Amd dual core optimizer on XP quad core? \ VOGONS

Amd dual core optimizer on XP quad core?

Topic actions

First post, by RogueTrip2012

Posted on 2025-11-19, 12:50

RogueTrip2012 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 539
Joined: 2010-12-30, 04:32

Got a old build together for XP. It's a AMD 960T quad core. Would it be a good idea to install AMD dual core optimizer for it? It's supposed to help older games that don't use TSC I guess.

I remember it always installing on my computer back in the day with my AMD x2 4200+

Still installing games on this old rig.

Soldier of fortune not working so far. Seem to have speed issues like speed up slow down on some games like nfs underground 2 and carbon, quake 4

Cod 4- MW plays fine 🤣.

Thanks!

> W98SE . P3 1.4S . 512MB . Q.FX3K . SB Live! . 64GB SSD
>Win XP . AMD 960T . 8GB . Q.K2200. SB X-Fi . 512GB SSD . 2TB HDD
> Win XI . i7 12700k . 96GB . RTX4070TI . 512GB NVME

Reply 1 of 6, by AlexZ

Posted on 2025-11-19, 13:28

AlexZ Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 866
Joined: 2021-05-28, 18:54

Maybe just enable vsync.

Pentium III 900E,ECS P6BXT-A+,384MB,GeForce FX 5600, Voodoo 2,Yamaha SM718
Athlon 64 3400+,Gigabyte GA-K8NE,2GB,GeForce GTX 275,Audigy 2 ZS
Phenom II X4 955,Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3,8GB,GeForce GTX 780
Vishera FX-8370,Asus 990FX,32GB,GeForce GTX 980 Ti

Reply 2 of 6, by RogueTrip2012

Posted on 2025-11-19, 13:43

RogueTrip2012 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 539
Joined: 2010-12-30, 04:32

AlexZ wrote on 2025-11-19, 13:28:

Maybe just enable vsync.

It is. Fraps shows 60. Using 1280x1024@60 dell 1907 19" LCD.

Power management set to home office with all cores locked at 3ghz.

> W98SE . P3 1.4S . 512MB . Q.FX3K . SB Live! . 64GB SSD
>Win XP . AMD 960T . 8GB . Q.K2200. SB X-Fi . 512GB SSD . 2TB HDD
> Win XI . i7 12700k . 96GB . RTX4070TI . 512GB NVME

Reply 3 of 6, by swaaye

Posted on 2025-11-19, 18:14

swaaye Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 8357
Joined: 2002-07-22, 21:24

If I remember right, Dual Core Optimizer was actually a fix for TSC errata on the K8 dual cores.

K10 chips had a new problem. On Windows XP, if Cool'n'Quiet is enabled, the CPU core clocks vary independently and the Windows thread scheduler doesn't understand this. It will move active threads onto cores that are clocked down. K10 cores don't exactly clock up lightning quick so it can really kill performance. The fix is to disable Cool'n'Quiet or get PhenomMSRTweaker which can stop the independent clocking.

And some old games just don't work right if the CPU clock changes while the game engine is initializing. So disabling Cool'n'Quiet is not a bad idea in general.

Reply 4 of 6, by AlexZ

Posted on 2025-11-19, 19:32

AlexZ Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 866
Joined: 2021-05-28, 18:54

In Windows XP utilizing Cool&Quiet required a special AMD CPU driver, not just Cool&Quiet being enabled. But the AMD CPU driver existed for K8 only, not K10. So as a result Cool&Quiet doesn't work in Windows XP on K10. If there is any issue, it can affect X2 K8 CPUs only. Not sure about Vista, but you wouldn't be using that OS anyway and just use Windows 7.

Reply 5 of 6, by UCyborg

Posted on 2025-11-19, 20:29

UCyborg Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 988
Joined: 2015-09-04, 11:10
Location: Slovenia

AMD Processor Driver 1.3.2.0053 for Windows XP/Server 2003 32/64-bit

This works on K10, but things then lag badly when CPU switches frequency. Without the driver, it's constantly clocked at max speed. Newer Windows versions come with this driver out-of-box. They work normally when frequency changes.

Arthur Schopenhauer wrote:
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Reply 6 of 6, by swaaye

Posted on 2025-11-21, 17:52

swaaye Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 8357
Joined: 2002-07-22, 21:24

Yeah I'm sorry I forgot about the separate CPU driver.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware