Gaming Overclocking E2160 to play game.

[dweirdo]

My friend has upgraded his computer(from pentium 4 2.8 to E2160. new mobo 8600 Gt and 1.5GB mem)
now he installed Assassin's creed, and when it talked about his specs it said: CPU 1.8GHZ required-1.9 XXXX
and the game crashes in the loading when you press new game.
if ill overclock it to 1.950 ghz will it work?(tried, crashes after just opening)
then iv heard that some one with the same cpu overclocked it to 2.2 and the game worked, should i try it?i mean im afraid to ruin his pc and its damn high GHZ and im new in overclocking ? so some tips/thoughts would be awesome(especially about VOLTAGE).

Thanks in advance,
Daniel

 

[Lee79]

Thats strange i downloaded it and it ran on my pc ok on medium settings and it only has a P4 northwood 2.66 OC to 3.10 Ghz and 1.5GB ddr400 ram and X1950xt have you tried playing it in DX9?
Go to your \Program Files\Ubisoft\Assassin's Creed directory and right-click on the AssassinsCreed_Dx9.exe file, and select Send To>Desktop; do the same thing for the AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe file. You can now use these desktop icons to launch the game in the relevant mode as desired.
Have a read through this tweek guide as well http://www.tweakguides.com/AC_1.html

 

[FAST6191]

The only thing overclocking will do to stability is decrease it if done incorrectly.

Do what Lee79 says and also have a look at your graphics settings/drivers, I suggest looking at http://www.omegadrivers.net/ as they try to make stable setups out of ATI/nvidias offerings.

If you really want to overclock though there are 2 main methods of overclocking by hand (which I suggest doing over any bios implemented stuff, for now make the changes in the bios options rather than OS side). Multiplier adjustment and FSB adjustment. The first is locked for anything that does not have EXTREME on the label so you have to up the FSB speed.

The key is to do little steps rather than a massive one and test at each stage, time consuming yes but a dead chip/unstable machine is worse.
Run the ram in unlinked mode if you have it (older motherboards use the same clock for both ram and the processor which is why good ram was always suggested, I still favour good ram but it can be done with less brilliant stuff).

Voltage, it would help if you knew how a transistor worked ( http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae430.cfm ) but what happens is an electric field is generated and it takes time to have an effect on the material.
At every clock pulse a transistor will be activated (if necessary) and computations will occur, upping the clockspeed means the transistor has less time to switch and if it fails to operate in time it tends to cause a lockup on the machine.
Higher voltage=bigger field meaning more likely to be able to switch in time but also more resistance and more heat.
Increments usually done in 0.1 Volts and usually you can get about 10% out before having to up the voltage on the core2 line, you may get up to 20% but then it starts getting risky. You can always back off as well.
Also as well as making sure the CPU is cooled well make sure the motherboard has enough air flow.
Before you ask what software it is a bit old but it has all the stuff I would suggest:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=962154

 

[dweirdo]

@Fast6191 thank you very much about the voltage thing!
Lee 79, i dont think you understood the problem:
He has E2160-Which has a total core speed of 1.8 while the game requires 1.9.
so if ill overclock it to 2.4-2.2 will it run?
and is it safe?
i think he will just replace it with E7200 but it'll cost.
so does overclocking fixes the problem?
Thank you!

 

[FAST6191]

Pay no attention to requirements ever for anything beyond ballpark (i.e. a 486 can not run the latest and greatest). Lee79 was trying to say it is more likely a problem with drivers/configuration than hardware not being good enough.

 

[Lee79]

Thanks FAST6191.
Thats is what i am trying to get across your Processor is alot better then my P4 OC 3.1ghz single core dweirdo it has 2x1.8Ghz Processor cores (2x1.8=3.6) and 1 MB L2 Cache at 800mhz Bus speed and i bet you have DDR2 ram. Assassin's Creed is designed to use Duel Core Processor's it even recomends it. so your setup should run it without any problems if mine can. So there is no need to overclock.

A few quotes from Tweekguides.com that you could try.

"I have not crashed once, so it is not normal for the game to crash on all systems. However there is one specific fix you can try which may help - it appears that preventing the game executable from regularly (and unnecessarily) accessing the Internet can help stability and performance. If you're using the Windows Firewall, open it (Control Panel>Windows Firewall), then under the Exceptions tab untick both the Assassin's Creed DX10 and Assassin's Creed DX9 exceptions - these are not necessary whatsoever. Only the Assassin's Creed Update exception needs to be left ticked, so that the game's updater can contact its server at startup. If that doesn't work, try removing your network cable altogether, reboot and try playing the game."

"Directx update (MArch08). The game requires the updated directdx, install it from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en
It is the full 69MB redistributable and doesnt require validation unlike webinstall. However if you have already the latest directx before March, the inscluded webinstall will download only 5.2mb of "optional MS SDK", so download it. I didn't therefore couldnt start the game. Now it works fine after I did that."


"Overclocking: Assassin's Creed can be sensitive to overclocking. If you've overclocked any components on your system and are having problems such as crashes, reboots and graphical anomalies, the first thing to do is set everything back to default speeds and try running the game. If you don't experience the same problems at default speed, or they're reduced in severity, then your overclock is the primary culprit. Either permanently reduce your overclock and/or increase cooling to regain stability. Don't assume that because other games run with stability at a particular speed that Assassin's Creed will do the same."

 

[xJonny]

Processor performance does not only concern clock speeds

 

[dweirdo]

ok thank you very much all and lee

ill try the directx thing l8er(i installed driver, still no go)
Are you sure 1.8 is 1.8*2=3.6
cause if so it SHOULD say i can run the game? shouldn't it?
Thanks alot

 

[Hit]

ok thank you very much all and lee

ill try the directx thing l8er(i installed driver, still no go)
Are you sure 1.8 is 1.8*2=3.6
cause if so it SHOULD say i can run the game? shouldn't it?
Thanks alot

Definitely not
It has two 1.8Ghz processors if a game supports dual core it requires less but a Single core game of 3.2Ghz would need a Single Core 3.2 Ghz or a Dual Core 3.2Ghz
Do not count them it is very confusing for some people

 

[dweirdo]

oh so does assassins creed supports dual core? so it sees it as 3.6?than why would it say my cpu sux you cant play the fuc&ing game?

 

[dweirdo]

IT works omg omg omg%#@%$#
Lee 79 it worked the directx thing!@ thank you, saved dme 100$

 

[Lee79]

Glad to help enjoy the game

 

[djdobro]

Hi. I have a E2160 Processor , 2 GB DDR2 RAM, and GeForce 9600GT with 512 mgb on it. I cant play the fucking game!!! When i start to run arround and someon detects me, or i try to kill somoen, the PC freezes for a minute or two. I did everything that you guys said and nothing..... What the hell will i do. I couldnt play it beffore with a GeForce 8500GT. Everything except the processor has been changed and it still has the absolute same problem.... If somoen know what i can do pls write.

 

[dweirdo]

Hi. I have a E2160 Processor , 2 GB DDR2 RAM, and GeForce 9600GT with 512 mgb on it. I cant play the fucking game!!! When i start to run arround and someon detects me, or i try to kill somoen, the PC freezes for a minute or two. I did everything that you guys said and nothing..... What the hell will i do. I couldnt play it beffore with a GeForce 8500GT. Everything except the processor has been changed and it still has the absolute same problem.... If somoen know what i can do pls write.

Have you tried the DirectX update?
try to lower your res and quality.
it works smoothly on 8600GT so it should work on yours.
and if you overclocked, bring it down to default .

 

[djdobro]

Haha gues what ..... It was a fricken utility of nvidia

Damn them.... I deinstalled everything from Nvidia and instaled the drivers and BAM it worked

(never knew their program can do such a thing.)
EDIT: Nop the god damn thing still is here ....... How is it possible, one moment it is runing the next not .....

 

[Lee79]

Haha gues what ..... It was a fricken utility of nvidia

Damn them.... I deinstalled everything from Nvidia and instaled the drivers and BAM it worked

(never knew their program can do such a thing.)
EDIT: Nop the god damn thing still is here ....... How is it possible, one moment it is runing the next not .....

Assassin's Creed is very stressful on all most every system. It maxes out both cores of dual core CPUs, it pushes the GPU quite hard, and even seemingly "stable" systems will experience crashes unless correctly configured. The game's developers recommend that you disable all background applications - especially virus, trojan and spyware scanners and messaging utilities. These applications can and do use up valuable CPU resources, take up precious RAM, cause memory conflicts and crashes to desktop, but most importantly they interfere with read/writes to your hard drive effectively slowing it down and causing in-game stuttering.

I could also be a heat or PSU problem. What PSU do you have? Because Assassin's Creed can be quite stressful on both the CPU and GPU, even if you don't overclock your system you will have to keep a close eye on your temperatures, especially under full load, to make sure that your system doesn't crash or experience graphical anomalies through excessive heat. Many of the crashes that I've seen are to do with overheating systems - you will need to ensure plenty of air runs through your case and all your components are free of dust buildup so that your system remains cool under load.

 

[djdobro]

My system is 1 day old. Practicly it has just been built. It cant be dust, the temperatures are verrystable: 40 on Cpu and 40 on VGA. The whole pc is brand new except the CPU (wich makes me think the god damned thing is the whole problem)

 

[Lee79]

My system is 1 day old. Practicly it has just been built. It cant be dust, the temperatures are verrystable: 40 on Cpu and 40 on VGA. The whole pc is brand new except the CPU (wich makes me think the god damned thing is the whole problem)

Could be any number of things! What PSU do you have?

 

[djdobro]

Actually that i cant tell you because i cant open the case it has a waranty sticker..... But the PSU was one of the things the guys said that they WILL change because the 9600 GT is a hungry bunny