've emailed Firaxis, but they haven't been very helpful.

[Willem]

I don't see your point really. Quite obviously, it's supposed to be using up as much of your CPU as possible. Just what is it you're hoping to accomplish here?

[axi0m]

My point is that the CPU shouldn't be thinking about much of anything if there's only one AI on the planet and I've yet to make the first move:

CPU: "Hmmm, now I've got these 9 whole squares from which to choose. That's a toughy. I'm gonna need to use all 500 million cycles per second indefinately for this one!"

I'm not trying to be rude, but this is obviously a bug.

Firaxis tech support told me this was not normal behavior. I'm posting on here to see if anyone else has the problem I've described, and if they've found a solution.

[Willem]

If it's not causing any problems, meaning the game is running as it's supposed to, why worry about it? My system is doing the same thing, yet I have no problems with the game. It has long turns towards the end game, but that's typical for all systems, not just mine. And since I'm not in the habit of running anything else in the background while I play, I don't see it as being a problem.

[axi0m]

It's a problem for several reasons:
- I paid for a game with a major bug that manifests itself on laptops running the most popular video chipset on the most modern MS operating system.
- I'm running Civ3 on a laptop, so this dramatically shortens battery life and makes the system very hot.
- It doesn't happen on my wife's computer (meaning it's probably a bug).
- I'm a programmer, and this kind of coding is pathetic.

Don't get me wrong. I love the game and I love this forum. But this is a problem for me. You don't think it's a problem. Duly noted.

Now will anyone else running Civ3 on XP with an ATI Rage Mobility please check on this for me? I'd like to confirm that it's not something specific to my system.

TIA

[ACTD_Ran]

I'm currently at 58% with KaZaA lite, this page open, McAfee Internet Security B3. Then I start Civ3 and get Windows explorer open and right click on "My Computer" then check again and see that I'm at 38% resourse free...

Keep in mind that this is a P2 450 with 128 MBram with an AGP nVidia GForce 2 MX200 video card with 32mb ram on Win98SE.

One question is: Is your wife's system a desktop? I know there are some internal differences between the architecture between laptops and desktops because of their mobility[batteries]. I wonder if that could be it...

[Willem]

Originally posted by axi0m

- I'm a programmer, and this kind of coding is pathetic.

Aah, a purist! My philosophy is if it works I shouldn't complain, even though it may not be ideal. I can see your concern about the laptop though. Judging from a number of posts I've come across, the game isn't really designed to run on those types of machines.

[Krakatoa]

Originally posted by axi0m
It's a problem for several reasons:
- I paid for a game with a major bug that manifests itself on laptops running the most popular video chipset on the most modern MS operating system.
- I'm running Civ3 on a laptop, so this dramatically shortens battery life and makes the system very hot.
- It doesn't happen on my wife's computer (meaning it's probably a bug).
- I'm a programmer, and this kind of coding is pathetic.

Don't get me wrong. I love the game and I love this forum. But this is a problem for me. You don't think it's a problem. Duly noted.

Now will anyone else running Civ3 on XP with an ATI Rage Mobility please check on this for me? I'd like to confirm that it's not something specific to my system.

TIA

I use Win2000, 256 ram, P III 866, no 3D card, the performance are fine; my CPU keeps on 90-95%. Only on game window popup the CPU goes down to lass than 15%

I noticed that 10 days ago, no bother at all, I can still run several programs, even the fat delphi 6

[Willem]

Originally posted by Krakatoa

I noticed that 10 days ago, no bother at all, I can still run several programs, even the fat delphi 6

Just today I had Civ 3 running, Civ3Edit, Civ3MultiTool, Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Internet Explorer 6.0. How much more could I, or anyone else for that matter, possibly want?

[vondrack]

I have just tried to have a look on my desktop system (P4/1.7G, 1GB RAM). Civ3 uses something between 25%-40% of the CPU power, while supposedly "idle"... in a late-medieval situation. However, loading a starting position (4000 BC) decreases the CPU usage down to about 20%. This makes me think of... the unit animations.

Have you tried to switch off the unit animations (and/or sounds)? 'cause that is what the game is supposed to do when it is supposed to do "nothing"... Any effect on the CPU usage? If there is, then it might a problem related to the video (sound) driver of your notebook video (audio) card.

[Jahi]

hmm.... i thought 100% cpu usage was normal... it does it for my desktop and laptop.. now i'm going to have to play with it to see if i can change that.