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General discussion (archive)CPU Limiter(26 posts)(26 posts)
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Posted February 24, 2012
I need a CPU Limiter for certain games, I've tried CPUGrab but is there a better program or method to do this?
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Posted February 24, 2012
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Fuzzyfireball: I need a CPU Limiter for certain games, I've tried CPUGrab but is there a better program or method to do this?
Adrian Boeing's "CPU Speed Adjuster" is a pretty good free alternative. I think the version he keeps on Softpedia and MajorGeeks is more up to date than the one on his home page, which is badly maintained.

"CPUKiller" is popular, but it is not free (and the trial version is crippled).

Don't use these with DOSBox games; control the speed from DOSBox instead.
Posted February 24, 2012
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Fuzzyfireball: I need a CPU Limiter for certain games, I've tried CPUGrab but is there a better program or method to do this?
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cjrgreen: Adrian Boeing's "CPU Speed Adjuster" is a pretty good free alternative. I think the version he keeps on Softpedia and MajorGeeks is more up to date than the one on his home page, which is badly maintained.

"CPUKiller" is popular, but it is not free (and the trial version is crippled).

Don't use these with DOSBox games; control the speed from DOSBox instead.
Yes, they are for Windows games, have you tried these? Are they safe?
Posted February 24, 2012
I've used CPUKiller years ago and it did the job. However, at that time I had an old (then new) single-core CPU. I don't know how well the current CPU limiters handle multi-core CPUs (assuming that you have one).

Out of curiosity, what are the games you need it for? Although I play lots of old games, I found that I haven't needed a CPU limiter for years. DOS games run in DOSBox, Windows games _usually_ limit their speed by themselves, and for the few that don't, I can usually find a fan patch that fixes the speed (examples are Microprose's "Magic the Gathering", or "Theme Hospital").
Post edited February 24, 2012 by Psyringe
Posted February 24, 2012
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Psyringe: I've used CPUKiller years ago and it did the job. However, at that time I had an old (then new) single-core CPU. I don't know how well the current CPU limiters handle multi-core CPUs (assuming that you have one).

Out of curiosity, what are the games you need it for? Although I play lots of old games, I found that I haven't needed a CPU limiter for years. DOS games run in DOSBox, Windows games _usually_ limit their speed by themselves, and for the few that don't, I can usually find a fan patch that fixes the speed (examples are Microprose's "Magic the Gathering", or "Theme Hospital").
Most notable would be Interstate 76, it's the only one I've had problems with. CPUgrab... kind of works... not really...

There are a couple others that can be a pain. But i76 is the big one.
Posted February 24, 2012
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Fuzzyfireball: Most notable would be Interstate 76, it's the only one I've had problems with. CPUgrab... kind of works... not really...
Have you tried the steps mentioned here? Sounds like there may be a tradeoff wrt image quality though, so it might not be a good solution ... but perhaps an alternative to keep in mind.
Posted February 24, 2012
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Fuzzyfireball: Are they safe?
"........."

"Are they safe?"

"I.. don't..."

"Are...They...Safe?"
Post edited February 24, 2012 by Tormentfan
Posted February 24, 2012
If you have a single or dual-core processor, you'll be well served with winThrottle (http://www.oldskool.org/pc/throttle). It actually works by cutting the clock speed of your processor via a driver and was the single best CPU killer I used. If you have a quad-core though - you're out of luck - the author himself has said that quad-core support is not on the cards because it is just too complex, and using winThrottle with a quad-core system will cause it to hard lock.

Stay away from CPUKiller - it's utterly useless and always has been.
Posted February 24, 2012
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Fuzzyfireball: Most notable would be Interstate 76, it's the only one I've had problems with. CPUgrab... kind of works... not really...
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Psyringe: Have you tried the steps mentioned here? Sounds like there may be a tradeoff wrt image quality though, so it might not be a good solution ... but perhaps an alternative to keep in mind.
Seems like that is for XP, I'm on 7.

