New laptops don't get on with SC4. A bargain basement solution?

[Lazarou Monkey Terror 1,814]

Seeing as new laptops with their multicores cause all sorts of problems for SC4 (of which I am mired in right now ) Is there an optim level of machine, say from around mid last decade that will run the game (or hobby) with no CTD and general lagging issues.

Would it have to run on WinXP?

Would a modern laptop but with one core do the trick?

Would EA ever do another patch for this legacy title or could someone else do it?

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Probably yes, but this isn't really necessary.

 

On multi-core systems, adding -CPUcount:1 to your game's target shortcut can greatly help stability. Just add a single space after the target. As the name goes, this forces the game to run on a single CPU core. The game is single threaded, so doesn't have the capability to exploit powerful modern processors. There are lots of players here that use modern PCs without issues. Having plenty of RAM (4GB+) is recommended.

 

The target shortcut:

 

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Fast, powerful processors help as well if you like to play with the settings (shadows especially) turned up.  A 3.50 GHz dual-core will provide better performance than a 2.90 GHz octo-core since SC4 is designed to only use one core.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Fast, powerful processors help as well if you like to play with the settings (shadows especially) turned up.  A 3.50 GHz dual-core will provide better performance than a 2.90 GHz octo-core since SC4 is designed to only use one core.

Whoa Nelly!  Dual core doesn't help.  The game is single threaded, so the single frequency of any core is the limit.  If you have a fast multicore machine, the solution to use a single core given above is one of the necessary items.  Some tuning of your GPU may also be necessary.  Try reading some of the pinned threads in this section.

 

This game in full proper use needs someone who is a little geekish to really get it going.  It is not a plug'n'play game.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

That's what I said.  Read again.  

 

A 3.50 GHz dual-core will provide better performance than a 2.90 GHz octo-core since SC4 is designed to only use one core.

 

With the affinity tag, it doesn't matter how many cores you have.  I've run SC4 on dual and quad-cores without any CTD's.

 

I was pointing out that faster processor speeds are the important factor.  The fact is that most processors today are at least dual-core, so that's why I used one in my example.  It also makes more practical sense because other programs can use the extra cores.  I don't see the justification of buying a single-core processor.

[wgames77 5]

It works fine on my new Windows 8 laptop without a single patch or anything.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

As expected.  There is nothing strikingly new in windows 8 except the desktop.

[NCGAIO 562]

Anyone remember the joke of the cordless phone?
 
Several people in a circle will whisper something in the ear of other until the last person to hear repeat aloud what they listened... Invariably it is never the same thing as that the first person have whispered!
 
It seems that this is the case here because  SC4 is not a single-threaded application -  as anyone can see just by using any tool for tracking a processes. (exe: task manager)
 

 
below the description of cmd parameters posted on the official site
  

-CPUCount:X - (Where X is the number of cpu's on the system) Specifies how many CPUs to take advantage of when there is more than one CPU present on the system. By default, the app takes advantage of all CPUs present on multiprocessor systems. However, some system drivers (sound in particular) are known to have problems when run in a multi-CPU environment. Thus it might be useful to specify -CPUCount:1 in order to prevent crashes with these faulty drivers.
 
-CPUCount:0 has no effect.

 
Unfortunately,  with win7 and  win8  things have changed a lot ( contrary to what  was said above ) since the game was codified in the time of the XP ( DX9 ex , WDDM... ) therefore in many aspects  he now has a difficult general compatibility with any new system.
 
Especially for new mobile devices that have hardware unexpected to epoch ( APU, integrated GPU ) in which the game was produced.... the topic bellow may help in understanding some problems
 
-

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Number of segments, eh?  Are you sure that is not the number of entries in the VM segmentation table?  This will have nothing to do with threading.  On the other hand, I removed the CPUCount parameter from my script and what do you know?  -- In my system if a process gets more than 50 % of a CPU it is useing both of them because my monitor considers both processors flat out to be 100%.  So I and others, perhaps have been labouring under a misconception.  Perhaps the single processor problem was due to some glitch in earlier versions of the process dispatcher.  Seems to be running fine now.
 
Current script running as we type:
 
#!/bin/bash
date
env WINEPREFIX="/home/john/.wine" \
wine "C:/Program Files (x86)/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe" \
 -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -d:software \
 -f &>~/sc4.log
date
 
System Monitor page:
 


So we are indebted to you for pointing this out. My system is showing only 60% when it usually had one processor at 100% and the other basically idle. Now I can see both of them operating at round 30% so that mean bigger cities for me with less lag.