It's so annoying when you get a game working pretty much flawlessly only to realize there is one issue left and you can't fix it!
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jamyskis: If you have a single or dual-core processor, you'll be well served with winThrottle (http://www.oldskool.org/pc/throttle). It actually works by cutting the clock speed of your processor via a driver and was the single best CPU killer I used. If you have a quad-core though - you're out of luck - the author himself has said that quad-core support is not on the cards because it is just too complex, and using winThrottle with a quad-core system will cause it to hard lock.

Stay away from CPUKiller - it's utterly useless and always has been.
Unfortunately that won't work then, I have six cores. But thank you for the suggestion.
Post edited February 24, 2012 by Fuzzyfireball
Posted February 24, 2012
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Fuzzyfireball: Unfortunately that won't work then, I have six cores. But thank you for the suggestion.
Have you tried first limiting the program to a single CPU core, like this? You should try that before trying slowing programs since if it works you'll get a far better result without any tinkering.

If it works you can set this fix to be applied automatically as described here.
Post edited February 24, 2012 by Arkose
Posted February 24, 2012
Mo'Slo is the only program I know that can really slow down games in a satisfying way (I use it for Resident Evil 1 and the ancient Nightmare Creatures on a Core 2 Duo machine).

The other programs are just crap, in comparison.
Posted February 24, 2012
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Fuzzyfireball: Unfortunately that won't work then, I have six cores. But thank you for the suggestion.
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Arkose: Have you tried first limiting the program to a single CPU core, like this? You should try that before trying slowing programs since if it works you'll get a far better result without any tinkering.

If it works you can set this fix to be applied automatically as described here.
Yes, I've limited the game to use one core, and it's still too fast! :P

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KingofGnG: Mo'Slo is the only program I know that can really slow down games in a satisfying way (I use it for Resident Evil 1 and the ancient Nightmare Creatures on a Core 2 Duo machine).


The other programs are just crap, in comparison.
I'll try it out if it's safe with more than dual cores.
Post edited February 24, 2012 by Fuzzyfireball
Posted February 24, 2012
Out of curiosity does anyone know what program GOG bundles with some of their games? With Red Baron 3D it comes with a program called setspeed - but I'm assuming that's somebody else's rather than GOG's own tech and I'm not sure that's what the original makers call it. The program seems to work (too well once you add a glide wrapper and then you generally don't need it anymore) but it doesn't like the target path to be moved (i.e. once you install the game you can't move the program folder or setspeed can't find itself or the game and can't change the speed anymore) and I can't figure out a way to reset the target path - it might also be potentially nice to apply to one or two other games from GOG as well.
Post edited February 24, 2012 by crazy_dave
Posted February 24, 2012
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crazy_dave: Out of curiosity does anyone know what program GOG bundles with some of their games? With Red Baron 3D it comes with a program called setspeed - but I'm assuming that's somebody else's rather than GOG's own tech and I'm not sure that's what the original makers call it. The program seems to work (too well once you add a glide wrapper and then you generally don't need it anymore) but it doesn't like the target path to be moved (i.e. once you install the game you can't move the program folder or setspeed can't find itself or the game and can't change the speed anymore) and I can't figure out a way to reset the target path - it might also be potentially nice to apply to one or two other games from GOG as well.
Is it this? http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/CPU-Tweak/SetSpeed.shtml
Posted February 24, 2012
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Fuzzyfireball: Is it this? http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/CPU-Tweak/SetSpeed.shtml
Very possible - that looks to be the exact same name with the same capitalizations. I think that is the one that GOG uses on some of its games that need it (like RB3D). Odd I thought I had done a search for it - clearly not as well as I had thought :). It seems to suggest however, that it doesn't truly alter the CPU speed, just the apparent speed so that older game which were tied to the display clock can be played more effectively - or is that what all of these programs do?

Forgive the noobish questions. :)
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General discussion (archive)CPU Limiter(26 posts)(26 posts)
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